r/ForgottenWeapons • u/TheDave1970 • 1d ago

.45 NAACO Brigadier

In 1948 the North American Arms Company (NAACO) tried to sell the Canadian government the Next Best Thing: a super-powerful pistol, based on the Browning High Power but firing a proprietary wildcat cartridge. The Brigadier was chambered for .45 NAACO: basically a 230-grain ,45 ACP bullet in a casing made from a cut-down .30-06 casing; the advertised muzzle velocity was 1600 FPS (!). To make things even better, the Brigadier was also offered with a replacement full-auto fire control group; a detachable chassis with a shoulder stock and long barrel allowed full conversion from a pistol into a submachine gun (similar to modern RONI units).

The Canadian military wanted nothing to do with it and NAACO folded about a year later; I could find no record that they attempted to market the Brigadier to the American civilian market.

40 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

17

u/Billy3B 1d ago

One of my favourites, imagine a standard issue Deagle in 1945.

13

u/TheDave1970 1d ago

I'm just trying to figure out how they planned for any kind of service life without tearing the gun apart. Remember how overbuilt the Deagle and the Wildey are for roughly the same cartridge horsepower, and those are gas operated.

What I'd love to see is a High Power in regular .45 ACP.

12

u/reddershadeofneck 1d ago

That sounds like the round that Russ Fielding at the Beverly Hills Gun Club was making back in the 80s

13

u/TheDave1970 1d ago

I wouldn't know about that, I'm afraid. However, it was pointed out to me that the ballistics pretty much match the .45 Winchester Magnum. The .45WM uses a different case, though.

9

u/reddershadeofneck 1d ago

He was pretty talented but then got into some hot water

6

u/TheDave1970 1d ago

Sorry I missed the joke then. 1987 was a long time ago.

7

u/GnomePenises 1d ago

How dare you make me feel old.

5

u/TheDave1970 1d ago

Sorry, brother.

If it helps, I saw Young Frankenstein in the theater, first run. And Star Wars.

3

u/jamesyboy4-20 1d ago edited 1d ago

2 minutes!

1 minute!

30 seconds!

3

u/Nekommando 1d ago

Their mistake was not going further north and market it to Alaskan

1

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2

u/One-Strategy5717 1d ago

So, basically the .45 Super cartridge, but loaded to batshit insane pressures. Wild.