Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Leaver gun 44 or 45???

For reloaders... The Henry 45C Steel & X models will take Ruger pressures and have a 1:18 twist. This is fast considering most others are 1:38. A 1:18 can stabilize a swagged down a 405g, .458” cast bullet to .452”. I shoot mine with BluDot for sub-sonic at about 1010 fps. The Speer .451” 300g jacketed SP will near harvest timber at close range, about 1600 fps with 296 or Lil’Gun powder.

Help me understand gents. What does reloading have to do with the selection? If you reload, you can reload either 44 mag or 45 colt. Reloading 45 colt brings it up to typical 44 mag performance, maybe more. Reloading 44 mag generally exceeds reloaded 45 colt performance. In the end, reloading makes them a wash IMO. To the OP, my choice would be 44 mag as there are more off the shelf options available. Plus there are off the shelf 44 special options ranging from extremely mild to almost light 44 mag level. There are no 45 colt specials as a standard load. Though 45 colt "cowboy" loads are available which are on par with 44 special loads.

If you reload and the firearm is rated for it, 45C energy spec's can be brought up to par with the 44 Mag with the advantage of a larger dia. Yes, there at commercial 45C +P rounds but they are limited.

Larger diameter. That’s 22 thousandths larger. I personally don’t think that’s significant for in application. Hunting, target, or self defense.

That’s saying the .243 is the same as the 6.5, and the 6.5 is equal to the 7mm, etc. (.244-.264-.284-.308). I find those to be significant steps.

The only point in bringing reloading into the conversation is that the 45 Colt is a BAD choice if you don’t reload. The 44 is far more versatile off the shelf.

I don't know how much you guys really hunt or shoot pigs with your 44 mag. because the main reason I had to get away from magnums, 357 or 44 is the magnum crack ! I am old now and it would almost drop me to my knees to fire off a few to see if I was on with that pistol . I started shooting 45"s and can shoot all day w/o plugs. I shoot 38 and 44 s in my mags now, it's so much more fun now a 45 long. I also carry matching levers with pistols.

my Rifle is a 44 marlin.it shoots 44 mag and 44 special very good..

As a percentage, the steps pointed out above are more significant than the step from .429 to .452. Imagine adding 2 caliber to a 50 cal, vs 2 caliber to a 17. Big relative difference!

Regardless of whether one goes with the 44 Mag or the 45 Colt, you must either handload or be wealthy to be more than a casual shooter!

Hello, this is my first post here. However, I have about 50 years of history using firearms.

In my opinion, the .45 Colt is the best choice these days for several reasons.

1) The rifling twist in most lever guns in .45 Colt is faster than in .44 magnum rifles, ensuring better bullet stabilization. The 1894 Marlin is pretty slow at 1:38, although it has worked well for me with 270 grain Speer Gold Dots at 100 yards with Ballard rifling. The Marlin 1894 uses a 1:38 for .45 Colt though, but others like Henry are 1:16.

2) The groove diameter SAAMI standards allow makers to produce over-bored .44 magnum rifles, unlike .44 magnum revolvers. The last that I owned slugged at .432" when the Hornaday bullets that I was loading were the standard .430". Not conducive to accuracy, and creates headaches for cast bullet loading. The .45 Colt 1894 Marlin that I own has a normal .452" groove diameter, as do most other rifles.

3) The modern .45 Colt functions perfectly in most rifles, thanks to the fouling groove ahead of the rim, which makes it a semi-rimless cartridge of sorts with the typical sharp beak extractors of most lever guns. It feeds and extracts as well as .44 Magnum and .44-40.

4) The .45 Colt can be hand loaded to .44 magnum velocities in rifles that also are chambered for .44 magnum, using the same bullet weights. As a bonus, the greater volume of the case creates lower chamber pressures. So a 240 grain .44 magnum load that generates 35,000 PSI, will generate about 25,000 PSI in an equivalent velocity load in .45 Colt.

My 1894 Marlin in .45 Colt has that 1:38 twist.

It favors 225 grain factory loads over 250 grain factory Cowboy loads.

Coke or Pepsi, Ford or Chevy, Ginger or Maryanne, Marlin or Henry, 44 Mag or 45 Colt (please, for gosh's sake, just don't call it long colt), blond or brunette, 9mm or 45 ACP .....

All of those are apples to apples except one ... only one. It's apples to oranges.

And when anything is apples to apples ... there is no one sure answer.

However ... as someone with over 50 years of firearms experience and one who has reloaded for almost that long and as one who was shooting leverguns and wheel guns just out of diapers being half Texan with a calvaryman for a Grandfather and a cowgirl for a Mother .... I'd go with 44 Mag/44 Special.

See what I did there? And Saddlegun is not wrong ... he's just biased. He didn't tell the whole other side of the story.

One more thing - just food for thought take it for what it's worth.

I am really good friends with a couple of gun shop indoor range owners ... one in SC and one in NC. About once a month I'd swing by each and pick-up a couple of 5 gallon buckets of brass they'd save for me (out of many they have per month they both set a couple of buckets aside for me each month ... I dunno why, just because I'm likeable and we served together I guess) ... and when I sort that brass, and I have sorted 100s of 1000s of pieces of brass (it tells you a lot about what people are shooting and what is the most popular range brass, etc., etc., etc., for every caliber/cartridge) ... and admittedly I got way behind sorting so I had several 55 gallon trash cans slam full of range brass out in my barn that I never got around to sorting until just this past year ....

Bottom line ... I guarantee you there is easily 20x more 44 Mag brass to be found in random range brass than there is 45 Colt brass. Easily. It's not even close. Is some of that Desert Eagle spit brass? I'm sure. Is some of it Dirty Harry wanna-bes ... no doubt. But the fact remains, and I am not embellishing, if anything I am probably leaning to the conservative side with my guesstimate ... there is 20x more 44 Mag brass than there is 45 Colt brass in a few years worth of random range brass hauls from two different gun stores in two different states. One in West Columbia, SC and the other in Wilmington, NC.

And I'll add this. While my 1894 CB in 45 Colt is a fun gun and it goes well with my Vaquero ... I have killed more pigs with my 1894P in 44 Mag (shorty, ported) using nothing more than inexpensive Winchester White Box 240 grain JSP Value Packs from Wally World and I have never not recovered a pig I hit with one of those. And that little 1894P may not be as pretty paired with my Model 29 as the 1894 CB is with the Vaquero or the 1894 CB LTD is with the S&W 686 in 357/38 ... but I always grab the 1894P first. Always.

It's pie plate accurate which is all you'll ever wanna ask from a straight-walled pistol caliber cartridge levergun out to 100 yards. Anything else is pie in the sky.

Does it thump a little harder ... maybe. But that's what limbsavers are for.

If the mouth starts to crack a bit from reloading too many times you know what you do? You trim it down and load it for 44 Special and keep going. You'll get twice as many reloading out of your brass with 44 Mag than you will 45 Colt.

Also ... if you're going-to cast boolits and reload for either, you're going-to slug your barrels and resize your boolits accordingly for both. Show me a 45 Colt factory load as viable, as effective and as affordable as the Winchester White Box Value Pack 44 Mag 240 gr JSPs ... there's not one. Show me a dozen different factory loaded hunting and personal defense loads for the 45 Colt ... there's not. But there are for the 44 Mag.

Both are fine fine loads, calibers, cartridges and you can't go wrong with a JM stamped Marlin or a Henry Big Boy ... I own rifles in both calibers.

You have to decide for yourself based upon everything you know.