I got a 44 AM chambering reamer, maybe a Clymer, and RCBS reloading and case making dies. This was mid 1980s. There was little loaded ammo for $1 to $1.50 a round, and no empty cases available. I reamed the chambers to 44 AM and cut the cylinder for 45 ACP moonclips. This is a Bowling Pin gun, so it has to clear the pins off of the 4 x 8 foot table quickly.
I had to make the cases out of .308 rifle brass. It took 2 months to make 500. First, with the cutoff die in the Rock Chucker, cut all the cases slightly long with a hacksaw. Then with the press clamped to the mill table, inside ream all the brass. The reamer was taking out so much material that it took 4 passes each case of ream, clean out the brass, ream a little deeper, clean out the brass, etc. Then trim all the brass to length with a piloted hand cranked trimmer. Then deburr each one inside and outside by hand. I'm never going through all that again to make brass!
Then the moonclips wouldn't go on over the .308 extractor cut. It was .005 too big. So I made a hex shaped arbor that the moonclip would just slide on and put 50 at a time on with a nut and washer to compress them together. Then put that in an indexing jig with a tailstock on the other end on the milling machine. I used a thin slitting saw to cut slots midway between each cutout for a case to allow it to spring open enough for the case to snap into place.
For the gun itself, I made a custom 5" slab sided barrel with 2 comp ports near the muzzle. I cut down a Wichita Arms PPC rib to fit on top. I made a steel underlug for the bottom of the barrel, welded a finger hook on the bottom front of the trigger guard, did an action job, and had it electroless nickeled.
The gun shoots great. I was running 300 grain cast bullets at around 920 fps. That gives a little over 275 power factor. Major PF in USPSA is 165. If 2 pins were laying down together, one shot would clear them both immediately. I was running around 4.5 to 5 second times. The guys with 45 autos were faster, but I was having fun my way. The recoil wasn't too bad with all the weight, porting and trigger guard hook. I'll see if I can find some pics of this one.
