The .45 "Long" Colt........

Well, I do like the .45, but still tend to lean toward the .44 caliber. I'm still so undecided that I keep a stable of both calibers.

My experience is the the .45 Colt has the slight edge with the heavy bullets, 300~350 gr. weights, while the .44 takes the cake for high-steppin' light bullets of 180 gr. weight. Nothing in my neck of the woods merits anything heavier than 230~255 grs. anyway.

Out in the 100~200 yard range, the .44 seems to shine brighter. That's my experience, maybe other folks will disagree.

Bob Wright
 
Nothing in my neck of the woods merits anything heavier than 230~255 grs. anyway.
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Same here... And that is why I think 'really' it comes down to personal preference (.44 vs .45) ... at least for MY purposes. People that handgun hunt extensively here and Africa like Max Prasac, Seyfried and others have their own observations to make which I respect. I also have a stable of each caliber too and enjoy shooting them all... But the .45 Colt has the edge historically... besides making a bigger hole at the other end. So I just enjoy the .45 Colt cartridge just a bit more when out at the range or in the hills. Also knowing I can load it up and down to meet my needs as necessary.... I also like to think of the West (.45 Colt) more than big city streets (.44Mag/.357) .... At least that how it fits into my way of think'n!
 
45 short colt

http://www.cowboy45special.com didn''t realize we could get so worked up over name of a cartridge. while looking for a Kirst or R&D converter cylinder for my 1858 Remy I ran across a new 45 short cartridge Adirondack Jack has them made for the cowboy action crowd.
I'm still looking for a Kirst or R&D conversion cylinder in 45 colt or 45ACP for my 1858 Remy old army .44 made by Pietta, any one have one to sell?
 
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short 45

things get little hot when we use the improper name for something around here, all in good fun right. Hear's one for you , the 45special from Adirondack Jack.]www.cowboy45special.com[/URL] check it out looks like fun and could save you some $ if used it for practice or plinking

I' m looking for a Kirst or R&D converter cylinder in 45 colt or 45ACP for my 1858 remy old army .44 made by Pietta anyone have one for sale or know where I might get one for a good price. I really want to get this old single action going again.
 
I felt really bad for the folks who invented the .45 Cowboy (Cowboy .45 Special) round, because right at that time Trail Boss powder came out and that was that. Trail Boss did what .45 Cowboy did, but without requiring a new case - made a load where the powder filled the cartridge chamber. For those not into cowboy shooting, this mattered because we draw our handguns from holsters, barrel down, and cannot raise the barrels above target height before shooting. That means earlier compact powders would be laid out along the length of the cartridge case and give inconsistent performance compared to our rifles. At least we could blame our misses on that.

The other advantage of the .45 Cowboy, and Trail Boss, is that Old Farts (like me) who make up a large percentage of CAS shooters, could reload without worry of double-charging, because a double charge would spill out over the top of the case.

What a shame - someone came up with a pretty nifty solution that was preempted by a technically better solution. Kudos to the .45 Cowboy inventors, though, because "They Built That," and their gumption and inventiveness and willingness to risk their capital to build a better product was a great move. I wish it had proved more profitable for them, but their entrepreneurial spirit is the spirit of America.
 
It's a 'wonder' that the .45 Cowboy Special was even allowed in CAS as it wasn't even a 'cartridge' of the late 1800s..... In the spirit of the game that is.... Trail Boss is one of my favorite powders for light loads. Did quite a bit of testing with it in different calibers and bullets.
 
The Cowboy Special still has the advantage of holding just the minimum 1cc charge for use in Black Powder Cartridge. What a coinkydinky.
 
I've never heard of Trail Boss powder (Don't get around much anymore). Is it suitable for other (revolver) cartridges? And is it smokeless? I realize Bullseye is good for light loads but not so good when doubled up.
 
Trail Boss is a relatively new powder, within the last 10 years.

It's the closest thing we have now to a smokeless bulk replacement powder for blackpowder. It's not a 1 for 1 replacement, but it is close.

It works for just about any cartridge, but is most at home in the large blackpowder era cartridges like the .44-40, .45 Long Colt, and .44 Special.

In smaller cartridges it will work, but the penalty is reduced velocity over what you would get out of smokeless.

The benefits are a powder that will fill the case for most of the older cartridges while providing near blackpowder velocity.

It provides exceptional ballistic uniformity, and meters very, very well even though it doesn't look as if it should.

Because of its burning characteristics, it is also very much at home in rifle cartridges.

I pretty much won't use anything else in my .44 Special, and I've used it quite a bit in my .32-20, but I'm not as happy with it in that application.

The biggest concern that one has to watch for when using it is not to compress the powder. If you start breaking the donuts (it's donut shaped) the burn rate gets VERY squirrley.
 
Is it suitable for other (revolver) cartridges? And is it smokeless?
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Yes and Yes. If you look in my link to my tests above ... I've tested it in .45 Colt, .44Mag, .44Spec, .357, and .38 .

The biggest concern that one has to watch for when using it is not to compress the powder.
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Turns out that is a bit of a myth. However pressures do rise on compression of course. And it appears you are 'always' safe if you don't compress it.... But, in a .44Mag the max load (9.6g Via Hornady manual) is very much a compressed load (see my tests) .
 
My default is ".45 Colt"
The cowboys I grew up watching on TV never referred to their Long Colt .45 pistol. (And, yes, I do know that some folks reserve pistol for a semi-auto.)

That being said. I'm perfectly willing to whatever terminology helps the person I'm talking with understand what I/we are talking about. Isn't that the whole point of language?

I can be pedantic about colt/long colt, magazine/clip, semi-auto/automatic all I want but a longer, drawn out conversation that's more semantics then information helps no one and doesn't help me get on to something more important any faster.

So, I'll use correct terminology to start but wrong terminology to finish if that is what is needed to be understood. I suspect most of us are that way and neighbors learn to avoid those of us who are not. :D
 
RClark - funny you mentioned the oddity of .45 Cowboy Special being allowed. Seems it came out right about the time reloading supplies got scarce and expensive - around the last election - but my memory might be wrong on that.

Anyway, SASS can be very picky whey they want to be. They wouldn't let me shoot matches with my Model 93-97 that Coyote Cap came out with several years ago. Seems there was a claimed advantage relative to the slightly larger ejection port, which is really a bunch of hooey.

And even if "B" Cowboy means outfits worn by cowboys and the few cowgirls of the 1950s TV shows, to my knowledge none of them ever wore pink.
 
To my knowledge, they all stuck to black and white, or at least it looked like that on our little TV. However, the B Western cowboys may not have even had a Colt .45 revolver. The one I believe John Wayne used in the 1930s and 1940s was a .38-40. But "Colt .45" does sound better.
 
"However, the B Western cowboys may not have even had a Colt .45 revolver. The one I believe John Wayne used in the 1930s and 1940s was a .38-40. But "Colt .45" does sound better."

In the heyday of the Hollywood western it really wouldn't have mattered much at all. Seldom were the cartridges refered to, and when they were they were normally referred to in very nebulous terms, like the "big .45," or something similar.

Virtually all of the guns in Hollywood at that time were chambered in .38-40, .44-40, or .45 Colt, and virtually no distinction was made on the movie set or at the prop houses because they all used the 5-in-1 blank, which were loaded in large quantities by Winchester and Remington almost exclusively for the movie industry.

Trivia... The reason they were called 5-in-1 blanks, when it's only three cartridges?

Colt and other revolvers chambered in .45 Long Colt, .44-40, and .38-40, and Winchester rifles chambered in .38-40 and .44-40.
 
One of the gunzine writers, John Taffin, maybe, described buying a studio gun cheap, only to find that the barrel and cylinder did not match. The prop department didn't care, as long as it took the blanks.
 
Not surprising at all.

My guess is that when they were cleaned they simply pulled them apart, cleaned them, then reassembled them in no particular order.

The ammunition industry used to do a pretty good business loading all manner of blank cartridges for the movie industry.

Early Remington boxes were marked "5-in-1 Movie Blanks" while later boxes just had 5-in-1 on them.

Apparently Remington offered both loaded and primed empties, and both sold to Hollywood. The gun house armorers would custom load rounds as necessary to meet the required specifications for a shootout or a movie.

Winchester also loaded rifle cartridges, .30-30 and others, for the movies.
 
I might be the only one in the room who once sat down to supper with Gene Autry. His producer (or manager, whatever the title) was my uncle's next-door neighbor (as in, the next ranch over). Think it was 1951 or 52. I couldn't sleep the night before. We got to the house first. Here I am waiting to hear the clippity clop of Champion. Imagine the feeling when I barreled out the opening front door, as he pulled up in his car and got out dressed in a business suit. Possibly the most confused moment of my life.
 
Not gun related but there's a video on Youtube of Gene Autry and Jerry Lee Lewis having a conversation. Gene Autry had been a singer and musician for years before his first movie, which was a wester/science fiction serial.

While I suppose they were mostly movie props, Roy Rogers had a collection of fancy revolvers and probably many were .45 Colts. I believe his museum was closed and the collection dispersed, though it may have been Gene Autry's. Don't know. Whichever it was, I believe it had been moved to Branson, MO, first.
 
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