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45 Long Colt Factory loads

4K views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  olympian 
#1 ·
Have a friend that has been exposed to a "KNOW it All" so now believes he cannot fire factory 45 long colts in his Colt" New Service" in excellent condition....Can anyone show me a site on The web where "He" can see that factory colts are loaded to Black Powder pressures and not to Ruger 45 Pressures?
Honest Charlie
 
#3 ·
And what does your friend think that a person would fire factory .45 Colt ammunition in, if not a factory .45 Colt gun?

The run-of-the mill Remington, Winchester, Federal, etc., will be just fine. New Service guns were out after smokeless powder was well-established (unlike some of the very early Colt SAAs).

Anyway, unless it's specialty stuff like Cor-Bon, Buffalo-Bore, etc., and marked as Ruger or T/C only, should be just perfect.

Anyway the factory would be the final authority, as noted above.
 
#4 ·
.45 LC ammo is kept to a SAAMI maximum average pressure of 14,000 psi because of older guns like your friend's New Service. Only the .32 and .38 S&W are loaded to a lower pressure. I can also tell you from my own experience with a Colt Model 1909 (the military version of your buddy's gun) that both Remington and Federal factory loads are perfectly safe. Have a credentialed gunsmith give it a once over and I'm sure he'll give it a clean bill of health for continued use.

Oh, one last thing for your friend's peace of mind. The New Service was eventually chambered in .357 Magnum, a cartridge loaded to much greater pressure than the .45LC. In the old days, factory .357's were significantly hotter than today's ammo. And the New Service had no problems.
 
#5 ·
This all ssumes your firend isn't playing word games with you...that the revolver isn't in .455 or been converted to .45ACP...or he stressed the word "long" in .45 Long Colt (as you'll have a hard time finding any cases with the "long" in the headstamp). things like that happen in "bar bet" type situations (usually ending with fat lips and hurt feelings)...and as this is your first post, and you had the uge to log in to ask that question, suspectt the discussion between you two got to the betting stage.
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BTW: welcome to the board...we'll evntually dig out a site that has the quote you want.
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There are some high pressure factory loads he should not fire, but not from the big ammo makers.

If it sets his mind at ease, let him use the "coyboy" loads on the market....don't know if they are actually that much lower in pressure (lets face it, 14K is pretty low), but it may make him feel better about it.
 
#7 ·
mobias said:
There is such a thing as a 45 Long Colt. It's called a 454 Casull!!!! Sorry. Couldn't resist. I always feel a need to get on people for saying 45 Long Colt too. 45 Long Colt is acceptable, but not really correct.
How about we use "Longest Colt" for the Casull? :D
 
#8 ·
c east,

There is no such cartridge named the .45 'long' Colt. It's just the .45 Colt. The 'long' part is just a nicname brought on the introduction of the .45 Colt Government round back in the 1880's. That round was just the shorter .45 S&W (Schofield) cartridge with the smaller .45 Colt rim, and headstamped .45 Colt. Confusing, hense the nic name.

Having said that, modern .45 Colt ammunition as made by Winchester, Remington, Federal, and Speer/CCI, the four major American ammo manufacturers, is safe in ANY firearm in good condition, originally made for SMOKELESS POWDER ammunition.
There are others who in +P heavy bullet hunting ammo, but these are specialty loads, not what your question was about.

Current .45 Colt ammo is not made made to black powder pressure specs, it is generally loaded to lower pressure specs due to the fact it is loaded to a specific velocity.

Black powder ammo will produce the same or higher pressures as eqivilent velocity smokeless ammo. BUT, it does it with a more gentler pressure curve. Smokeless powders have a faster pressure spike. This faster pressure spike is what stresses the metal in the old black powder guns.
If you go to the Hodgdons on line reloading data section and look up cowboy action loads for both the smokeless and pyrodex powder, you will see the pressures for the 250gr lead loads are almost identicle. I contacted Hodgdon and was told what I related above.

Other than contacting the major ammo manufacturers directly, or reading the disclaimers on the ammo boxes I don't know of any web site that will say what you are trying to show your friend.

Joe
 
#9 ·
Well, I will be as polite as possible. .45 Colt New Service revolvers have been firing "factory ammo" for nigh onto 100 years that I know of -- hmmm. Persoanlly, I have put a lot of handloads hotter than factory thru both Colt New Service, S&W M25s, and Colt Anacondas and I have seen not problems. Stay away from super Plus P type ammo and a Colt New Service should last forever (i.e., be firing long after you and I are dead and gone)

LLS
 
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