1911 .460Rowland conversion

[9ballbilly]

I'm seriously considering getting the kit to convert my 1911 to .460 Rowland.

If anyone's done this conversion, does .45acp cycle reliably with the heavier recoil spring? Is .45 ammo accurate in the .460 barrel?

 

[RickB]

It's not so much the spring as the compensator, but if you have the gun set up for near-.44 Magnum level .460 loads, I'd be surprised if it would still cycle ACP.
When I modded my gun for .45 Super it would no longer cycle my ACP competition loads.

 

[WC145]

You can't shoot .45acp ammo out of the .460 barrel, the chamber is cut for the longer .460 case so it's too deep for the .45acp to seat properly. If you want to shoot .45acp you have to swap your old barrel/bushing/recoil spring back in.

 

[RickB]

Well, you CAN shoot ACP through a Rowland chamber, and the question wasn't about safety or advisability of doing it . . .

G.I specs allow for chambers as deep as .920", so there are .45s depending mostly on the extractor for headspacing.

While you won't get nearly the ballistics of Rowland, modding a .45 ACP for .45 Super allows switching between the two without concern for headspace; it's the same barrel.

I'll agree that you should shoot only the cartridge that the barrel is chambered for, unless you're dealing with a Zombie apocalypse or you're down to your last gun and last round.

 

[74A95]

This is from Rowland's website FAQs page (https://www.460rowland.com/faq/) on shooting the 45 Auto in a 460 barrel:

Can I shoot .45 ACP from my .460 Rowland® Conversion?

Shooting .45 ACP from our barrels in most cases is standard practice. The Conversions were developed to balance forces to enable you to do that. Some exceptions can be 1911 Commander Conversions, the XDm 4.5", the SW M&P and some 1911 Stainless Steel guns. In those instances, it is sometimes necessary to change recoil spring tensions depending upon which round you have in the magazine. SEE the FAQ “1911’s: Stainless Steel Slides

When you purchase Conversion from us we are supplying a match grade barrel rated for our pressures and chambered for the powerful .460 Rowland® along with the correct balance of spring tension and Compensation (varying by gun) to be effective with both rounds in a broad range of guns.

We developed our integrated Conversions for the explicit purposes of 1) handling the power of the 460 round and 2) allowing you to continue to fire .45 ACP from the same basic set-up.

FROM JOHNNY ROWLAND (the creator of the .460 Rowland Cartridge and Conversion): “I would think that after 18 or so years of experience in using the .45 ACP in my .460 Rowland® barrel and even mixing .45 ACP shells with my .460 Rowland® shells in the same magazine for practical and demo purposes, I should know by now whether or not it would be functional or rational to do so. It is. And this is certainly a useful feature of the .460 Rowland® barrel-shell-gun concept: for Converted guns to also be able to shoot the common .45 ACP ammo in addition to our Magnum Power .460 Rowland® ammunition.”

 

[WC145]

Headspacing on the extractor is hardly a recipe for accuracy or reliability. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

 

[9ballbilly]

Thanks for the input folks.

One thing that makes this conversion appealing to me is that the kits are intended to allow .45 acp to be fired through the .460 setup. As I understand it some versions of the kit are not conducive to cycling .45 acp reliably, but there appear to be no safety issues with using acp ammo in the conversion barrel.

I don't mind swapping out set-ups since I won't be shooting both cartridges simultaneously and it's a fairly easy change. I suppose I could also resolve any issue by using hotter .45 acp ammo. Either buying it or loading it.

After considering the .45 super I decided it just didn't offer the kind of increase I was after.

 

[RickB]

It's interesting that a gun converted to Rowland will still cycle ACP?

A buddy put a compensator on his 10mm Glock, which in stock form would cycle any normal 10mm load, and even with a recoil spring about as strong as the striker spring (you could see the slide move rearward slightly as the trigger was pulled), and running loads hotter than recommended max, spent cases were just dribbling out of the ejection port.

How effective is that Rowland comp?