45 colt vs 41 mag?

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drive_sideways

New member
Hello all

So my wife gave me permission to buy a revolver if i buy her a taurus 627 or a ruger gp100 in 357/38 first :p

I already got a taurus 24/7 g2 9mm for the house, now im looking for a wheelgun to carry when im hiking an hunting, i live up in the rural northeast.

So i've been thinking about getting a blackhawk in either 45 or 41mag, i love the big 'ol single actions.

Anyone own either one?

Ballistics?

Pros/cons?

I do know for the 45 the blackhawk can handle the heavy duty +p buffalo bore rounds that shoot over 1300fps an pack over 1200 ft/lb energy

I dont know much about the 41 mag though
 
45 colt ammo is going to be a lot easier to find. I'm sure 41 Mag. is a great round but it's not very popular.
 
If you go for a 45 caliber Blackhawk you can pay a bit extra for the convertible model that comes with a spare cylinder for 45acp. 45apc is relatively cheap and easy to find. My Blackhawk shoots it with very good accuracy. Or you can shoot extra-strength 45LC rounds that are quite stout.
 
A .41 Magnum is a great revolver, and very versatile.

BUT ammunition is hard to find in some places. And reloading components are far more limited than for the .45. Its a toss-up as far as "which is better" but for convenience, I'd go with the .45 Colt. And, unless you already own a .45 ACP and a goodly supply of components, I'd forget about the ACP cylinder. I have two Rugers with .45 ACP cylinders. Those cylinders have hardly been used.

Bob Wright
 
I don't know if you really want to shoot a bullet at 1300 fps in one of these things, because it would kick hard, but if you want power the 45 LC is the way to go. I am of the opinion that a 250 grain bullet going 1000 fps is powerful enough for me.

Your question is really about calibers. I have never owned a 41 Magnum though the ballistics look fine. The 45 LC is an outstanding round just at factory velocities which are a 250 to 255 grain bullet at 850-900 fps. In a modern, heavier revolver, such as the Blackhawk, you can push pressures from 14,000 psia to 20,000 psia without any significant worries and bump the velocities up. For someone looking for 44 Mag performance I would go for the 44 Mag as this revolver is too lightweight for 44 Mag recoil and probably too thin for 44 Mag (or 454 Casuell) pressures.

As good as the 41 Mag looks, it is an odd ball round and I have noticed 41 Mag's sitting on dealer tables for a long time.

This Blackhawk is in 45 LC, it is an early 1973 Ruger Blackhawk. If you do buy, try to select from at least three similar Ruger's and find the one with the best trigger pull. This trigger is excellent but this one is an exception.



 
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I own both (a good solution to the question!). Of course the bigger bore allows bigger bullets. I'm waiting to test some Cast Performance 360's out of the .45; 325's go over 1,300. Those are real knuckle busters, and I mostly pack hardcast 255's at about 1,200. Some consider jacketed bullets in a .45 Colt to be sacrilegious, but I did try some Hornady 300 gr XTPs. They go 1,200 at published max. These are from a 7 1/2" Blackhawk.

The .41 is a 6 1/2" Blackhawk. It sends 210 gr. XTPs downrange at 1,400. That's the classic load, and many consider it flatter shooting.

Either one will do well for you, but most folks that shoot these much roll their own, as I do. However, you should be able to find ammo online.
 
45 COLT...HANDS DOWN...NO QUESTION ABOUT IT...and I own 41MAG sixguns in every BBL length Ruger's made and every BBL S&W has made.
And so it goes...
 
Well you can be sensible and follow the crowd and get the .45 Colt, or be different and get the .41 Mag. Me, I'm different. But if you don't reload the .41 is not the way to go, factory ammo is not found very easy and very expensive when you do find it.
 
I've owned both in the past. The 41 is a sweet shooter but it seems that lately brass bullets and even loaded ammo is hard to come by and when you do find some it's pretty pricy.
 
I'm a .41 guy, but just like stated in previous posts, it is tougher to get ammo/supplies and therefore more reasonable to go with the .45 imho
 
I have both but they are in the Redhawk version. I had the BH's first but I hunt with them and much prefer the double action as well as being able to use speed loaders when needed.

As for loads, if you need to push a 240 - 260'ish grain 45 cal bullet to over 1000fps your looking at something that needs more attention than the Colt. I can assure you that a 260'ish grain RFN or SWC will penetrate plenty of meat and muscle at 900 - 1000fps.

As for the 41, I will go with the rest in that it is a handloader special. There are some factory loads but they aren't near as prominent. That said though, if you DO roll your own, it can really preform. My staple load has been the 200gr Remington SJHP bullet over 20.5grs of 296 for nearly 30 years. It just works time and time again. I have taken a couple of deer and a truckload of feral hogs with them at ranges from a few feet to out just over 100yds. That little bullet will do far more than you would expect it to and the mild 1350fps I get from it makes shot placement even going doube action very controllable. Then there are the cast. While there aren't a wide arry of bullet types the ones that are availeble are tried and true. They just work, so there really isn't a need for twenty different weights and styles.
 
.45 Colt ... Big and slow is the way to go.... as said above 900 to 1000fps is plenty. Not a problem achieving this in the Ruger SAs. In fact my goto woods load is 255g SWC at 1100fps and is safe in my medium frame as well as my large frame Ruger .45 Colt revolvers. By general purpose loads are pushing a 250g RNFP at around 850fps.

If you reload, it is a matter of preference as you can load up or down crafting to your own needs. Otherwise, you will find (relatively) more .45 Colt on the shelf than .41 Mag.
 
Realistically, both are reloading propositions. .41 Mag ammo is virtually impossible to find in anything other than 20 round premium ammo packs, and .45 Colt isn't exactly overflowing the shelves at most places, either.

I'm set up to reload for both, and love them both.
 
Ahh, my two favorite revolver cartridges! Both are incredible, and each have their pro's and con's. The .45 is more powerful in that it shoots bigger and heavier bullets and who doesn't love big .45 caliber bullets? The .41 is powerful enough, only barely under a .44 Magnum and it burns less powder and recoils less. If I absolutely had to choose, I'd go with the .45 Colt, but thank goodness I don't!

I will agree that you almost have to reload to truly enjoy, or at least get the most out of each. The Blackhawk is a great platform for both as well, very strong.

Some .41 Mag info:
http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/41magnum.htm
http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/41heavy.htm
 
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This is my Blackhawk convertible. It looks like it has the 45acp cylinder in it, which is the one I use the most often and is every bit as accurate as the 45LC, as far as I can tell. I love the 7.5" barrel. It is one of the few handguns that I am fairly accurate with at 25 yards.

RugerBlackhawk45_zps07fdb39d.jpg
 
I have guns in both calibers but learned to pick whichever will index on the loading gate. Ruger's reverse indexing pawl system is in the Flat Tops I have in 44 Special and 41 mag. I don't know about 45 Colt in the Blackhawk, but the Vaquero certainly indexes properly. That feature is an absolute deal breaker for me. The regular Blackhawk in 41 Mag that is finicky at the loading gate is staged to leave my collection. Some accept it but I will refer to it as a design flaw. I would rather have a straight up SAA clone beefed up to handle the caliber. I have that in 44 mag (by Hawes/Sauer) but not 45 Colt stout loading or 41 Magnum. I do like adjustable sights though, and the Flat Top frame fits me well.

I find it true that 41 mag requires me to reload to avoid more than a dollar a shot in mail order stuff. However, the 45 Colt I find locally is not what I want either. Plain old 45 Colt is such a boring round to shoot without putting it in a fun environment like Cowboy Action Shooting. I would rather shoot 44 S&W Special. The 45 Colts I do shoot are loaded max standard. I also have A Redhawk for higher end 45 Colt loading, aka "Ruger only". I am thinking about shifting that to a Blackhawk but will have to investigate the loading gate alignment issue.

Lastly, note that 45 Colt is such a bigass cartridge that it requires a massive gun to shoot six at a time, especially when capable of heavy 45 Colt loads. The 41 mag can be done in a smaller scale frame that is easier to handle and carry. The 41 mag in the NM Blackhawk Flat Top is a really nice gun, which I think you would enjoy. Mine is 6 1/2" and seems about right.
 
I have never understood making the 45 Colt into a Magnum. Partly because I don't like the idea of having ammo that is only safe in some guns. If you want a Magnum revolver buy a 44 Magnum. The 45 Colt is great when used as intended.

There's nothing wrong with the 41 Magnum. But I don't understand why it exists. The 44 Magnum does anything the 41 does only it does it 15% better. I know the story about S&W developing the 41 as a police caliber but that makes no sense to me. The 45 Colt and 44 Special were already well established and either would have been perfect as a big bore police revolver caliber. The 41 Magnum was a terrible idea. It never caught on with police, was an abysmal failure in sales, and continues only because there are devoted fans of the caliber who keep it going. The 44 is a better choice if choosing a new gun.

Of course, I say this with not one but two 41 Magnums in the safe.
 
Agree, get both. :D

I have .45Colt, .41Mag and .44Mag and prefer and shoot the .41 Magnum more. I roll my own birdshot loads using .410 stumpbuster components and run from 200 to 265 grain loads with a variety of profiles. A bit flatter, plenty of power and slightly smaller package with a 6 shooter (in some makes). I also have the .414 SuperMag. :eek:

I do have to agree that the .41Mag is not as common as it should be and the .45 Colt makes more sense from an economy and availability perspective if you do not reload. The .45ACP conversions are not a benefit IMHO as there are low power 45Colt loads available.
 
If you want to shoot hot and heavy boutique ammo (i.e. Buffalo Bore, Double Tap, Grizzly, Underwood, etc.) or super hot handloads, I wouldn't recommend a Blackhawk in either caliber. Instead, I'd recommend looking at the .44 Magnum in a Super Blackhawk because the extra weight of the SBH's steel gripframe (both the .41 and .45 BH use aluminum gripframes) will help to better dampen the recoil of super hot ammo, and you're going to need all the recoil dampening you can get.
 
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