History of the .45 ACP Cartridge

By Justin Stakes

By David Tong
Background, history, features and load data on the .45 ACP cartridge.

USA -(AmmoLand.com)- In U.S. military circles for over one-hundred years; from the onset of the Civil War all the way to today, there has been a tendency to prefer a large diameter bore, subsonic pistol cartridge if we are required to use a non-expanding bullet in the round.

While the old cap-and-ball 1860 Colt Army and 1873 Single Action Army used a .44” round ball, and a 255gr .454” flat-tipped conical lead bullet, respectively, neither projectile was designed to expand, and what little expansion occurred was because of their soft cast lead construction rather than by design.

The Army Ordnance folks around the beginning of the 20th Century had seen the failures of round-nosed, full-metal jacketed bullets in the British .303 rifles, and our own .30 U.S. Government (aka “.30-40 Krag”) in stopping a determined armed assailant.