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.45 WINCHESTER MAGNUM

(0.451") Around 1979 this rimless case, with bullets comparable in weight to those of the .45 ACP, was introduced by Winchester. Designed originally for silhouette shooting, my first experience with it was in a Wildey gas-operated handgun owned by a friend who was serious about knocking over steel targets. What it did for the semiauto was to give it .44 Magnum ballistics. My next experience was in a Freedom Arms revolver chambered for the .454 Casull for which a special cylinder had to be fitted by Freedom. (If you want to fire the .45 ACP round in the Freedom Arms .454, buy an extra cylinder from the company and you are ready to go.)

Unfortunately, today it is even hard to factory loaded ammunition for what the .45 WM, one of the most powerful semiauto cartridges. Due to the lack of ammunition, if you want a revolver with low recoil, then get a .44 Magnum or semiauto. A plus for this cartridge was that it was easy to fire due to its moderate recoil in the stout Thompson/Center Contender, the Wildey semiauto or the Freedom Arms revolver. When gathering data for this review, I called my friend to borrow his firearms so chambered but with silhouette on the decline I found he had quit the sport and then sold all but his revolver, which he now seldom fires. This goes to show that even if one has the handgun, the next hurdle is the ammunition if you do not handload.