Favorite above .40 Revolver cartridge?

[Stephen Ausband]

I'm really old school. I very much like the .44 special. I have two now, a Ruger Blackhawk w/ 5" bbl and a Smith and Wesson M 24 with a 4" barrel. They are both accurate, fun to shoot, easy to reload for (up and down the power scale) and a 240 grain, hard-cast SWC at a bit over 900 fps seems to work well. I like the 44 magnums, but I no longer own one. Some of the old gun writers like Skeeter Skelton used to wax enthusiastic about the 44 special, and I guess I'm a bit of a nostalgia buff.

 

[sestoppelman]

.45 lc in a ruger Blackhawk

As opposed to the .45 Short Colt?

 

[WebleyGreene455]

.455 Webley for European. .44-40/.44WCF for American.

I was tempted to get my Cowboy guns in .45 Colt but went with .44 WCF for semi-realism since the lever-guns were never made in .45 Colt, nor was my (Italian) Colt Lightning.

 

[Bonk]

Old school is 45 Colt. Don't get much older than that and it's still extremely relevant. I own or have owned a few .40+ caliber revolvers. 41mag, 44spl, 44mag, 45 Colt, 45ACP, 454C, 460S&W, and 480 Ruger. Liked them all but 45 Colt is far and away my favorite and 44mag is far and away my least favorite. Interestingly, the only two .40+ calibers in my safe at the moment are, you guessed it, 44mag and 45 Colt. I own only one 44mag but I own a bunch of 45 Colt revolvers. Plus a few rifles chambered for 45 Colt. I'm a die hard 45 Colt fan. Mild to wild it will do it all and everything 44mag can do 45 Colt can do better. Marginally, but still better. YMMV.

I'm not a fan of 45ACP revolvers even though I've owned 2 or 3. Frankly, I don't get it. I love my 45ACP semi's but 45ACP in a revolver isn't very awe inspiring. Actually, it's rather dull IMO. If I'm going to go big in a revolver I might as well go BIG and nothing 45ACP is big enough.

 

[TimoJ]

.45Colt Ruger Bisley 5" built with Bowen parts. John Linebaughs recipe for hunting= 328grain lead Fp with H110 load. Enough for my wrists and most animals too. .
.41mag , recoil alot sharper due to different grip. Could be used for hunting too, very accurate.

My 2c

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I’ve always wanted a SW 57 with a 6 inch barrel. The 41 just sounds perfect to me.
But the only forty something I own is a 45 ACP.

 

[Saul]

I have never liked the 44 magnum, do not ask me why. I own one for Dirty Harry nostalgia and that is it.

For overall versatility, you cannot beat the 45 Colt in SA or N-Frame guise.

As far as upper limit of usability is concerned, I would say the 454 Casull. However, the recoil is too much for me in anything other than the Ruger SRH Alaskan.

A much more manageable big bore cartridge is the 50 Special made by cutting down 500 S&W to 38 Special length.

 

[sestoppelman]

My Grail gun in .45 Colt. S&W 26-1 Georgia State Patrol Commemorative, very few made. 5" tapered barrel.

 

[meigsbucks]

For pure shooting enjoyment I have to go with the 41 magnum, if we are talking pure horsepower that doesn’t leave you dazed and confused but will stop most things that walk the earth It is hard to beat the 475 Linebaugh!

Gotta love that .475 L. I haven’t taken anything but deer with it but as you stated, there is little you can’t hammer with it.

 

[fourfive8]

Old school here also- 45 Colt or 38-40 or 44-40 in Colt SAA

 

[Scrumbag]

When I lived in Switzerland I had a S&W 25-5 in 45 "long" Colt that I loved.

These days probably the 44 mag that I run through my lever action. H110 can give you some fairly hefty punch for hunting useage and a cast lead bullet with Unique gives a very soft plinking / practice load.

 

[sestoppelman]

When I lived in Switzerland I had a S&W 25-5 in 45 "long" Colt that I loved.

These days probably the 44 mag that I run through my lever action. H110 can give you some fairly hefty punch for hunting useage and a cast lead bullet with Unique gives a very soft plinking / practice load.

"long" Colt. LOL...

 

[Scrumbag]

"long" Colt. LOL...

Thought worth putting that in there as the S&W25 is usually chambered in 45 ACP

I appreciate it is usually just 45 Colt

 

[sestoppelman]

I understand,,, the Long thing is just a pet peeve of mine, as there is no such cartridge as the .45 Long Colt, never was. I know that a couple hundred years ago as the story goes, the Long thing supposedly got started to differentiate between it and the shorter .45 Schofield, as in, "gimme a box of the long ones", but still it never existed as such, and about the guns found so marked will be either foreign or from Gary Reeder, the custom maker. No Colt or Smith will be so marked from the factory.

 

[Ray B]

My preference is a Ruger 44 mag that goes click - click - click.

 

[sestoppelman]

On a Colt its 4 clicks. I know the early Rugers were the same basic mechanism and if you go slowly you may hear 4 clicks there as well.

 

[Ray B]

I wasn't counting the click of the cylinder lock.

 

[JimP]

The old 3 screw with the 3 position hammer.

First one pulls the hammer off of the firing pin

Second position to be able to rotate the cylinder

And finally the third position to fire.

But you can hear that fourth one if you go slow


I have a few

 

[YancyW]

Super Redhawk Alaskan, 480 Ruger.
I am anxious to try this little fellow. Hopefully within the next few days, I will be able to shoot it some.

View attachment 360140

My thoughts and prayers are with you, that looks like a real ass-kicker of a load.

 

[sestoppelman]

I wasn't counting the click of the cylinder lock.

If you don't count all four, you don't get C-O-L-T.