Taffin TESTS - Brief Article

American Handgunner, Nov-Dec, 1999 by John Taffin

The .460 Rowland turns a 1911 into a.44 Magnum with a simple drop-in kit from Clark's Custom Guns.

The M-1911 in .45 ACP remains the epitome of a fighting handgun. For hunting, the .45 ACP is somewhat lacking in power when it comes to anything above large varmints, which are better handled by the .38 Super chambering.

Most of my hunting has been done with sixguns and single-shots because semiautos with sufficient engery, such as a .44 Magnum or .45 Win. Mag., are only available in big, bulky handguns. Their grip frames are too large for my stubby fingers to obtain a secure hold.

Wouldn't it be great if we could have a standard-sized 1911 that would deliver a .44 Magnum payload with no more recoil than a .45 ACP? Dream on!

But wait- that dream has now been realized with a new cartridge that can be handled by any standard 1911 with the use of a drop-in kit from Clark Custom Guns. The concept itself comes from Johnny Rowland who hosts The Shooting Show, a cable TV program.

Rowland developed the cartridge and showed me a couple of revolvers that had been rechambered to .460 Rowland, a Ruger Blackhawk and a Smith & Wesson Model 625. I came away with a drop-in kit from Clark and set about putting a .460 Rowland together on a 1911 platform.

What is a .460 Rowland? It is simply a .45 ACP case that has been stretched and strengthened. Starline is making the brass, head stamped .460 Rowland." It is .0625" longer than a .45 ACP- standard .45 ACP reloading dies work- and features a beefed up interior. It will not chamber in .45 ACP guns, nor will the .460 Rowland fit in a standard .45 ACP. Double action sixguns chambered for the .460 Rowland will accept .45 ACP rounds by using half or full moon clips. Caution! Some early 1917 revolvers are chambered straight through and they may accept .460 Rowland rounds. It would be a disaster to fire this hotrod round in these old, weak sixguns!

Drop-In Kit

Using the Clark Drop-in kit, I took the Springfield Armory 1911 frame off a Springfield Armory Single Shot pistol and ordered the necessary parts to complete the gun from Brownells. A slide was needed along with several inner parts such as a firing pin, firing pin stop, barrel link pin and good sights.

For sights I chose a Bo-Mar adjustable rear sight and a Clark post front sight. The slide proved to be very tight on my frame and it took a little work to loosen it up. Then everything was delivered to Mike at Shapels. He cut dovetails in the slide and installed the sights. A pair of cocobolo grips from Herretts completed the package.

However, if you build a .460 Row-land from a completed 1911, it is only necessary to change the barrel and replace the standard spring with the 24 lb. spring found in the drop-in kit. Standard 1911 magazines work with the .460 Rowland.

Factory loads feature a 185 gr. JHP at 1,550 fps, a 200 gr. JHP at 1,450 fps and a 230 gr. JHP at 1,340 fps. Fired in my completed .460 Rowland, the 185 gr. factory load does 1,530 fps- and drops five shots into 5/8" at 15 yards.

The 200 grainer does 1,436 fps and and the 230 clocks out at 1,330 fps. For a comparison with .44 Magnum loads, I fired the Federal 180 gr. JHP from a 5' S&W Model 629 and got 1,564 fps. Hornady's 200 gr. XTP .44 Magnum load clocked out at 1,350, while Black Hills rendition of the 240 gr. JHP came in at 1,247 fps.

For all practical purposes, the .460 Rowland with its 5" barrel equals, or surpasses, the .44 Magnum in a similarly barreled sixgun.

Shootin' The Rowland

But what about recoil? Even a .45 ACP 1911 bothers me more than heavier kickin' sixguns because of the torque it applies to my wrist. I was a little apprehensive about shooting the .460 Rowland.

Not to worry! The Clark kit features a built-in comp that works. Really works. With it in place, the felt recoil of the .460 Rowland is less than that of standard .45 ACP. It is a different recoil, coming straight back rather than twisting, so it has less effect on my battered old wrists.

Many hunting applications call for hard cast bullets, so it was only natural that I turned to my stock of Keith-style .45 bullets to see what could be accomplished with the .460 Rowland. Two bullets from Lyman molds, the #452423 at 230 grs. and the #452424 at 245 grs., plus the RCBS #45-255 at 260 grs., were all loaded in .460 Rowland brass and seated just even with the shoulder and above the crimping groove so they would feed through standard 1911 magazines.

I was shooting on Black's Creek Range with Willie Lee, who is career military and an old hand with a .45 ACP. "Boy, does that gun shoot!" was his comment. How right he is. Whether with jacketed or hard cast bullets, the .460 Rowland does shoot!

Giving the pistol and myself a break, I shot seven-shot groups and counted five. One of the reasons for this is my particular gun has an ailment common in semiautos- it puts the first shot an inch or so away from subsequent shots.

Using this standard, Hornady's 200 gr. XTP at 1,453 fps, shot into 1", while the same bullet at 230 grs. and a muzzle velocity of 1,335 fps does even better at 7/8" for five shots.