I know this is going to seem like a silly question... and I also do know that a hot 44 load and light 45LC load can differ up to about 10k psi. I have been loading for about two months now, and have had no issues whatsoever. I have reloaded 9mm, 44mag, 44 colt, 45acp, and 32 S&W.

I have a Judge in 410/45LC. Today while cleaning brass I noticed how the 45 brass is almost identical to the 44 colt brass.

My question- if I load a very light 44, will it be okay to fire from the 45? All specs will be very close to a factory 45LC load. I have no issues with buying a 45lc die, but this would allow me to focus on a 44 load rather than both. Plus, I already have a small stockpile of 44 components.

Thanks for any help.

The bullets for the 44 are .429-.430 and the bullets for the 45 are .451-452. The 44 bullets won't engage the rifling.
The 44 brass is narrower than the 45 and I think those cases will split.

No! "Almost" isn't close enough. Forget about reloading .44 Specials for your .45 Colt/.410 handgun. The similarities between the two cartridges is they both begin with a "4"...

You're kidding right?

You really need to do a bunch of reloading READING.

RELOADING can and will be dangerous to you and others

if you do not understand and FOLLOW THE RULES, Period, Nuff Said!!!!!

__________________
NRA Pistol/Rifle Inst. RSO

Before you load anything else get three reloading manuals and read them in their entirety except the data pages.
The brass does not contain the pressure in a firearm the steel surrounding it does.

__________________
Front sight and squeeze

Thank God for the internet, someone needs to make decisions for these mindless idiots! Can I practice shooting my .458 with .22shorts to save money? Yeeesch! Sorry for the rant, Nick

The worst thing you can do is not ask questions, do lots of reading and ask when you have doubts.

Actually I have read my whole reloading manual, front to back minus the load data. I had no intentions of doing it unless someone else has. Thought maybe since it fit like the 45 then I could load it light and have it be similar to shooting .223 out of a 5.56 or a 38 spcl out of a 357. It was a simple question... not looking to start anything.

No, it is not anything like a 223 which is 5.56 or 38 and 357 which are both the same size bullet.

A 44 spl and 44 Mag yes, a 44 and a 45 are NOT the same.

Close is only for hand grenades which what you will end up with!

You said you read manuals, apparently you did not look at the dimensions of the 44 and 45 they are totally different.

__________________
Still Running Against the Wind

Good way to hurt yourself and ruin a firearm...

You have NOT been loading long enough if you think the 44mag & 45Colt are "close", note even, not ever. Slap a caliper to the bullet & case, the only thing that is close is the length. A 44mag will NOT fit your 45Colt, it may chamber, but that is NOT a proper fit.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I know... As stated above, it was mainly out of curiosity. And again, when I thought about it, I thought it may be like the 460 firing 454 and 45 (yes, all of these bullet diameters are the same) except without the rifling engaging. If I were intending on doing it, I wouldn't have posted anything up here.

I was not home earlier when I posted this... So I couldn't look at the data, which I would have before I loaded anything.

45lc die is on the way, so no need to keep flaming me

Taken from the first post...

"...I have been loading for about two months now"

Read everything you can get your hands on including the dimensional drawings and keep asking questions 😄

It's not that we are flaming you, we are trying to keep you from creating a 15-20,000 psi explosion in your hand.
Stu

Everyone has to start somewhere. At least you asked before doing something that would have gotten you hurt.
Do keep asking whenever you get some silly idea in the future.


Especially if Lee Ermey is around. Vid tape that for us.

The .44 would fit so loosely in the .45 colt that I serious doubt that it would have much chance to build any substantial pressure. Since the bullet is not large enough to seal the barrel, I would expect it to be on the order of an out of battery ignition except that the ruptured case would be contained by the chamber. I certainly wouldn't try it but I would expect it to be less than spectacular.

Not to be rude, but it shows. Look, reloading is very safe done correctly. That means paying attention & following directions. There are vary few places where you can wing it. So stick to book data, always. After oh, 50K rds & 5-6 diff calibers, you'll get the hang of it.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Everyone has a "blonde" moment every so often.... I'm surprised at some of the downright rude comments made to this newbie. Instead can we offer consultation and guidance instead of disdain?

To Zjnovak, the 44 and 45 LC are very different in case dimensions as well as bullet dimensions. I was told by friends as a kid that you could put a 30-06 round in a .410 shotgun and have it fire. But... Just because that rifle round fits in your shotgun does not mean you should do it or even think it safe. Thankfully none of my friends ever tried it.

If you look at the diagrams and dimensions in the reloading manual you would notice that the 44 cases and 45 cases are in fact different diameters as well as the bullets.

I hope you stick around this part of the forum. Keep asking your questions and we'll keep answering them. But, as you may have already seen, you may be ill recieved if you ask a question that is easily answered by thumbing open your reloading manual.

I strongly suspect this is how it'd go.

By now, it's obvious that at the very best it's not a great idea to try something like this. But "less than spectacular" is probably close to how it would play out.

What I find far (far) more surprising than the OP considering this, is that they would actually be called names for simply asking about it. Remarkable.

Zjnovak, I have been reloading for more than of 40 years and to this day I don't load anything without referring to some published data. I also keep records and notes on what I reload so that don't have to go back and reinvent the wheel. You will over time develope your own pet loads and you don't want to trust to memory such precious data. As for calibre interchangeability, it is fine to speculate but I would suggest that you get "Cartridges of the World" and read up on the calibres you are interested in. You will find that most calibres are derived from a single parent cartridge of the same type and that there maybe some interchangeability. Over the years most cartridge developers have been careful to change cartridges just enough to prevent chambering of a round that is too powerful for the a particular firearm. There are some exceptions to this, such as the +P, ++P or +P+ rounds in common pistol calibres. Your revolver is sort of an odd duck and I can see how it would trigger your curiosity as .45 and .410 shotgun are not related calibres.

Jim Taylor used to fire a 44 mag. cartridge in his 45 Colt Blackhawk. Not much takes place pressure wise as the bullet is too small & the case really expands & in fact ruptures. This was done as a stunt & is not for home consumption.

Reloading is one of the simplest things to do but one should learn by reading the manuals.

__________________
Joshua 1:9

Z,
For the first year or so of reloading, follow recipes in the manual exactly. Doing so will save you a broken gun and possibly an injury. As you get more experience and understand more about handloading that is when you can start experimenting a bit if you want to do so. That said, following the recipes for as long as you handload isn't a bad idea. There are very few loads that I deal with where I am not following the recipe in one of my manuals. FYI, I've been loading 20 plus years.

In addition to asking questions here, you might want to try the handloading forum on yahoo groups. Lot of good folks there who are willing to help a novice and be gentle about it.