North American monster load

[OV-1D]

  Anybody out there own and shoot that North American 450 mag.express ?? If so any bad news or good news about it . Always wondered if it was a great shooter , it wasn't around too long . Any history ?

[Wolfar]

Interesting Gun...



Found this blurb...

You are bidding One Cartridge! only 20,000 Cartridges were ever made, for only 530 guns ever made!...... Obsolete,Proprietary, Handgun Cartridge by North American Arms 450 Magnum. This is the Story of the Cartridge by Mr. Ken Friel ,General Manager of North American Arms Company,"Quote" Between, 1981-84, North American Arms produced a 5-shot Single action revolver, available in 45 Win Mag and/or 450 Mag Express. A few were produced with 3-cylinders, the 3rd cylinder chambered in 45 Colt. Around 530 of these revolvers were produced. The casing for the 450 Mag Express was produced by Winchester. (Based off the 45 Win Mag casing.) Approximately 50-100K casings were produced. Of the casings produced, only 20K was sent off to be loaded before the revolver was discontinued. As I recall the bullet was by Sierra the powder was Hodgen H110. (I believe the 82-84 Hodgen reloading manual has the actual bullet weight and charge listed.) In 1987 the parent company of NAA was sold. This sale included North American Arms. The new owners had no desire to pursue the large bore revolver market, and all the 450 mag express tooling, and inventory was placed into long term storage. In 1992, NAA was once again sold, purchased by Sandy, with no assets pertaining to the 450 Mag Express being included. It is our understanding that in 93-94, the owners had all tooling, and inventory, which included the remaining primed brass destroyed.

[OV-1D]

 Thanks Wolfar that was great info . Was thinking about one but that ammo thing is a problem for sure even though I believe someone else is or was making 450 action express loads but I'm not positive . Haven't looked into the idea much , but my love of big bores is tempting . That grip looks like a handfull with not much thought put into it .. Thanks again I know I got the right info from the right guy , haha .

[CavScout]

So... it appears the early NAA was on the same evolutionary path as Freedom Arms???

[Wolfar]

Found this PDF it REALLY gets into that gun big time!

http://www.singleactions.com/NAA450MagnumExpress.pdf

My gun came with a box that were based off of .454s
and they work fine. If case forming isn't something you enjoy though, Quality
Cartridge does sell the .450 Express for $99.00 per hundred
(http://owlnet.com/quality/450 Mag Exp.htm)

Article may be old the link does not work anymore and the ammo is no where to be found online right at the moment.

I should note that this gun is now on GB also. Also, those factory rounds with the red primer seal on the left go for $20+ to collectors. Yes, each.

^^^ Just a note that quote was posted in 2009 about this picture...... With that many rounds at $20 ea that is almost more in rounds worth than the gun according to this picture...

[PJ Garrison]

I wonder if this would have succeeded if it had come out a little later?  There are certainly plenty of super-revolvers around nowadays.

[Wolfar]

IMHO a gun manufacture always takes a chance on a bullet round ONLY meant for the gun they make.

They are hoping that it is such a smashing success that other gun manufacturers will get on board.

They have to convince some ammunition maker to back their play on the new round.

The new round .32 NAA is a .32 round with a .380 cartridge...

NAA has stepped out again on a round of it's own and only time will tell if it is a winner.