The 45 Colt, 45 Schofield and the 45 Colt Gov't Cartridges...

Only ONE of them is the official designation...
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Who decides that? SAAMI wasn't even around when the .45 Colt was invented.

Maybe the developer of the cartridge does? In that case we should all (well, those in the know, at least) be complaining any time someone refers to the .38 Special since S&W calls their cartridge the .38 S&W Special. Should we start a letter-writing campaign to SAAMI (who just calls it the .38 Special) and the ammo companies who are also getting it wrong to make them fix it? And, of course, all the people vigorously defending the "official" name for the .45 Colt should also just as vigorously correct anyone who posts the unofficial name .38 Special on the internet.

By the way, Colt has been known to sell products with the designation Long Colt.
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5168958&postcount=38

They've even referred to some of the guns they sold as being chambered in .45 Long Colt although the link I had for that no longer works.

Finally, while one could argue that these days there's not really any need to call it the Long Colt, there certainly was at one time. When you could go into a store and there were two options if you were buying cartridges marked .45 Colt, the long ones and the short ones. (See the pictures in the following link.)

https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=497213

This is one of a few topics that I call "initiation" topics that tend to be used as a sort of "hazing" by the gun community.

You just can't be someone until you've been set in your place for calling a magazine a clip or for referring to the .45 Long Colt. I guess it beats some of the other methods of hazing out there...
 
"Again, take the cartridge name calling to the other thread, I'd like to keep this open to actual reliable documented data from original dated items, not something recorded, sold by or manufactured yesterday by the ignorant. "

So, you're firmly in the .32-40 and .38-55 Ballard camp, and woe be unto those ignurunt reches who dare... DARE to wrongly call them .32-40/.38-55 Winchester...
 
"The military has a variety of names they use for different things. Only ONE of them is the official designation, and very often any official report or record will only use that terminology. "

So, you're saying that the military is the be all and end all in this nomenclatural fiasco?

That's.... bold. ish.
 
So, you're saying that the military is the be all and end all in this nomenclatural fiasco?

That's.... bold. ish.
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Not really, the Army rules only apply to army things, but for those things the Army IS the be all end all authority for their nomenclature.

Civilians get to call things whatever they want, though the inventor generally get to name the item.

Cartridges get a little tricksy, particularly in the very early days. There were "gentleman's agreements" (aka feuds) between the different makers. Colt would not put S&W on any of their guns. They would, instead take the S&W case, load it with a different bullet (usually a flat point instead of a round nose) and rename it a Colt name (often some kind of "Police Positive to match their revolvers) Remington and Winchester, until the 50s and 60s would not chamber the other makers cartridges in their rifles.

Winchester made the .30 WCF. The earliest example of that round being called the .30-30 was apparently in the 20s when Savage chambered it in their rifles but would not put Winchester's name on their guns.

for the last half century or so, that has pretty much gone away, and most makers are happy enough to use other makers cartridges and their proper names because they sell guns.

Remington made and sold a LOT of .308 Winchesters, and Winchester sells bunches of 7mm Rem mags. etc.
 
Originally posted by gwpercle
My Pet Peeve ... when the 45 Colt ... is called ... the 45 Long Colt ... No It Is Not !

It has always been and always will be the 45 Colt ... I don't care how stoopid the sales clerk is ... he needs to learn ... we don't need to get stoopid like him ...

Rant Over ... thanks for letting me vent !
Gary
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So do you count Colt themselves amongst the "stoopid" or do they get a pass since it is, after all, their cartridge?

https://web.archive.org/web/20050507091954/http://www.coltsmfg.com/cmci/revolvers.asp
 
ligonierbill said:
When I asked the guy at the counter for a box of "45 Colt" and was handed a box of 45 ACP, I started referring to it as "Long".
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The expression "45 Long Colt" originated to distinguish 45 Colt from 45 Schofield. It now serves to distinguish it from 45 ACP.
 
The expression "45 Long Colt" originated to distinguish 45 Colt from 45 Schofield.
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Almost certainly not. The designations '45 Schofield' and '45 Colt' are already sufficiently different from each other that adding "Long" to one of them is not necessary to distinguish them.

.45 Long Colt almost certainly originated to distinguish it from the .45 "Short Colt" (.45 Colt Government) which was a cartridge that was essentially a shortened version of the .45 Colt--distinct from the .45 Schofield. For awhile there were two cartridges on the market that were both .45 Colt. A long version and a short version.
 
JohnKSa said:
Almost certainly not. The designations '45 Schofield' and '45 Colt' are already sufficiently different from each other that adding "Long" to one of them is not necessary to distinguish them.

.45 Long Colt almost certainly originated to distinguish it from the .45 "Short Colt" (.45 Colt Government) which was a cartridge that was essentially a shortened version of the .45 Colt--distinct from the .45 Schofield. For awhile there were two cartridges on the market that were both .45 Colt. A long version and a short version.
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I misspoke. The 45 Colt Government is undoubtedly the cartridge I should have mentioned.
 
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