.44 Colt (aka .44 Long Colt) Question

[TexasRaider]

So a friend of mine texts me last night and says his buddy (who's into Cowboy Action shooting) ordered several boxes of ammo, and ordered what he's calling .44 Long Colt, by mistake.

My understanding was that there's a .44 Colt and a .41 Long Colt, I'm assuming he's just getting the semantics fuzzy, but pretty sure he did order .44 Colt. Anyway, he's unable to send the ammo back because there was no problem with it, he just clicked the wrong item to buy.

My buddy is telling me this guy wants to get rid of it fairly cheap, $20 a box of 50, but I'm trying to remember if one can fire .44 Colt through modern .44 Magnum revolvers. IIRC, the casing is pretty much the same, just quite a bit shorter.

However, before doing anything I wanted to ask if anyone here had any experience with shooting .44 Colt through modern .44 Special or .44 Mag wheelguns.

Thanks...

 

[kcwheel]

My specimen .44 Colt is six thousandths larger than a .44 Mag. You might be able to chamber it, but it would be tight. The original rounds had a heel bullet that mikes .460, quite a bit oversize. the Colt case also has a very thin rim of only about fifty thousandths thick. Overall, a very poor fit. As a footnote, the modern made Cowboy rounds may not conform to the original design.

Ken

 

[Alpo]

No experience myself, but from reading about it on the cowboy wire - it is basically a 44 Russian with a slightly longer case, and a slightly smaller rim. It is too long to shoot in a gun chambered for Russian, but works fine in both Special and Magnum guns.

If shooting in a DA revolver, the ejector star MIGHT slip off the rims, because, as I said, they are slightly smaller in diameter. Shooting in a SA revolver should cause no problem.

The original loading used a .460 outside-lubed heel bullet, but the modern stuff uses a .429 inside-lubed bullet, just like the Russian/Special/Magnum does.

http://stevespages.com/jpg/cd44colt.jpg
http://stevespages.com/jpg/cd44smithandwessonspecial.jpg

 

[colt_saa]

You should not attempt to fire 44 Colt in a 44 Special

Even though 44 Colt and 44 Special are almost identical in length, the Colt being 1.1" and the Special being 1.16", like many cartridges of the era the 44 Colt uses a heeled projectile. A 44 Colt firearm would have a bore diameter of ~.451"

 

[TexasRaider]

I wil try to find out who he bought it from....

 

[jag312]

I thought the .44 Colt cartridge was designed for the Colt Model 1860 Army revolver converted to cartridge.

 

[D.H. Callahan]

The original 44 colt cartridge was designed for colt factory conversions of earlier 1860 army revolvers. It had a heeled bullet (bullet is the same diameter as the case) of .451 diameter. No newly manufactured ammo uses this type of bullet. It uses .429 diameter bullets for use in modern replica "conversions". It is perfectly safe in a .44 special or magnum. The potential rim diameter problem has already been mentioned.

 

[TexasRaider]

I appreciate the info, guys!