.45 Colt.... .45 Long Colt.... .44-40

The Hornady number is #050110 for their black powder measure, and sometimes they go on sale. I've got a friend that bought the Lyman black powder measure, and a measure stand and takes it to the range and loads his black powder revolver cylinders from it- much faster if you have several cold cylinders to load, or even throwing charged into a hand held measure. Look at the Lyman one too, as it's just personal preference, and if I remember correctly, only about $10-20 between them.
 
Doc Hoy said:
How many times can you reload a cartridge?
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darkgael said:
The general answer is "a lot". The specific answer depends on a number of variables. How heavy a loading do you use? What kind of dies? How much do you work the brass when you are reloading? What kind of brass? How quickly and efficiently do you clean your BP loaded case after firing? Etc.
I have some .45 ACP cases that are usable and that I know have been loaded more than 40 times...
Pete
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Add to that list of variables the rifle's or revolver's headspace. Cases that headspace on the rim, such as .45 Colt and .44-40, will not be long in this world if shot out of a gun that has excessive headspace.
One way to judge headspace is to shoot a primed empty case in the gun and see how much the primer backs out of the primer pocket.

My first revolver, a Ruger Super Blackhawk, had this problem and full power or close to full power .44 mag loads would give me case separation after less than a half dozen reloads. Even .44 special reloads would eventually separate the case head.
I now have a S&W model 29 in .44 mag and I have yet to have this problem. When the cases wear out, it's due to splitting around the neck.
 
Doc, Doc, Doc . . . you do realize don't you that once you cross that dangerous piece of "no man's land" and your inner spirit weakens and allows you to enter the world of those "new fangled cartridge guns" . . . well, you face a whole new addiction!? I know . . . for I have crossed that invisible line and now there is no cure for the addiction as far as I can tell . . . :D

Long sigh . . . . . I fear it's too late for you . . . you might as well start making some new display cases! :eek:
 
Doc I have a model '94 in .45 Colt, 2 Vaqueros in .45 Colt, and have reloaded smokeless for about 5 years. All of my cases were bought loaded and I have reloaded them since. I have not counted the times they have been reloaded but it has been 6 or 7. Not one has failed so far, of course I've loaded Cowboy Action loads. I do believe most are Starline brass. My '94 in .45 Colt has been excellent. I've had trouble with it twice, my brother-in-law and my nephew both cycled the action slowly and dropped a shell down in the action mechanism, requiring a quick removal of the lever to retrieve them. A brisk cocking action will avoid this situation entirely. And of course the Rugers have been trouble free. I'm sure these guns would be a blast with black powder- maybe after I retire next year.:D
 
The 94 was designed for a rifle cartridge and many are problematic with pistol length cartridges.
 
AFAIk there has never been an authenticated factory or custom made 45LC lever gun from "Back Then" so if you want to have an "authentic" rifle-handgun combo 44-40 will be "correct". The straightwall case of the 45LC is easier to reload, you can obtain carbide resizing dies, the bottleneck design of the 44-40 precludes them. I posted a message here asking if any of the CAS shooters here had experienced case setback with the 44-40 in their revolvers, they all said not
 
AFAIk there has never been an authenticated factory or custom made 45LC lever gun from "Back Then"
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Nope they never made one, not for production anyway. The original balloon head .45 Colt case was too small for the extractor to grip.
 
I am seeing some case mouth splits starting at around 20 reloads of Starline brass. I keep my .45 Colt brass in boxes of 100 and don't mix with others so I can keep track of the 'reload' count. I use Triple-7 FFFg in mine slightly compressed under a 250g RNFP. Even though Triple-7 isn't real BP ... I like it because I can use my normal powder measure (can't with real BP) and use the same lubed bullets as I do with smokeless powder. Plus it has just a bit more 'omph' as well, yet generates plenty of smoke. Not for everyone ... but I like it.

I don't reload .44-40 nor have any revolver/rifle that chambers it so no comment on it.
 
Thanks RC

I think that about clinches it.

Now I gotta start saving pennies.

I'll be back with more questions when I have more money.
 
Doc, as you probably know, the .45 Colt wasn't chambered in a rifle back in the day. The earliest reference I can find to a production .45 Colt rifle is possibly 1959, so if authenticity is your goal, .44-40 is the way to go. Avoid Remington brass; it has a slightly thicker rim and causes problems in some guns, very notably in my 1875 Remingtons. The .44-40 is also a far superior black powder cartridge than the .45 Colt, due to the thinner neck wall.
 
I know that .45 was not an original Winchester caliber...

....and appreciate your input.

Period correct is not an issue since I don't shoot CAS.

.45 LC seems to be a good place to start.
 
I could be wrong. But I always thought that the label 45 Colt meant the (ACP) cartridge description..So to separate the two 45s calibers from each other. Someone or an ammo manufacture re-named the 45 Colt revolver ammo to 45 Long Colt. Which to some made it easier to understand the differences between the two cartridges. 45 Colt >(acp) 1911 weapon--45 Long Colt >cowman's 1873 pistol. Like I said I could be wrong? Am I off base on this one?
 
OK, I will start another argument. To me, the .45 Colt, .44-40, .45 Army (Schofield), and .44 Special are all much of a muchness. I doubt anyone hit by one of them could tell which one it was, and the "big" differences exist only in folks' imaginations.

FWIW, the ONLY ammunition issued to the U.S. Army from 1874 to the end of the SAA's service life was the .45 Army or .45 Government. The .45 Colt was not made at Frankford or contracted for. The Model 1909 was chambered by Colt for the .45 Colt, but the Army never issued that ammunition, making its own .45 Model 1909 cartridge with a larger rim.

So in spite of story and myth, the U.S. Army actually issued .45 Colt ammunition for only about a year.

Jim
 
James,

Yep. All of what you said is valid and I assume truthful.

My decision to PROBABLY go with .45 Colt is that, in the absense of any performance infomation which gravitates to one caliber or the other (Considering only the .44-40 and .45 Colt) I will likely go with the Colt since I like the look of the round more than the .44-40.

But keep in mind.....


I have yet to acquire the first splinter of anything associated with cartridge shooting.
 
Don't worry; there's still time.

I suspect that one of the reasons the expression .45 Long Colt came into use was perhaps because at the time, there were other cartridges that actually came in a "short" and a "long" and in fact the cases were so marked. They all had one-way interchangeability. The .38 Long Colt was a standard US Army cartridge for about 20 years but I don't know what the army called it. I doubt anyone thinks .45 auto when they hear .45 Colt. More likely people would think of malt liquor first.

There is still a .32 S&W Long but I doubt you could find either a .32 S&W Short or anything to shoot it in. I believe there's even an automatic pistol for the .32 S&W Long. There was a fad to chamber automatics in .38 S&W Special for a while but nobody does that anymore.
 
I could be wrong. But I always thought that the label 45 Colt meant the (ACP) cartridge description..So to separate the two 45s calibers from each other. Someone or an ammo manufacture re-named the 45 Colt revolver ammo to 45 Long Colt
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Sorry for taking so long to get back but I've been in the hospital.
Look at the head stamps. .45 ACP says .45 ACP, .45 Colt(long colt) says .45 Colt. The .45 S&W was the .45 Government. IMHO The long colt came into being with civilians asking for .45 Colt and getting S&W, so they started commonly calling them long .45's to distinguish the two and it evolved from there into Long Colt and the name stuck even tho the .45 S&W was discontinued in the 40's.
 
Folks got so used to having "Short" "Long" and "Long rifle" versions of the same cartridge might also have something to do with it.

For example:
.32 Short rimifire, .32 Long rimfire, .32 Long rifle rimfire, .32 Extra long :eek:
.41 Short Colt, .41 Long Colt
.44 Short rimfire, .44 Long rimfire, .44 Henry Flat
.25 extra short :eek:
 
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