As you guys know, I've been researching the 45 long colt and the 44 magnum this past week. I found out that the 45 long colt, technically, does not exist! It's proper name is the 45 Colt. It was created 139 years ago for the military, and was to be used in the Single Action Army from Colt. It originally started as a black powder round, but later became a metalic round that we have now. It disappeared for many years, but has made a come back due to cowboy action shooting, and guys like us that use them for handgun hunting!

Colt obviously had the patents for the round, and would not allow the rim diameter to be increased so that it could be used in a lever action gun. Once the patents ran out, Marlin, Winchester, and a few others all picked up the design, made the rim a little larger on the case so the extractors could hold the brass, and they started making the lever action rifles in 45 Colt.

They started calling it the "45 long colt" in order to distinguish it from the shorter "45 Schofield" that was used as an optional gun in the military. The two guns cannot fire the rounds fired in the opposite gun, even though both are "45". Therefore the distinction was made for the 45 Long Colt, and the name just kinda stuck.

I never knew that all this time, I've been calling it by its wrong name! I know most of you guys probably already knew this stuff, but I find it very interesting.

Good job. I've always known it as the 45 Colt. Don't really know why, but that is what my dad and his dad always called it.

And it was loaded with black powder.

The military had a way of manipulating and renaming rounds. There is a loooooot of good cartridge history out there in the 41 and 45 that is very interesting to me...


Duane

ME TOO!! I don't know why, but I have certainly developed an interst in this 45 colt caliber since I've started looking into it. I will CERTAINLY be adding this caliber to the collection by means of the Colt Anaconda as soon as I can find one. Is there something you could recommend as far as a good read concerning this caliber?

Thanks!

Big Bore Revolvers...and John Linebaugh has a good write-up on his website.

I've got that ordered. Actually, its coming for Christmas. So I gotta wait.....

for Christmas?I just couldn't wait that long-L.O.L.-john

Actually you can shoot .45 Schofeld in a .45 Colt gun much like you can shoot .45 Colt in a .454 Casul. I have done it in both revolvers and lever guns. I used a model 92 trapper levergun for SASS competition and used .45 Schofeld in order to get the required 10 rounds in the magizine.

I still think it is technically called the 45 Long Colt today. However, two of my reloading manuals call it the "45 Colt". So I guess I am wrong.

I have hundreds of pieces of brass from various makers and none of the case heads have the word Long, nor LC, stamped into them.

Also adding to the confusion is .45 ACP which stands for .45 Automatic Colt Pistol. I have heard people refer to it as .45 Short Colt.

I wouldn't get too twisted up about it, even Colt have called it the the 45 Long Colt at times.


It'll still get the job done, whatever you call it.

Hey I wasn't saying to stop calling it the long colt guys! :-) I was just meaning that I had learned something new, so I posted this topic. Didn't mean to stir things up, just thought it was interesting is all.

I agree, call it what ya want, it still puts a hole in things. Game animals aren't gonna say you aren't playing by the rules if ya call it a long colt!

People use the same "45" to refer to either the "45 Colt" revolver cartridge and the 45 ACP. I prefer just to say 45LC and everyone knows precisely what I am referring to.

I prefer Long Colt because when you say .45 colt people here, {where I live} think you are refering to a 1911. The darn things are breeding in my safe cause now I have 4. One of them can't figure out what it wants to be, as it shoots both ACP and LOooooNG COLT!!!!!!

45colt to most people is a 45 ACP. Or known as a Colt 45.

That is a malt beverage here. Folks refer to the 45ACP as 45 Auto, and the 45 Colt is the 45 Colt.

The .45 Colt started life as a black powder cartridge. It was loaded with 40gr. of black powder in a balloon head case, the modern solid head cases will only hold around 35 gr. It was loaded with a 255 gr. bullet and produced just over 900 fps.

When it went into military service there were complaints about the tremendous recoil and the powder charge was reduced and a filler added, cant have an air space with BP.

That old load was very potent, all it lacked for a good big game round was a better bullet.

The .45 Schofield was introduced later and has a significantly larger head and may not work in all guns originally chambered in .45 Colt. The Long Colt designation was never industry nomenclature, but was a popular term that stuck.

The rim on the .45 Colt was/is small, a real detriment to using a cartridge in a rifle during the black powder era. Just a few rounds would foul a chamber and cause the extractor to tear the rim. Something that is no longer as much of a concern with modern powders.

The .45 Colt is a bit of a paradox to work with, the industry standard for the chambers of guns in that caliber varies a lot, but most are significantly over sized, with standard pressure loads the case really does not expand as much as needed to seal the chamber and that is why you see the soot deposits on the sides of the cases. With high performance loads, that do seal properly the case life is greatly reduced.

Using standard pressure loads 13 to 14K psi. The small amounts of powder leave a lot of air space, which in turn produces inconsistent ignition and detracts from accuracy.

When I first started loading for the .45 Colt, back in the middle 70s, there were a lot of articles about these concerns, when the Third Edition of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook went into print, these issues were included in the preamble to the load data. The book had two sections devoted to .45 Colt loads, those for Rugers and other guns of that ilk and a section for everything else.

In the 4th edition of the Lyman book the .45 Colt (Ruger loads) were omitted.

Having said all of that the .45 Colt really comes into it's own when used in a gun with the proper chamber and throat size. Something that you may have to buy a custom gun to see.

I have quite a few hand guns, most of them are .45 Colts. I believe that the main reason for the rounds continued existence is romance. The real driving force behind the industry producing the guns in that caliber is Cowboy Action Shooting.

It is a great old cartridge, but there are some drawbacks associated with it.

Research on this led me the the Cody museum. Vintage boxes show .45 cal. Colt's Revolver in Western brand. In Remington Union, it is 45 Colt, then below, for use in revolvers. No where does either box say long colt.

I have quit calling it the long colt. There is no "short colt", well, unless ya want to call the 45 schofield a "short colt". But then again, that would just be a pony!!

45 L-o-n-g Colt......hmmmm....wouldn't that be a 454 Casull?

Well if ya take THAT long to spell it, it becomes the 460!!

I'm from the south; I spell slow. Wouldn't the 460 be a 454 Long Casull?

HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!