Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 44 Magnum or 45 Colt. Which one would you pick?

Maybe my experience is different than others here. My choice of .44 Magnum or .45 Colt is NOT determined by terminal performance. The two rounds perform at a level that is too close to call.....they both work very well.

With that said I must admit that I am comparing loads pushing a 240-270 grain bullet at 1100 fps or so. At this level I have no problem killing any deer or hog that I might encounter and do so with comfort.

Yes the .44 and .45 can both be pushed much harder. I went through the days when I believed every round should be loaded as hot as possible.....but I got over it. If I regularly hunted Cape Buffalo with a handgun I might feel differently, but for my use the mid-level loadings are perfectly comfortable and effective.

For general use I prefer to go with the .45 Colt over the .44 Magnum.....not because of superior performance, but because of the guns available in this chambering.

The .44 Magnum was, from the beginning, a high pressure round and "most" revolvers chambered for it were built with this in mind. Thus they tend to be a bit bigger and heavier than a "typical" .45 Colt.

Elmer Keith did not choose the .44 Special over the .45 Colt because of some magical superiority of the .429" bore over the .452". He chose it because in the Colt SAA the cylinder walls were a bit thicker....a very important advantage when dealing with the high pressure loads he was using. Even then the strength of the SAA was "marginal" for loads in the 30,000-35,000 psi range. Remember Elmer "blew up" several revolvers when first developing the high pressure .44 loads.

For me, this becomes a problem. To safely handle high pressure loadings (in .44 Magnum as well as .45 Colt) the revolver must be built heavier and larger than a typical low to mid range pressure .45 Colt. I do not have large hands and find the typical .44 Magnum revolver to be just a bit too large to comfortable.

The SAA feels near perfect in my hand. My all time favorite .44 Magnum revolver is an original Ruger Flattop....which was very short-lived due to the fact it was not quite robust enough for a steady diet of high-pressure .44 Magnum loads. Even the N-Frame model 29 S&W is of marginal strength for heavy .44 magnum loads. The Ruger Super Blackhawk and other "proper" .44 Magnum revolvers are just a bit too much to be used every day....at least in my smaller hands.

I "could" solve this problem by loading the .44 magnum to mid-range levels (265 grain bullet at 1100 fps), but no manufacturer in his right mind will produce a .44 magnum revolver that can only handle lower pressure rounds. Thus, every .44 magnum revolver (with the exception of my beloved Flattop) is built just a bit too large for my hands.

The typical .45 Colt revolver (think SAA size) is just right for daily carry (in my hands) and will handle the mid-range loads I find to be so effective.

I think the .44 magnum has a place, but is not nearly so user friendly and versatile as the .45 Colt. The .45 Colt can be loaded to equal (or exceed) the .44 Magnum in a properly sized revolver.....but then I'd have to remember to not load those high-pressure loads in my SAA's and they would not be as comfortable in my hands due to the increase in frame size.

I own and will never give up my .44 Magnum revolvers, but they are more specialized than my everyday-carry .45 Colt. Each has it's place, but for me, the .45 Colt is my choice for everyday use.