whelen36

the .45 colt officially was named the .45 colt , the long colt was added by some because of the introduction of the .45 acp or .45 auto colt pistol. it was called the long colt because of confusing the two rounds as they are initially both .45 caliber colt rounds.

recoiljunky,
if your interested in useing a rifle cartridge in a pistol , have you givin any thought about getting a hand rifle like remington' s old discontinued xp-100 pistol , or one of the savage arms hand pistols the striker. they are excellent for hunting use , they are even built on the rigid bolt action platform , what do you think ???

frizzellr

Speaking of Remington' s XP-100, I used to shoot one all the time when I was married to my ex. Her dad had one in 221 Rem Fireball. Talk about an accurate pistol. We used it to clear out some of the nuisance turtles out of the ponds. It was definately a hand rifle. Sit the butt of the pistol grip on a sandbag and it was very stable. I saw that later models moved the grip towards the rear. Always thought that defeated the purpose.

recoiljunky

I haven' t shot either the TC Encore, the striker or the xp, but the Encore stands out to me because of the interchanging barrels.

I shot 100 rounds out of the 454 at the range today. I' m always tickled by the " less than 20 rounds fired" ads for 454s.

I had to leave a little early ' cause it' s a public range and the yahoos showed up early. I can' t concentrate on what I' m doing when I' m worried about the pre-teen with a stovepiped autoloader on my left side and the fool with a tech 9 on my right.[X(]

I' ll get an earlier start next week.

handloader1

454 Casull. Good luck.

Vapodog

I' ll vote for the .44 mag with the .41 mag a close second

Nomercy

I' m going to vote for the .44mag, since it handloaded it can hunt practically everything shy of the great bears.

The debate concerning that a .45colt can surpass a .44mag when handloaded is full of fallacy. It is absolutely true that a handloaded .45colt round can surpass some powerfull .44mag rounds in a strong action, however, the top end loadings for the .44mag still greatly overshadow the .45colt on it' s best day. Now, if anyone wants to shoot these often, or even chamber and fire one round in their gun, that' s up to them, I know I wouldn' t want to shoot them often at all, even in my rugers that I am confident could withstand the pressure. The problem comes in the case walls, the .45colt case walls are much finer than they should be to handle loads that would surpass the .44mag at maximum power, thickening the case walls would eleviate this problem, however the reduced capacity incurred would therefore reduce it' s ability to reach those pressures whatsoever. It' s very possible that some people can get away with rolling up some rounds that would be stouter than any .44mag and firing them a time or two, but it' s like sprinting on the ledge of a 100ft cliff, you might get away with it, but it' s not likely, and the one time you don' t pull it off, you' ll be sorry. The bottom line is, the .45colt is just weaker, get over it, it' s not noticeable for hunting and therefore irrelevant for this thread, but in truth, when both are loaded to the maximum safe operating pressures under the exact same conditions, the .44mag will win out. The .45colt handloaded properly can do more than Factory .44mag ammo ever thought of attempting, this is a fact, however, when one considers the .45colt handloaded and the .44mag handloaded, the old rules still apply, the .44mag is still stronger.

frizzellr

Actually you are wrong, get over it. In a 5 shot revolver using Federal cases the 45 Colt will sling heavier bullets than the top loaded 44 Mag and generate more energy. Why anyone would want to do that instead of just using a 454 Casull I have no idea but it happens.

recoiljunky

Great arguement Nomercy, but you lose me on the " if both cases had equal thickness" theory. It seems to me that a 45 case with the same thickness as a typical 44 mag case would still have a larger capacity than the 44 mag case, and therefore would create a more powerful round.

James B

frizeller. One reason could be that some of us are not made of money.

recoiljunky

I don' t think that a Ruger 454 cost much more than a Ruger 44 mag or 45 Colt.