45 S&W (Shofield) question

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J Miller
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45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by J Miller »

Several years ago before my health went south I picked up some .45 Schofield brass to test it.
I used loads from the then current Hodgens Annual Manual, a 230gr bullet with some charge of 231.

What I found out was that these loads were really similar to .45 ACP ammo from the auxiliary cylinder in feel, sound and recoil. But much more accurate.

Even from the .45 Colt cylinders of all 3 of my revolvers the Schofield loads seemed to be more accurate than the .45 Colt rounds.

Has anyone else found this to be the case, or am I becoming wimpy in my old age?

Joe
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by pshort »

Hi Joe,
I generally tend to shoot .38 spec a lot more accurately than .357 mag from the same gun.
I imagine it's the recoil that makes the difference..
Same thing with rifles, the lighter load is always (generally, for me) easier to shoot more accurately.
I'm not referring to a good load vs a bad load, but ie: .223 vs 300 win mag...
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Buck Elliott
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by Buck Elliott »

.45 ACP replicates .45 S&W ballistics.
Since the Schofield round headspaces on the rim, rather than the elusive case mouth, I would expect better performance from the former..
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by Sixgun »

Joe,
Your using two different loads from the same cylinder...when testing in the L.C. Cyl. Forget the acp cylinder with 45 acp loads....different tolerances.

Use the exact same bullet and the same charge for both rounds, long and short in the Long Colt cylinder......what else can you use? :D .....use light loads....say...5 of Bullseye. Or if you want to be technical reduce the Schofield round by 5%.

My guess, if the gun was put in a Ransom rest, the longer round be be more accurate...less jump. ----6
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M. M. Wright
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by M. M. Wright »

I agree with 6. If you want an accurate 45 ACP revolver, cut the cylinder off short and set the barrel back to it. I've seen several done that way.
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J Miller
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by J Miller »

Yeah I've seen revolvers with short cylinders too. That's never gonna happen with me.
I was just asking if anyone had noticed the Schofields seem more accurate, not how to make accurate revolvers.

Joe
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by trapper45 »

On a lark I picked up 3 or 4 boxes of Ten-X Schofields at the Ft Worth Cabela's bargain cave a few years back (must've really been a few because they were priced at $10/box of 50!) just to see how they'd do. They shot well through everything at distances out to 50 yards or so: identical sight picture for Schofield (200gr) and Long Colt (250gr) gave essentially identical groupings and points of impact, with no appreciable difference. One advantage is that the Winchester 94 Trapper AE (which had no problems cycling the shorter Schofield rounds) holds ten Schofields vs. nine Long Colts in the magazine. Different story for the Rossi Puma 1892 replica, however; it didn't like the slightly larger diameter Schofield case rims in the magazine tube, so that was a no-go.
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by J Miller »

Trapper45,

I tried the Schofields in my 94 AE Trapper too. Worked just fine but I was worried the slightly larger rim might over stress the extractor.

Joe
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by Ray »

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Last edited by Ray on Fri Mar 04, 2022 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 45 S&W (Shofield) question

Post by trapper45 »

J Miller wrote:Trapper45,

I tried the Schofields in my 94 AE Trapper too. Worked just fine but I was worried the slightly larger rim might over stress the extractor.

Joe
No problems at all with extraction or ejection in the 94. The Rossi just had magazine tube issues, so anything else was moot with it. As far as handguns, the Schofield rounds did fine in all the Long Colt cylinders, no difference in accuracy at all. For what it's worth, in the convertible revolvers with the interchangeable ACP/Long Colt cylinders, I've never seen any difference in accuracy or performance between 230-gr ACP and 250-gr Long Colt: all the holes in the same spot on the target out to 25 yards or so. There's no appreciable performance variation attributable to the longer bullet jump distances in the ACP cylinders, at least as far as I could tell. Just my two pence.
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