[USP45usp]

I've noticed that some pistols/rifles will fire different cartriages even though they were not made for them. Being stupid myself, I have fired a .45LC out of a .410 shotgun. Then I realized that this was now a "smooth bore" pistol and cut it out (yeah right).

I heard tell that you can fire 9mm out of a .357 revolver if need be (survival junk) but you really have to "shove in and out" the shell and casing afterward.

So, what is compatible but only in a "hypothetical sense" if you "needed" to use different ammo in case of TSHTF type deal?

USP45usp

[Greg L]

I read somewhere about making a single shot shotgun out of a section of newspaper, a nail, and a rubber band. Although for me to even think about using something that nuts it would HAVE to be a survival situation (and even then I think that I would try to find a piece of pipe, nail and rubber band first ;) )

Greg

[HiPower]

This is not a good idea, even in a TSHTF situation. You are most certainly risking life and limb in the effort to fire a cartridge in a gun it wasn't designed for. The very few exceptions to this rule are well known:

.38 Special in a .357 Mag.
.32 Colt in a .32 Mag.
.44 Special in a .44 Mag.
.45 Colt in a .45 Casull

Thompson/Center made a barrel for the Contender that was a .410/.45 Colt combo, but I don't know of any others.

The problem here is you are setting of a bomb in close proximity to your face. Under normal conditions, all is well. But if you start stuffing the wrong cartridge into a gun that just might happen to hold it then all bets are off. I can imagine you might get a .357 cartridge to work in a .44 if you wrapped the thing with lots of paper and kept the primer centered. Muzzle velocity might actually approach 100fps, too.

It gets worse with rifles. Using an action with controlled round feeding, you should be able to get a .308 cartridge to fire in a .30-06 with an almost certain case rupture just a foot in front of your eyes.

Likewise, you might get a .280 Remington to fire in .270. Don't do it next to me! The difference in bullet diameter will do very bad things to the rifle in question.

If you don't have the right rounds, just consider it a very expensive club!

:D

[Gunslinger]

I arrested a guy one night that was packing a gun and ammo he had stolen in a burglary. The gun was a Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 magnum. The ammo, stolen from the same home, was .41 magnum. I guess the thought never occurred to him that the owner might have two guns in two different calibers. And what the Heck, it may not have been very accurate but it worked across convenience store counters. :rolleyes:

[Grayfox]

I once saw a guy do this by mistake. He loaded a S&W N-frame with .41 Magnums. When fired they didn't seem to sound right, muzzel flash was huge and the target showed the bullets key holed at 7 yards scattering them all over the target. It took a screwdriver and a whole lot of work to get the fired casings out of the cylinder. Seems he owned two guns which were identical except for caliber. He had grabbed the wrong one and was firing these .41 Mags out of a Model 625 in .45acp. :eek: All the casings had split full length and there was considerable powder residue all over the gun. Luckily, the only real damage was to the guy's nerves.

DON'T try this at home kiddies! :(