Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Any reason to choose .45 Colt?

N Frame 45 Colt made out of a Model 58 41 mag by the gentleman in Tennessee. His combat sights and Roper style grips by Keith Brown. One guys version of a great gun in a great round.

You could buy a 454, and shoot 45 Colt in it. Then if you still have the desire to feel more power and thump, the 454 can oblige. The 454 chambering does offer some versatility.
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I’m down to one Clements gun. It’s a parts gun he built for my son Jack when Jack was 10. Build out of model 19 left overs. 357 mag, satin blue.

Most accurate revolver I’ve ever owned.

Go for the 44 magnum.

I used to have a Ruger Redhawk in 45 Colt ( stainless, 5.5" bbl). Sold it. The problem is with the 45 Colt case. It is tapered.

When you resize, with a carbide sizer, you make a cylindrical case. Then, when you shoot it, the brass expands back to "tapered" shape. Resize back to cylindrical. Fire/expand/resize. Repeat... This works the brass hard, and it is more likely to work harden and split.

44 mag cases and chambers are cylindrical. Less working of the brass. Longer case life. Load the 44 mag from mild to wild. You will get all the "thump" you want with the 44 mag.

I use a S&W 629-3 (44 mag) with 4" barrel. Love it.

Great points.

That is a real stretch, (stretch as in case and analysis) There are no taper problems with a 45 Colt case. You may prefer the 44 mag, but don't make that up. I have loaded 45 Colt for 40 years, used both standard and carbide dies and they won't stress any more than a 44 mag or a 38 special.

I would still wager in a side by side comparison, most people would feel and react to more recoil from the 44 mag. Choose what you like but don't make that kind of comparison...

Thank you!!

So, he doesn't like .45's. Gotcha.

Now STFU.

It depends on the brass, it depends on the carbide die mouth diameter...how far down you size. Carbide dies aren't generally conducive to fitting many guns with the same cases without dimensionally jacking up most any revolver case.

Case taper on a drawing also means little if the firearm manufacturer doesn't cut the chamber that way, and almost none excepting Colt over recent years has actually done so. Some of my 44 Mags have more taper to the case than some of my 45 Colts once fired. It's actually NOT an argument unless one is using steel dies where in both cases (no pun) the brass is being worked less in both chamberings.

I've had two Redding carbide die sets in 44 that absolutely ruined brass. Even when lubed, they would scrape nickle off of cases.

Over expanding can also ruin brass as well, along with crimping the piss out of stuff.

A good "thump" test, sans ballistic gelatin, is to shoot 44's and 45's at plate steel. Shoot all shapes and bullet weights and it doesn't take even a novice to notice the 45 has more slap and does similar work even with less speed.

Off-topic. but noticed this when shooting a 10" gong at 100 yards with a .30-06, 165 grain bullet at 2800 fps, then doing so with a .45-70 shooting a 436 grain LBT bullet at 1679 fps.

Noticeably more reaction to the big slug.

I think I want to try one of those rugers with the two cylinders 45ACP and 45 Colt. A set of cheap Lee carbide reloading dies and I will be all set, I got 5 pounds of Unique to burn so I need something to burn it in. Will never buy another SW revolver as long as I live unless I stumble on an older gun.

Why stumble?

They're out there.

Last few months.

Without getting too deep into the physics, this is why you observed what you did.
Many like to use kinetic energy as a measure of "killing power." Whether you agree with that or not, the .30-06 load you were shooting has about 5% more energy than the .45-70 load.
However, momentum is the correct measure of how hard a gong get "slapped." The .45-70 load has about 58% more momentum than the .30-06 load. WHUMP!

Thanks Shrap. You saved me some typing.

I've loaded the same mixed batch 45 Colt for 11 years, for various Ruger SA's and a couple of Rossi 45 Colt carbines. Both are known to have generous chambers and a good number of my reloads are right heavy- 45-70 Lite from the carbine. I full length resize every time, I flare enough for flat-based bullets, I never trim and I run a heavy roll crimp. I might have had a half-dozen split necks in that many years; certainly no more than I was getting loading 44 Magnum.

i have played with the 44's for years.
the 45 colt for quite a few years. it can be loaded in a suitable revolver from light to wild.
but moderate loads without the flash and boom work pretty good.
compared to a 44magnum.
there is a reason why that caliber is still around.

I was aware of that. I don't measure lethality by kinetic energy.

I should have picked up one of the round-butt Redhawks that will fire either .45 Colt or .45 ACP with moon clips when I had the chance. Don't "need" one but ... what's "'need" got to do with it?

Tom

I never said you used KE as a measure of lethality, or even how hard a gong gets "slapped." I was attempting to support your observation with some relative numbers. My assumption was if I quoted only the relative difference in momentum, someone was going to post up and tell me I had it all wrong because energy was the important quantity. I was trying to get ahead of that.

I never said you said I used KE as a measure of lethality, I stated that myself. As an engineer, I understand the relative numbers.

I've been using heavy large-caliber cast bullets for years and though they may calculate lower in energy in some instances, depending on the comparison, the figure for energy does not indicate how lethal the projectile will be.

I cannot put any faith in energy, though minimum figures are often stated as needed to kill a certain animal. I'm sure you've seen it stated often.

Boloney! (Bologna) you need to re-read the Linebaugh article posted in this thread.

There are situations where nothing else will do.