About 25 years ago Wayne Schwartz modified a Marlin 1894 .44 Magnum to .45 ACP for me and this worked really well. I let Wayne talk me out of the rifle when I left Ruger and have regretted it ever since, so I've had another done. This time I took a .45 Colt Cowboy II and sent it to John Taylor who set the .45 Colt barrel and magazine tube back, rechambered the barrel, fitted a new extractor, and reworked the lifter. Conversion cost was $300 plus sights and return FedEx.
It holds twelve rounds in the magazine tube, as finished with 22-1/2” barrel), is 39” overall and weighs 6 lbs. 12 ozs. I'll be using this with 230-gr. lead FN Cowboy slugs and JHPs. A charge of 5 grs. of Bullseye and 230-gr. LFN gives about 1000 f.p.s. in a rifle, vs. 830 in an M1911 pistol. Given the limited powder capacity and faster powders used in the .45 ACP you only get modest velocity gains in a longer at permissible chamber pressures (20,000 cup max.) I'm not interested in seeing how hot I can load .45 ACP in a rifle, because that defeats the whole purpose of the gun, to use my handgun ammo in it, and vice-versa. I won't load or shoot anything in this rifle that .45 ACP revolvers or an M1911 can't handle.
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia