Need a favour from someone with a .44 Desert Eagle and a round of .45 Colt

[Falcon5NZ]

Nearly finished my new custom rifle. I have a shot out Short Magazine Lee-Enfield No. 1 Mk. III* (sporterised), 12" barrel blanks from 45/.410 NEF Handi-Rifles (where the action, chamber and stock were used for other things), and access to a full equipped machine shop. So I decided to make a .45 Colt carbine inspired by the WW2 British De Lisle carbine. 10" Barrel and 30.5" overall length.

Now I have a modified SMLE mag.thats good for 3 rounds. But I got to thinking it wouldn't be too hard to modify an SMLE magazine and a .44 Remington Magnum Desert Eagle magazine to work. (Desert Eagle as it's the "most common" semi auto .44 Remington Magnum single stack that comes to mind) So will .45 Colt fit in the .44 Remington Magnum magazine? There's bugger all in it in the SAAMI spec.*.but I just want to be sure I'm not ignoring anything stupidly obvious like the Desert Eagle magazine has a stop or something stupid. Are there any other "common" magazines that will take a .45 Colt?


Cheers

Nick


*Rim Diameter for .45 Colt, .512" Case length 1.285", OAL 1.6" For .44 Remington Magnum it is .514", 1.285" and 1.61" (Taken from the '93 Edition) So the .44 is bigger in those respects

[44 AMP]

So will .45 Colt fit in the .44 Remington Magnum magazine?

Here's your answer: Yes, and No.

The .45 Colt round slips into the magazine, and slips right back out, so I think it would feed.

However, the second round of .45 colt that goes in a Desert Eagle .44 magazine jams it. The magazine body has a pair of deep ribs formed in it, and the neck of the .45 Colt case rubs on them, tight enough to overpower the magazine spring.

So, while it might work for one round, without significant work to the magazine body, it will NOT work for more than one round. I checked this with actual DE .44mag magazines and .45 Colt ammo, not any book specs.

You might be able to get it to work with a .44 Mag magazine from an LAR Grizzly (and good luck finding one of those), but I rather doubt it, although I no longer have one around to use to check. I think the problem is the ribs formed in the mag body (to keep the rounds from shifting, reducing the chance of rimlock) for a .44 mag are just too narrow to fit the .45 Colt case with enough clearance for rounds to slide and feed.

If you could "iron out" or shave down the inside of the mag body ribs, then I think it would work. This would have to be done carefully, as you would only want enough removed to let the wider Colt cases slide freely, and no more.

Rimlock might not be quite as much an issue since you are going to be using the mag in a manually operated carbine, and not a violently recoiling semi auto pistol.

IN short, the DE .44 mag body is big enough, but the ribs shaped into it means the inside is too tight at that point.

Does this help?

One more thought, a .50AE Desert Eagle magazine might work without modification to the mag body. I don't have one of those to check with, sorry.

[Webleymkv]

Another option you might try is one of the rotary magazines from a Ruger Deerfield, Model 96, or 77/44 carbine. Ruger developed rotary magazines for these rifles because they supposedly feed rimmed cartridges more reliably than a normal box magazine does. The only downsides I can see are that, because these magazines were originally designed for .44 Magnum they may not work properly with .45 Long Colt and that you'd be limited to a 4-round magazine.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

How about a Siaga .410 magazine... made to work with the rimmed .410... it would need a spacer block for the extra length, but may feed the 45 colts without issue otherwise

[Falcon5NZ]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the responses and sorry for the late reply.
I took it out today and even with the .454 Casull its very nice to fire. .410 has virtually no recoil. The mag I was given (from another source) feeds 3" .410 perfectly but is a bit touchy with .454. The roud dives before engaging the feed ramp.

44 AMP, and that's why I asked I knew it couldn't be that easy!

Magnum Wheel Man, That's a great idea. I'll look into it and keep you posted.

If anyone is keen I'll try and post pics.

Nick

[Falcon5NZ]

Finally got around to taking and uploading a decent pic

[2damnold4this]

I like it. : )

[HKFan9]

Looks pretty cool. Interested to see if you can get it up and running.

[44 AMP]

Neat little thing, Falcon.

Be glad you are where you are, in the "free" land of the USA that gun would be illegal, unless you got the govt's approval before you built it.

What did you finally wind up using for the feed system?

[gyvel]

A magazine for a US calibre .30 M-1 carbine readily accepts .45 Colt cartridges and, with a slight modification of the feed lips, may work for you