I recently chronographed some factory pistol loads from some of my lever rifles in my laundry room. The chrony was 9' from the muzzle of the rifles. Most of these loads are intended as defense loads.

My test rifles were:

Marlin 1894SS 20" - .44 magnum
http://www.legendportraits.com/Images/Marlin1894SS.jpg

Marlin 1894CBC 20" - .45 Colt
http://www.legendportraits.com/Images/Marlin1894cbc45.jpg

Legacy/Rossi '92 Ltd. 16" Trapper - .454 Casull/.45Colt
http://www.legendportraits.com/Images/Puma454.jpg

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.44 Magnum
Marlin 1894SS 20" Hornady 240 gr. JHP/XTP 1897 fps/1918 fpe
Marlin 1894SS 20" Fiocchi 240 gr. JSP 1838 fps/1800 fpe
Marlin 1894SS 20" Speer Gold Dot 210 gr. JHP 1913 fps/1706 fpe
Marlin 1894SS 20" Win. 240 gr. Hollow SP 1744 fps/1621 fpe
Marlin 1894SS 20" American Eagle 240 gr. JHP 1686 fps/ 1514 fpe


.44 Special
Marlin 1894SS 20" WW 200gr. Silvertip HP 893 fps/354 fpe

.45 Colt
Marlin 1894CBC 20" Corbon 200 gr. JHP 1451 fps/934 fpe
Legacy Puma 92 16" Corbon 200 gr. JHP 1197fps/636 fpe

Legacy Puma 92 16" Speer Gold Dot 250 gr. JHP 948fps/498 fpe
Marlin 1894CBC 20" Speer Gold Dot 250 gr. JHP 828fps/381 fpe

Legacy Puma 92 16" Houston Cart-Cowboy RNFP 934 fps/484 fpe

Legacy Puma 92 16" Win. 225 gr. Silvertip HP 958fps/459 fpe
Marlin 1894CBC 20" Win. 225 gr. Silvertip HP 852 fps/ 363 fpe


.454 Casull
Legacy Puma 92 16" Win 260 gr. Sup Partn Gold 2271 fps/2977 fpe

I have some additional defense loads coming from Georgia Arms in .45 Colt and .44 Special which I will chronograph when I get them.

Looks like the little Legacy 92 Trapper would make a great close quarters defense carbine when loaded with .45 Colt JHP. The short 16" barrel gives something of a power advantage over the longer 20" barrel with all the loads except the Corbon, which undoubtedly has a larger charge of possibly a slightly slower powder than the other loads. The Corbon is the only load which can still take advantage of a longer barrel beyond a 16" barrel, at least out to 20".

But it looks like of these .45 Colt loads, the Speer Gold Dot 250 gr. when fired from the 16" Trapper might really be in the sweet spot for a personal defense load at close range... not too fast, not too much energy. The Gold Dot bullet would probably perform exactly as intended at 948 fps. The Corbon JHP would probably work quite well as designed also at 1197 fps. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Georgia Arms loads do from the Trapper.

And, of course, should I ever have to defend my home from invading wild hogs hopped up on PCP, the .454 Casull with nearly 3000 fpe might come in handy! ;)

Nice write-up. Some sizzling velocities from the .44Mag rifle loads!

Keep all of this together; when you are done, might make a good tech note for the forum, good information here.....

I find it fascinating that the 45 Colt is slower in some loadings when fired in the longer barrel. I've heard of this with the 22LR, but not in a centerfire cartridge.

They must use a little pinch of fast burning powder in those loads!

Thanks for the tests and write-up!

You're welcome guys... I love doing this kind of thing. As a gun lover and a bit of a geek, testing loads is a lot of fun for me. Someday I'm going to get some ballistic gelatin and really go to town testing this stuff... probably when I retire! ;)

I have such a love for my lever rifles, especially the 16" ers in .45 Colt that I'm really interested myself in finding the optimum factory defense loads for these carbines. It's just fun. Of course I hope to not ever need to use them for defense!