Patrick L
Member
I thought some of you might enjoy this. This past summer, a friend gave me a set of forming dies and reloading dies for a .38-45 Clerke. They had belonged to his late stepfather (an avid Bullseye shooter back in the day.)
The round is a .45 ACP necked down to .38 caliber. As originally conceived, it was meant as an inexpensive way to get a .38 centerfire gun for NRA Bullseye. The newly introduced Smith Model 52 was pricey, as were .38 Special conversions of the old Government model. Bo Clerke dreamed this up in 1963. Basically you only needed a rechambered .38 Super barrel, a bushing, and a lighter recoil spring. Nothing else needed to be changed on a Govt. Model, since the back end of the case was still a .45 ACP. The slide (extractor placement) and magazines all stayed the same. You loaded it with light .38 Special data.
Here are three sample rounds, one each with a 158 SWC, a 147 FP, and a 124 TC. These were just molds I had available.
Here are the five steps to forming a case. The forming dies are a 4 die set, and the 5th step is to just run the case into the .38-45 resizing die.
Here is my Bullseye gun (shown here set up as a .45ACP). It was fully accurized (as a .45) buy Jack Best back in the late 80s. It is exceptionally acccurate, I have the obligitory 50 yard Ransom Rest target he fired, showing sub 2 inches with Federal Match SWCs. I can't shoot anywhere near that well, but its nice to know the gun can. The target shown is what I can do at 25 yards (again as a standard .45)
And finally, here is one of the many 50 foot bench targets I shot this winter.
Our indoor range is 50 feet, I am looking forward to seeing what she will do at the longer ranges outdoors once Spring hits.
While I realize that nowadays, it would be far easier to just shoot one of the fitted, super accurate 9mm 1911s that abound, that wasn't the point. I love to tinker, and the historical ramifications of this intriguing round made it irresistible to me.
The round is a .45 ACP necked down to .38 caliber. As originally conceived, it was meant as an inexpensive way to get a .38 centerfire gun for NRA Bullseye. The newly introduced Smith Model 52 was pricey, as were .38 Special conversions of the old Government model. Bo Clerke dreamed this up in 1963. Basically you only needed a rechambered .38 Super barrel, a bushing, and a lighter recoil spring. Nothing else needed to be changed on a Govt. Model, since the back end of the case was still a .45 ACP. The slide (extractor placement) and magazines all stayed the same. You loaded it with light .38 Special data.
Here are three sample rounds, one each with a 158 SWC, a 147 FP, and a 124 TC. These were just molds I had available.
Here are the five steps to forming a case. The forming dies are a 4 die set, and the 5th step is to just run the case into the .38-45 resizing die.
Here is my Bullseye gun (shown here set up as a .45ACP). It was fully accurized (as a .45) buy Jack Best back in the late 80s. It is exceptionally acccurate, I have the obligitory 50 yard Ransom Rest target he fired, showing sub 2 inches with Federal Match SWCs. I can't shoot anywhere near that well, but its nice to know the gun can. The target shown is what I can do at 25 yards (again as a standard .45)
And finally, here is one of the many 50 foot bench targets I shot this winter.
Our indoor range is 50 feet, I am looking forward to seeing what she will do at the longer ranges outdoors once Spring hits.
While I realize that nowadays, it would be far easier to just shoot one of the fitted, super accurate 9mm 1911s that abound, that wasn't the point. I love to tinker, and the historical ramifications of this intriguing round made it irresistible to me.
