I've got a 460 Rowland. Now what?

R

Rock Knocker

Well-known member
Well I just made a trade, a beat up Model1Sales AR for a XD45 4" with a 460 Rowland conversion. I've had my eye on getting a 460 Rowland to play with for a little while now. I already shoot a XD40 5" so these two guns are dang near the same size, the triggers feel the same and these XD45s hold 13+1.

But I am having second thoughts about the pistol, I really want to trade for a Sig 1911 5" with a rail then get a 460 conversion for that. I think it would make a better hunting pistol than the XD 4". It seems I hear better reviews about Glock conversions than 1911 conversions, and no info on XD conversions so I was wondering if for one reason or another the polymer frames were better than steel?

Now that I am interested and going to be reloading the 460 Rowland I am looking for some of the best ideas about the handgun to fire it from. I don't like that the 4" XD has no way of increasing the recoil spring weight, even though I talked to someone at 460Rowland and they said it didn't matter. The lady I talked to from Springfield Armory might not have known what a recoil srping was and Wolff springs said to call back mid summer because they were brewing something up.

I shot some 230gr Underwood 460 ammo and it was stout round to fire but really accurate. I shot a couple rounds of 45 and it felt as soft as a handgun could.

I just ordered a Talon grip. Any other modifications anyone knows can help out this pistol?

I also need some reloading advice! I am lucky enough to have a little True Blue laying around but nothing else. I will quite rambling, I just dont't know what to do with this gun.
 
I had a 1911 from clark, massively unreliable but nice to shoot. I got my money back and went glock. Reliable so far but a bit of a beating on the hands. Acp rounds through it are total pussycats though.
 
I had it out to the range for more testing today even shot out to 140 yards. On a full magazine some of the bottom rounds move to the front of the mag from the recoil and can cause feeding problems and the last piece of brass out of the gun gets destroyed even with the slide locking open.

45s feel like a cap gun, I can barely understand how the pistol still functions.
 
Here's the brass.


I found another problem also. The fit of the barrel in my slide is so tight that a little bit of fouling kept the slide from closing all the way. The two parts sticking sticking out from the chamber is what fouled up.


I cleaned it up and didn't have it happen again. But it looks like the gun fired once without the barrel/chamber quite fully closed. Now the barrel/chamber has been "stamped" by the slide. I will get a hold of 460 Rowland about this.


I dont know how show this better without taking the conversion out. The shiny part where the barrel and chamber meet is where the metal has been hammered up.
 
Man, I can't even guess on that brass. My 1911 had the tiny port and the extractor wasn't tuned correctly. I had the port opened up and played with the extractor to clean it up. It had a habit of banging the case mouth as it ejected but that's a whole other thing. That's mangled beyond repair.

The movement while firing I'd say a stronger mag spring from wolff, or if they don't make them to double up on stock springs. You'll lose 1 or 2 rounds capacity that route but it will likely help.

I'm guessing there were no similar issues with the original parts and acp rounds? Or did you pick it up already converted? In any case, the amount of energy packed in that round, I wouldn't want to see it firing out of battery.

My final fix for my 1911 was a refund from clark custom on the kit, and then picked up a new glock and parts from lonewolf for the conversion. Regular ACP rounds with the heavy recoil spring and braked barrel BARELY have enough energy to make the pistol eject, brass just kind of dribbles out at your feet. But I bet a 4 year old kid could comfortably shoot them.
 
I haven't tried an aftermarket mag spring but the only mag ive used has the doubled up stock springs and I can force in 11 rounds. The last shot or two are the only ones that have had an issue, but it's not all the time.

I have no idea about the brass ether, I feel lucky when the last round doesn't feed properly so I don't end up destroying the brass.

I got the gun with the conversion but I have all the stock parts if I want to switch it up. I still haven't gotten ahold of 460 Rowland but I should have time tomarow.
 
I have a Clark's 460 conversion on a Colt Gold Cup. Shooting buffalo bore it's accurate and I haven't had any reliability problems.

I know Indy went thru [beeep] with his...
 
Ya, that's a nice way of putting it
laugh.gif
The took care of everything except shipping in the end even though I'd had it forever and a day. It did shoot nice when it shot though. And the clark kit looks a lot sexier than the glock, but function over form when it comes to firearms.

I wonder if rock got someones failed project unloaded on him.
 
The guy I got it from said he only fired 50 rounds through it. And seeing the wear on the firearm and magazine after the 50 460 Rowland rounds I shot I believe it. The gun looked like new, maybe 50 45ACP rounds were fired through it.

Like I said though I've only fired 50 460 Rowland rounds through it. I've had 3 cases destroyed all of them were the last round out of the mag. And a couple failure to feeds on the last couple rounds. If I have a the magazine with double springs filled to 11 I haven't had a problem with the first 8 rounds at least.

Other than the tight fit and getting fouled up I have no worries, just some tinkering around.
 
Thinking about the brass and stock recoil spring has me thinking that the slide operates so fast on the last shot without another round to catch it slams into the brass before the brass can get out of the way and before the magazine can operate the slide catch. Even when the brass gets smashed up the slide catches open but I can see(3rd pic) where the brass is hitting, it's like the slide catches on the last shot only because it bounces off the brass it just ruined.
 
If thats the case you have a catch 22. A weaker spring may fix it. But the pistol won't survive. But the spent brass should be well on its way before the slide has a chance to close.

You need a slow motion camera!
 
From the weaker spring I was thinking that the slide was flying back so fast it would bounce off the rear of the frame. I wonder if the brass getting ejected could be traveling backwards with the slide fast enough that the slaming on the back of the frame holds the brass from getting thrown to the side? If the slide suddenly stoped with the right forces I think the brass if it wasn't already far enough out of the pistol could get shocked back into it's original spot and not have the time to start ejecting again before it slams into the slide, then the slide bounces off the brass and catches..... Typing that out seems a little crazy but I have no other explination from the marks on the pistol and how it still locks.

A heavier duty recoil spring and extractor would show if that was the case.

After looking at the brass and pistol more I think this could be my problem. The smashed up brass are the only ones with marks on the heads from the ejector. Maybe if I tried giving it a really weak grip on the last round... A slow mo camera would be great.
 
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Yep, I can see that matching up to the damage. So the slide is holding the brass in and slamming it forward instead of ejecting it. I hadn't even considered that being a possibility. Bad ejector? If it's only happening on the last round, I'd guess the round in the mag is popping the brass out of the ejector when it the slide goes forward or it's starting to move the spent brass enough as it passes backwards to work correctly. Take the obstruction out and you have that ^ happening.
 
I'd say look at the extractor/ejector and how far back the slide needs to go for it to work as well as the ejector spring tension. If it's supposed to be like the 1911 its just tight enough to hold the brass, but not so tight it HOLDS the brass.

I also wonder if the slide is short stroking and never bringing the brass far enough back to function correctly.

There would still be the mystery of that happening AND the slide locking back though as it seems one or the other should happen but not both at the same time..
 
I got some brass and decided to reload some of my first 460 Rowland ammo. Turns out the factory Underwood ammo was loaded to COAL of 1.240 and I have my handloads loaded to 1.275. This might help the rounds moving around in the magazine so much.
 
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