At the end of the XIX century, the US Army was solving the question of replacing personal weapons - revolvers, with more modern automatic pistols, which at this time already become sufficiently reliable for military use.

In the test, a comparative shooting of cartridges of different caliber on cattle was carried out. The test involved cartridges: .476 Eley, 7.65mm Luger, 9 mm Luger, .38 Long Colt, .38 ACP, .45 Colt, .455 Webley and .45 caliber cartridge, developed by Winchester Repeating Arms Co in conjunction with John Moses Browning for order of Colt.

Upon completion of the tests, it was concluded that the minimum caliber of hand weapons should be a .45 caliber, since only such a bullet caliber can provide a more or less reliable stopping action of the bullet.

As a result, the prototype cartridge was manufactured by Winchester Repeating Arms Co after several months of research, and he then took part in the Thompson-La Carde test as a .45 Automatic Colt cartridge, for which the .38 Colt pistol mod. 1900 was redone by Browning into a new caliber.

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The flanged cylindrical sleeve of this cartridge was made of brass, had a length

of 22.86 mm, diameter 11.92 mm and was equipped with a cylinder-spherical

bullet with a mass of 13 g with a lead core, the charge of smokeless powder gave

the pool an initial velocity of about 280 m / s. The cartridge had a total length

of 31.98 mm and a marking on the bottom of the sleeve "W.R.A.Co. .45 AC".

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- Cartridge, Caliber .45, Ball, M1911 - a conventional bullet for use against personnel and light unarmored equipment. The cartridge has a brass sleeve, a cylinder-spherical bullet with a core of lead alloy and a brass or steel copper-clad shell.

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- Cartridge, Caliber .45, Tracer, M26 - tracer bullet for target designation, can also be used for signaling or as an incendiary. A cartridge with a brass sleeve, the bullet consists of three parts: a brass-plated or copper-plated steel shell, a lead core with antimony and a glass of tracer mixture. The bullet is painted red 5 mm from the top.

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- Cartridge, Caliber .45, Ball, Match, M1911 - the target cartridge for use in shooting competitions, is manufactured with increased accuracy. A brass casses with marking on the bottom of the NM (National Match) or MATCH.

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- Cartridge, Caliber .45, Wad Cutter - the cartridge is used only for shootings for arrow competitions and for training with marksmanship. The cartridge has a brass sleeve, it has a peculiar bullet shape, which looks like a truncated cone. The integral curve of the bullet has an acute shoulder, when it hits a paper target, it cuts the edges to get an even and clean hole.

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- Cartridge, Caliber .45, Ball, High Pressure Test, M1 - high-pressure test cartridge, for checking the weapon during its manufacture or after repair, the nickel-plated case for difference from the standard cartridge.

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- Cartridge, Caliber .45, Blank, M9 - холостой патрон предназначен для имитации стрельбы или производства салюта, может использоваться только в пистолете. Гильза латунная, отличается отсутствием пули и коническим обжимом дульца.

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- Cartridge, Dummy, Caliber .45, M1921 - mock-up cartridge, used to train personnel loading weapons and checking the operation of its mechanism. The cartridge differs drilled holes in the sleeve and the absence of a capsule.

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A .45 ACP cartridge with a mass of 22.45 grams is equipped with an all-envelope bullet (FMJ) with a lead core weighing 230 grams (14.9 grams) with a ballistic coefficient of 0.195, the bullet case is usually brass, a charge of smokeless powder with a mass of 0.36-0.37 grams during combustion accelerates the bullet to 255- 270 m / s, respectively, the muzzle energy of the bullet is 470-530 J. The effective range is up to 80 meters, the maximum range of the bullet is 1400-1600 meters.

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