Can Someone Explain to Me The Appeal of the .45 Colt

I've carried my M29 6.5" camping in the mountains of AZ, and I'm tired of lugging that field canon around.....

I thought I would sell it, and get a 629 4".

Nope. I'll be keeping the M29 as a range/plinking piece and snag me a.45 Colt!!

I am new to reloading, but I really like it, and after shooting a 1911 in several competitions along with an HK and FN..... I'm a bit tired of picking up the brass, and the loss factor.

Great thread, and the research for a .45 Colt begins today!

Single action, double action...? The chase is afoot!

PS: I've been shooting a Ruger SA .22 lately, as well as my wife's 686. Boy do I love that 686! I'm slowly becoming a revolver convert.
 
The 25-5 weighs about te same as a 29. Same straight heavy barrel. A colt SA or clone in .45 is nice, maybe a short barrel ruger or the 4" 25-5. A favorite of mine is still the 24-3 with the light tapered barrel. Maybe s&w if they make something with the tapered light barrel in .45 colt but I dont know if they ever have to speak of. I once had a 1917 smith converted to 45 colt makeing it a duel clyinder. Found me a .455 clyinder and a extra crane. It worked well.
 
Dashriprock said:
For me, the .45 Colt is like a classic car. I don't drive it every day, but when I do I certainly enjoy it!
Click to expand...

I own 2 revolvers in .45 Colt. A Cimarron 5 1/2" barreled Model P which I like to shoot with blackpowder or BP substitute handloads. The round is still pretty impressive with a relatively lightweight gun and ya get the feeling of what shooting one was like back in the old west.

My S&W Model 25-2 I bought because it was there , at the gun shop , in great shape for a fair price and I didn't have one. It gets hard cast 255gr SWCs at 800-900fps. Kills paper dead.
Got no desire to magnumize it.
 
Here's a compromise. A sixgun in .45 ACP. This is a Colt New Service 2 1/2" big bore belly blaster kickin' up dust in the Mojave Desert. I love the smell of sage and gunsmoke in the morning.
 
I don't care what we call the .45 Colt Ctg. but at some point Smith & Wesson didn't like roll stamping "Colt" on their revolvers. This one slipped out of service department with no caliber stamping.

Oh and for what ever it is worth I like big, heavy slow moving slugs out of guns chambered in calibers that start with .4; my favorite is pretty special with the .45 Colt a close second.

130277361.jpg


130277362.jpg


130277359.jpg
 
Most .45 Colt I can find locally is weakly loaded cowboy action popper fodder with less advertised velocity and energy than .45 ACP at about 2-3 times the cost. Sure .45 Colt can be loaded across a very wide power level but for me I agree with the OP. .45 ACP for 2 legged threats, .44 Magnum for 4 legged threats, with .44 Special for 2 legged threats.
 
dcxainplant, you might check in to the S&W Mod 625 Mountain Gun. It is a round butt 4" stainless. Awesome revolver. I saw an earlier post where the Smith pictured plainly had "45 Long Colt" stamped on it. On my 625 it has "Mountain Gun" etched in to the right side off the barrel and "45 Colt" on the left. Even Smith uses both terms. Like you I'm searching for another 45 Colt. I want a Cimmaron 5.5" SAA. Probably a Model P.
 
Here yuh go! A cimmeron dakota .45 colt with the 5 1/2" barrel. I almost forgot I had it. I bought this one about 20-25 years ago. I took it out and the first time I shot it the ejector houseing flew off the gun. I had the dealer send it back and of course, they promptly fixed it. I dont recall every shooting it again but as said I have about five other .45 colts.
I think one of the reasons I havent shot it more is the rear sight notch is a very deep sharp V with a thin front sight. Takes a little more to get used to than a square notch and square flat top front blade. Other than that, the gun looks high quality and finish. Thinking about it now, I belive I might take it out soon.

 
"Maybe s&w if they make something with the tapered light barrel in .45 colt but I dont know if they ever have to speak of."


Check the M625 Mountain Gun in post # 109. S&W also made blued Mountain Guns in .45 Colt, IIRC.
 
I have seen louisianna joe here show a a tapered barrel s&w .45 colt I think was called a georgia highway patrol commemertive. Belive he said he bought two and gave one to his brother charlie sherrill. Really that gun is about the only smith left that I covet. I also seem to remember once seeing one of those "classics" in it. I know I seen a classic 4" case colored tapered barreled .45 auto/auto rim that I came close to buying. To my way of thinking one of them with the fixed sight, tapered barrel service hammer, trigger,and magna grips would be very hard to beat in a defensive revolver. It had the round butt and I wish I had found a way to buy it. It was like the thunder ranch .44 special but in .45 acp plus color cased. I cant imagine a better self defense configuerd revolver to pack.
 
Check mine in #52 above. The guy that built it was smart enough to do it on a Pre-Model 27 barrel so it's lightweight, tapered and checkered on the top to boot. That's one reason I like it so much more for long periods of carrying than the heavier-barreled M29.
 
I have bunches of revolvers chambered in .45 Colt - several 25-5s, Mountain guns, a primo U.S. Firearms single action, and several Ruger single actions.

Why? Because the .45 Colt is "just right." Fully the equal of the .357 magnum in stopping power, with not as much recoil. Handloaded for use in the old Rugers, it will more than equal the stomping power of the .44 magnum. And then there is the nostalgia factor - my grandfather carried an SAA in .45 Colt on the Arizona frontier.

These two guns are my favorite single actions, both in .45 Colt. They are older Ruger Vaqueros that will take hell-for-leather loads, or standard velocity for comfort. Both have been modified to load from the half-cock position with reverse indexing, identical to the old Colts.

VAQUEROS_zps6a4547a1.jpg


The .45 Colt can do it all - whatever you like, from pipsqueak Cowboy loads to incredibly effective defense or hunting loads. There's not much not to like.

John
 
feralmerril said:
The 25-5 weighs about te same as a 29. Same straight heavy barrel. A colt SA or clone in .45 is nice, maybe a short barrel ruger or the 4" 25-5. A favorite of mine is still the 24-3 with the light tapered barrel. Maybe s&w if they make something with the tapered light barrel in .45 colt but I dont know if they ever have to speak of. I once had a 1917 smith converted to 45 colt makeing it a duel clyinder. Found me a .455 clyinder and a extra crane. It worked well.
Click to expand...

Here is my 625 Mountain Gun in .45 Colt. It has a nice tapered barrel.

 
I had forgot about the mountain gun. That should be about the ultimate! Thanks. A big mistake I made about 40 years ago. I had a gun collector friend that tried to sell me a .45 colt triplelock for I think, $200s. Of course in todays money that would be like close to $1,500s. The thing looked unfired! It had like hard grease kind of dried and caked on it. It was a fixed sighted 6 1/2" barrel. All there original. I had my heart set on a .44 triplelock. Afterwards I read somewhere they figured there was only like 9 to 15 .45 colt triplelocks known!
 
Last edited:
OK...wanted to attach photo. Went to photo bucket and copied url, pasted in the "manage attachments" block. No go. Went to computer upload, got message that "upload failed". How do I attach a photo now?
 
jgh4445 said:
OK...wanted to attach photo. Went to photo bucket and copied url, pasted in the "manage attachments" block. No go. Went to computer upload, got message that "upload failed". How do I attach a photo now?
Click to expand...


I've been using photobucket too.....In days of late,
I find photograph I want to post, open it up and instead of copying the ULR,
I just right click the pic and copy, then paste in the body of my message/post here....

Like this .45 Long Colt/.45ACP convertable built on a pre-27 platform.

IMG_0650-1-1.jpg


Su Amigo,
Dave
 
Thanks Keith. Here is my constant companion. I think its the best of both worlds. Its a 625 Mountain Gun that began life as a 45Colt. I had the cylinder milled to accept moon clips and 45ACPs. With my hand loads, both shoot to the same POA. Sorry for the poor quality cell phone pic.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c34/Riverrat43/IMG_20130728_102502_813_zps6f78a348.jpg

Guess that is better than no picture at all huh? The copy and paste didn't work for me.
 
JGH, see on the right side of the page a block that says, "Links to share this photo"? The bottom of the four links, marked IMG. Just click on it. The link will, momentarily, say "copied".

Then come here, right click, paste. Wallah. Picture.

 
I left click on "Direct" at Photobucket...it then turns yellow and says "copied". I come here, click the "Insert Image" button (the little picture of mountain and sun with a yellow background between "Insert Link" and "Wrap") and paste my Photobucket link there. Shows the full-size photo. I've never done the little thumbnails.
 
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