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

Thanks Hawk. I'm looking forward to getting this one to the range.

Sure we can. I enjoyed your posts and learned a few things too.

Actually, the N Frame S&W you are looking at there, owned by my friend, Jim, is an S&W 25-7 in .45 Colt. There were only 2,000 made according to my understanding. They came with came with a 5" barrel, unfluted cylinder, and were inscribed with "Model of 1987" on the side.

I have one as well, and also know of one that was mutilated and turned into a snubby, so that only leaves 1,997 possibly left in the world for you to find.....

Very accurate, and a pleasure to shoot with my loads of 250 RNFP at about 1,100 fps

Starting Loads....................................................Maximum Loads

Bullet Powder Grs. Vel. CUP Powder Grs. Vel. CUP
310 cast H-110 21.5 1109 24,400 H-110 23.5 1316 32,000
310 cast H 4227 21 1016 24.900 H 4227 22.5 1164 30,000
310 cast #2400 17 1013 24.400 #2400 19 1172 29,400
310 cast HS-6 12.5 994 25.000 HS-6 13.5 1043 29,800

I had some 300 grain LRN .458's on the shelf (100 bullets marked $7, guess they'd been up there for a while). I resized them to .452 and loaded with 23 grains of H110. They were healthy, only shot six of them - holding the rest in reserve...or something. For a heavy Colt load I like the 270SAA bullet in a Tier 2 loading, accurate and doesn't beat your wrists up - and I'm pretty sure it'll thump anything that needs it.

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.

Own both, shoot both, killed plenty of deer with both, no differences in accuracy or killing power.

For me it doesn't matter, not a nickles worth of difference between the two performance wise, but I do think the 45 Colt is a bit more nostalgically cooler.

Make a great carbine load!

I agree and Colt-sized guns are my favorites for carry and general purpose use. Although I prefer the .44Spl in mid-sized guns such as my custom Old Model Blackhawk .44Spl. Along with several Colt's, USFA's and Uberti sixguns. But this discussion was more about, or became about, the maximum potential of the two options.

The original Ruger flat-top .44's were the same frame size and strength as the Super Blackhawk that eventually replaced it. What made the Super easier to handle was the longer, heavier, steel grip frame.

The only gun Keith ever "blew up" was a Colt .45 and that was just the loading gate.

The Keith 1200fps .44Spl load has been tested many times at 25-26,000psi.

Not sure the source of this but its very close to my observations in a couple of 45 colts. My heavy load is 23 grains H110 over a 300 gr BTBWFN for 1250-1275 in my 5.5" Bisley. I've also run 2400 to 20 grains but can't recall the velocity - accuracy with H110 was much better. I also run HS 6 for a plinking load and run it 950 ish. I dig the 45 colt.

The source is Hogdon

That will make you a dandy little packing gun, even if you need to throw on a jacket & run into town. Great choice.

While learning about heavy loads in the .44, I pushed the heavier projectiles at the best speeds I could get, using H110.

In the end I found out that while bullet weight helped, and 300+ grain .44s are exceptionally effective, shooting them faster than 1200 FPS really did not get me much, performance wise.

What I quickly realized was that shooting the heavy bullets at a more sedate speed provided substantially better accuracy on my part through recoil control. The 320s at 1350 may be just as accurate (mechanically) as 320s at 1200, but I personally could not shoot them as precisely.

240/250 grain loads are another subject entirely, but as far as the heavy for caliber 300+ grain 44s (and .45s) go, I see no reason to push them past 1200.

Non-handloader, I'd say .44 mag.

For Loonies, the .45 Colt offers a lot. It's my pick of the two and I have both.

I took a .44 three screw SBH, had Jim Stroh line bore to .45 Colt, fit a 6" Shilen barrel, build custom sights, fit a long ejector. I did a trigger stop, tweaked the trigger to near perfection.

DF



It shoots: 20 yds. over a bag.



Hog medicine, 270 gr. Thunderhead by Penn Bullets.

I'm thinking I want to load up some of those Thunderheads for my MG to test prior to bear season this year.

George

They do hit critters with a whallop; no they don't bounce off...

DF

Frogman did a good job there, and I can only touch up on one point. The barrel actually says "Model of 1989". IIRC the 5 inch stainless 625 in 45 ACP I had a few years back, was marked "model of 1988" Not sure what the 1987 gun was.

Can't remember if those were guns from Ellett Brothers, or some other distributor.

I have one of those .45 Colt 25-7's with unfluted cylinder, "Model of 1987" on the barrel. Sweet gun, very smooth.

Didn't know they were that rare.

What they worth?

BTW, I got a Brownells tool to ream throats, have done all my .45's that were too tight. They now all Kosher, shoot great.

DF

After your post, I had to go dig mine out and make sure I read that right. Sure enough, mine does say 1989.

Whatever year your pistol says, if it is a Smith 25-7 with a 5 inch barrel and an unfluted cylinder, you have a dandy.

I like mine quite a bit.