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

OK, assuming you plan to reload for either caliber and assuming both calibers are offered in the same pistol. Which would you pick and why?

Have a .45 and have owned them for years.. But have 3 or 4 .44's.. .44 all the way..

.45 Colt - it's a bigger hammer, period. Do you plan on hunting with your chosen caliber?

Yes, but the prey will be 100lb whitetail dinks common to my area.

Either will serve you well. If you ever decide to go after bigger game, the .45 would be my choice -- personally.

I know you said you're going to reload but I'd pick the 44 based on proliferation of ammo. 45 Colt has become easier to obtain in the last few years but 44 is just very easy to get anywhere. There's really not much difference in the two for your use though.

I have grown pretty fond of the 45 Colt, but I can't get away from the 44 Magnum. Got both and like them both.



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But still my favorite is the one in the middle.

45 Colt because I already have a couple of them along with reloading dies and components.

44 mag if starting fresh due to ease of finding ammo and I now have several friends with 44 mags to steal components from.

As already mentioned, either will be more than sufficient for the stated purpose.

I loaded and hunted with the 44 mag for about 25 years, Killed a half dozen deer & a pickup load of junk critters with it; even carried an old 4" Model 29-2 as a duty gun for a few years. It's a great cartridge.

But throughout that time I would acquire or work on the occasional 45 Colt. The cartridge impressed me with its mild manners and heavy bullet potential, even at mundane velocities. Killed my first deer with it in '98 using a Sierra 240 JHC cruising around 1300 fps and DAMN... now I had me a deer stomper! Others have fallen to the Colt cartridge using SWCs at 850-950 fps and those ballistics will produce all the deer you'll ever want to butcher.

I downsized my reloading a few years ago and the 45 Colt remains. It'll fill my needs for a heavy revolver cartridge for as long as I'll need one.

Have both. I prefer the Colt, but only if you reload. The 44 is a better choice for factory loads. The 44 also has less problems with varying tolerences. Ruger still will not properly throat the 45 cylinders. If you get undersized throats you will spend a C-note fixing it.

.45 Colt mostly because it does the same thing as a .44 Magnum at less pressure, about 10kpsi less when both are loaded to the max. I shot .44 Magnums for well over 20 years before it dawned on me that it wasn't the kick that bothered me, it was the concussive muzzle blast. Switched to a .45 Colt and in equal length barrels at equal velocities the difference was notable.



Ruger throats are indeed much closer and more uniform for their .44 revolvers than their .45's, at least in Blackhawks. I've never measured a .45 Colt Redhawk but have measured a few .44 Redhawks and one SRH .44 plus several of each caliber in Blackhawks. If a gun store has a few examples of a particular revolver in either caliber and you want to do a cheap and easy test take a jacketed bullet of known diameter in and measure the throats. It should just slide into the front of each chamber with no wiggle.

If it hangs up or won't go in at all indicating an undersized throat it's really not that hard to open the throats, I've done it on multiple revolvers. Hard core machinists might cringe but I have used Veral Smith's method with complete satisfaction to both open throats and enlarge the "Ruger constriction" where the barrel screws into the frame.

And if you're looking at other than a Ruger, well, never mind...

I asked myself that question 4 decades ago, chose the .44 just I might need to buy factory ammo sometime - I've never regretted the choice.

But if I'd chosen .45 I'm sure I'd have never regretted it either. Win/win.

I've got a 4 3/4" EAA Bounty Hunter in 45 Colt which is fast becoming the favorite of all I've ever owned, including the Rugers. It's trigger needed work like every transfer bar SA I've ever owned; but it shot dead to the sights and its cylinder throats are 0.454” and so uniform I could not read a thousandth of an inch disparity between them. Shoots like a house afire with Lee 452-255-RF sized 0.454 from Maplewood Bullets .

If I could guarantee equal accuracy between the 2 cartridges, I would roll with a .45.

That said, having owned more than a dozen .45 revolvers, and the majority having throats of various sizes, I always went back to the .44.

It is very hard to find a Smith or Ruger .44 mag that is not a tack driver. The same definitely cannot be said for .45 Colts.

I will continue to own both, but normally reach for a .44, as it does everything I need.

A nice 4" Redhawk .45 with uniform chambers would be a true "one gun" for an outdoorsman who wanted a reasonably packable, and yet plenty powerful sidearm in the Wild Wild West.

I am getting the fierce wants for one of these... not quite the $1K+ wants, but fierce ones nonetheless.

The chamber throats in the 4" Redhawk slugged out .4525 to .4527. I shoot cast bullets sized to .451. It will shoot six into 2.75" groups (rested) at 25 yds. It would probably do a lot better for Mackay or some of the others on here, but that is good for me. My 44's all measure out from .4305 to .4320 (the oldest) and shoot about the same. Probably is more my fault again than the guns. My Smith has has the tightest throats of the 44's at .4305".

Both, they are all but interchangeable. Same bullet weights, same velocities, same recoil.

[quote=Jim in Idaho].45 Colt mostly because it does the same thing as a .44 Magnum at less pressure, about 10kpsi less when both are loaded to the max. I shot .44 Magnums for well over 20 years before it dawned on me that it wasn't the kick that bothered me, it was the concussive muzzle blast. Switched to a .45 Colt and in equal length barrels at equal velocities the difference was notable.



This was enough for me to go exclusively .45 Colt.

That and a gp-100 4.2" are on my short list.