Question

.45 Super
Type	Pistol
Place of origin	 United States
Production history
Designer	Dean Grennell
Designed	1988
Produced	1988—present
Specifications
Parent case	.451 Detonics Magnum
Bullet diameter	.451 in (11.5 mm)
Neck diameter	.473 in (12.0 mm)
Base diameter	.476 in (12.1 mm)
Rim diameter	.480 in (12.2 mm)
Rim thickness	.049 in (1.2 mm)
Case length	.898 in (22.8 mm)
Overall length	1.275 in (32.4 mm)
Primer type	Large pistol
Maximum pressure	28,000 psi (190 MPa)
Ballistic performance
Bullet mass/type Velocity Energy 185 gr (12 g) JHP 1,300 ft/s (400 m/s) 694 ft·lbf (941 J) 200 gr (13 g) JHP 1,200 ft/s (370 m/s) 639 ft·lbf (866 J) 230 gr (15 g) FMJ 1,100 ft/s (340 m/s) 618 ft·lbf (838 J)
Test barrel length: 5 inches (130 mm) Source(s): MidwayUSA

The .45 Super is a large and powerful smokeless powder center fire metallic firearm cartridge developed in 1988 by Dean Grennell, a well-known writer in the firearms field as well as managing editor of Gun World magazine. Born of a desire to update and improve the 1906 era .45 ACP, the .45 Super cartridge is dimensionally identical with the older .45 ACP round. A notable difference is that it has a thicker case wall than its ACP brethren cartridge, and the Super is loaded to higher pressures, which makes it a substantially more powerful round than the standard .45 ACP. It offers an average 300 feet per second (91 m/s) improvement in muzzle velocity. The cartridge was co-developed by Tom Fergerson and Ace Hindman.

In 1988, a Gun World article detailed Grennell's efforts to update the .45 ACP for the 21st Century, a difficult endeavor due to the inherent design limitations of the veteran round. Introduced in the early 20th Century, the .45 ACP has a relatively large case capacity which was dictated by the relatively low pressure powders in use at the time of its development; as a result, it operates in the modest range of 19,900 – 22,000 Copper units of pressure (CUP). In contrast, current day cartridges using modern nitrocellulose powders generating higher pressure can produce a CUP in the 28,000 – 39,000 range. As it was originally designed for lower pressures, the .45 ACP case has relatively thin walls and weak case head and web specifications; it cannot reliably contain increased pressures. The layout of most M1911 pistols' chambers presents yet another challenge in that the case head is not fully supported in the cartridge feed ramp area; pushing the envelope in this critical area with too much pressure risks a catastrophic failure, resulting in a case bursting in the chamber. To rule out such a dangerous possibility, Grennell chose to use brass formed from the stronger and more modern .451Detonics, shortened to the overall length of the .45 ACP design. Support for the case head was also addressed by adopting a new chamber and barrel design which supports the base area of the case. Other areas of the model 1911 pistol design were also strengthened, including the addition of a heavier recoil spring and a strengthened firing pin redesigned to prevent primer material from flowing into the firing pin channel under high chamber pressures.

...Wikipedia