Wheelgun Wednesday: 45 Colt
This old cartridge isn't going away
The 45 Colt, also known as the 45 Long Colt is a round that is more than 100 years old and has survived in modern times because it’s a great performer in a variety of roles. People who know me will know I’m biased to old school guns and ammo but in this case the 45 Colt, in certain situations and environments under certain circumstances, is a round preppers shouldn’t over look. I don’t recommend this be a primary round for you arsenal, I’m just telling you why I like it.
The round was invented after the civil war, and is a result of gun manufacturers looking to replace the cartridge conversion revolvers of the time. I don’t want this to be a history lesson but a brief summery from American Rifleman will explain what’s important:
To understand firearm development, it is necessary to have some knowledge of the economy during their progress. The Civil War brought about a great increase in economic opportunities—hence industrialization—to the Union. Manufacturing business grew at a phenomenal rate. The war created a huge market for firearms and fueled the development of their technology. While the waging of war created the demand, it was the Reconstruction period after the war that brought about a maturation of that booming economy. The U.S. military—primarily the army at that time—needed better firearms with which to serve the country.
[…]
Single-shot and repeating rifles fed by cartridges that were ignited with a primer pressed into the center of the rear of the case replaced cap-and-ball muzzleloaders and rimfire-primed cartridges. Revolvers—which had progressed nicely into the cap-and-ball technology—began seeing their own cartridge development to centerfire-primed rounds. They were very popular with the cavalry because they could be operated with one hand and offered as many as six shots before requiring a reload.
Colt rather quickly came out with a Benet-primed .44 Colt cartridge for its Richards-Mason conversion of the 1860 Army. The actual diameter of the heeled, outside-lubricated bullet was .451"to .454", and it featured a 225-gr., conical lead bullet in front of 23 grains of FFg blackpowder for a velocity of 640 f.p.s. and 207 ft.-lbs. of energy. Charles B. Richards, an engineer at Colt, and William Mason, a gunsmith who came to Colt from Remington in 1866, worked together on the .44 Colt cartridge, which was introduced in 1871.
The Richards-Mason conversion was a stopgap measure as the company retooled and set up to manufacture what would become the Colt Model 1871-72 Open Top revolver. This revolver was chambered in the more powerful .44 Henry Rimfire cartridge, a major step up in power from the .44 Colt. It was capable of kicking a 200-gr. conical ball bullet out at 1,125 f.p.s. with 568 ft.-lbs. of energy, though these numbers are probably from a rifle.
[…]
Richards and Mason began developing a new revolver and teamed up with ammunition engineers at Remington to manufacture the cartridges. Both the revolver—the 1873 Colt Single Action Army(SAA)—and its cartridge, the .45 Colt, would become iconic in the annals of firearm development. The .45 Colt retains the bullet diameter of its .44 Colt predecessor at .452" - .454" but kicks the weight of the bullet up to 255 grains.
After playing with loads with bullets as light as 225 grains and powder weights from 28 to 40 grains, they settled on the 255-gr. bullet in front of 40 grains of FFg blackpowder for 840 f.p.s. with about 400-ft.-lbs. of wallop out of a revolver.
Those last numbers are important to the story - the original 1873 loading puts the power of the .45 Colt right in line with modern loadings of .45 ACP (which is just a version of the 45 Colt modified for semiautos) and modern +P .38 Special defensive ammo. It achieves this with black powder. But people like Elmer Keith pushed black powder loads to even more powerful loadings. Here’s a video of someone using some of Keith’s loading data and getting impressive results:
Even though it started out as a black powder cartridge the .45 Colt in modern loadings is much more impressive. Modern loadings will vary widely between “wimpy” cowboy action loads (in the words of the late, great Jeff Quin) to truly magnum level performance, one of the things I like about the round. In rifles they are especially potent for hunting game like deer and hogs.
The reason 45 Colt has hung on all these years is not just due to it being a potant cartridge, American’s love of westerns lead many people to wanting to own replicas of the 1873 in the traditional cartridge. Sports like cowboy fast draw and cowboy action shooting go through waves of popularity depending on how many westerns are in theaters at the time. These sports in particular created a market for guns and ammo in this caliber.
As an interesting side note Sammy Davis Jr. was an accomplished fast draw artist and trick shooter who often showed off his pistol craft with a custom .45 as part of his act:
In more recent history the Taurus Judge, which was designed to shoot .410 birdshot but had to be rifled for legal purposes to be sold in America, introduced a new generation of shooters to the cartridge. Since the Judge was chambered in .45/410 new owners purchased both kinds of ammo and realized .45s coming out of a short barreled double action revolver was a more effective loading than most .410s. Judges can chamber most modern .45 loads but because of the design they’re not as accurate as most other revolvers.
But that’s enough history, lets talk the gun and why preppers might be interested in it.
You might just have one - if you’re like me you own some SSAs. If you compete with them ignoring the competency you’ve achieved with them may not make sense for some activities like trapping and other things you’ll get up to where you might need to shoot something but aren’t expecting Ukraine style urban combat.
You can get magnum performance from a soft shooting, very pleasant gun. This may not be true of all designs (like the Taurus Judge) but for the most part revolvers cambered in .45 Colt are designed to be comfortable to shoot one handed. They are cavalry pistols. I find even hot loads of .45 aren’t jarring to shoot as my .45 kind of “rolls” back a little to absorb recoil. In rifles even hot loads extremely tame to shoot.
It can be reloaded with black powder, which as scarcity truly sets in is a benefit. They are also extremely easy to reload in the field with a Classic Lee Loader Kit that can fit in a pocket. This is it’s main advantage.
It can be reloaded to take everything from rabbits to bears. Depending on your area, what you get up to, and what your survival strategy is you may find a big bore revolver to be a useful tool.
They are much easier to handle than true “magnum” guns like the .357 or .44 mag. In fact even in hot loadings I find the recoil of the .45 more pleasant than my .327 Magnum.
Speaking of .357 the pic above is my personal .45 with some Underwood Ammunition (who make 45s safe to shoot in all modern revolvers as well as +P stuff that should only be fired in certain guns) and that particular loading produces about 550 foot pounds of energy. According to ballistic charts I keep handy that’s right between most popular .357 Mag self defense ammo. Even the “low powered” cowboy action loads, designed for low recoil, are pretty stiff on paper.
HSM (which is a company I buy from and recommend) makes a 250gr loading clocking around 860 feet per second, translating into 410 foot pounds of energy or so. For reference a Remington +P 9mm 115gr JHP (Jacketed hollow Point) self defense round is listed as producing about 399 foot pounds of energy.
On the other hand HSM’s 200gr 45 is only loaded to 750 fps or so and produces under 250 foot pounds. That’s just a little bit better than a .380.
So what “context” (besides you just liking the round) would a .45 Colt be something I recommend to people who were into prepping.
Bushcrafters who actually were going to be in the woods with bears and hogs. The basic trapline arsenal in a survival situation is a shotgun for defense from predators and taking large game and a .22 revolver for dispatching smaller trapped game. Because trapped game will attract predators like hogs (who eat other animals in case you were unaware) and bears a big bore revolver or lever action may be a good substitution you if you want to skip the shotgun.
If you are planning on hunting deer a .45 carbine is a good brush gun that allows you to save your rifle cartridges for blue helmeted goblins. .45 can also be loaded to defend against larger bears, or goblins on PCP.
If you envision (like I do) a slow decline where resources disappear then having cartridges that work with black powder is extremely important. .45 Colt is literally designed for it. Other cartridges like this would be 12ga, 30-30 and 45-70. Much of my prepping is based around the world looking more like the 19th century soon so I have 19th century cartridges in my larder.
You just like slinging lead like the old timers. If your neighbor’s stalker get brazen one night solving that problem with a .45 gets you a lot of cool points.
When and where I definitely wouldn’t recommend this cartridge.
If you’re not going to be hunting anything larger than a tree rat. Fro small game .22s are king and .45 even in mild loadings is just too much gun for small critters
As a carry gun for self defense (though I would just to be contrary) especially in bad areas. Although I honestly would prefer one to a .38.
If you’re on a tight budget - ammo is expensive to say this least.
The long history of the round also creates another problem - since these guns have been produced for so long you will find older guns that can’t handle modern loads still for sale on the market. Buyer beware.
I like Italian made guns like Pietta and Uberti but I do recommend you get Ruger if possible as they are safe with most modern loads including the very hot ones.
In rifles Henry is the top dog but they’re very expensive. Italian made western clones are even more expensive which is odd since Italian made revolver clones are very reasonably priced. In terms of rifles most people will have Rossi made guns which are pretty good quality wise and seem to always be available. All of these will be lever actions.
Winchester rifles in this cartridge are still being made the quality is quite good but the pricing is out of most people’s comfort zone. I think they’re made in Japan if that matters to you, but none have anime girls on them.
I’ve ever fired a Judge but I’ve handled them and didn’t like the feel.
Canadians used to like Rossi Ranch Hands for woodsrunning because of an odd law that classified them as rifles so they were legal to carry in the woods (pistols were not legal) and .45 was popular I hear. But I think .44 Mag was a more popular choice because of Grizzly attacks. I actually have one of these guns in .45 - but never fire it. I just play with it.
My first .45 was actually a NEF Survivor in .45/410 and I fell in love with the cartridge through that handy little carbine. The company sadly went out of business but they made single shot break open guns in various calibers including a dedicated .45. They are very popular guns with woods loafers and you’ll still find them at gun shows or on gunbroker. If you’re a .45 Colt fan it’s likely you’ll end up with a Big Iron but for preppers a single shot gun in this caliber is very useful.
I’ll end this with saying I like the round so have pushed it into prepping - I do not recommend you make it a primary prepping round. Unless you want to be cool like me.