Most who know me here also know am a huge fan of the .45 Colt. I have read Linebaugh's site many times, and I have talked to him on the phone a few times.
There have been plenty of posts here in this thread with good soild info, and some with the normal fear associated with the .45 Colt. I am not going to get into the heat treated or not debate, because to the best of my knowlege no one has posted any factual info directly from S&W on the subject, either on this forum or anywhere else. So far it's all been speculation. Personally I believe they are the same, but I could be wrong......
I thought some of you might find this interesting though.
I get sick of all the BS about whether the 25/625 can handle +P loads or not, and do so safely so I made up some of the ones Linebaugh lists on his site. I did this some time ago. The temps were 55 degrees and it was sunny out. Here are the results-
M25-5, 4" bbl-
24 grains of H-110- 265 grain cast Lyman 454424, CCI 350 primers, Midway branded cases. Velocity across my Oehler 35P was=1121 @ 15' from the muzzle. 40 fps ES, 18 SD
M25-7, 5" bbl-
Same load, velocity @ 15' =1131 fps, 60 ES, 32 Sd
Pretty consistant loads.
Cases tapped out easily from both guns. I fired quite a few rounds through both guns. Recoil felt identical to the .44 magnum 29's I had with me that day, though the .44 magnum loads were using 240 XTP's grain bullets over maximum charges of the same powder (and coincidentally, the same charge)- 24 grains of H-110. The .44 magnums were turning in 1230 fps average for all 3 guns (all had 6" or 6.5" bbls), so clearly the load I was shooting through the .45's were magnum class loads and were actually out perfroming the .44 in the energy department.
Nothing loosened up, nothing broke or blew. I
do believe that a steady diet of these loads will wear the gun faster than SAAMI spec loads, but I
don't believe that it will do it at a rate that will
greatly shorten the life of the gun under normal shooting conditions, and at a rate that the average person shoots, I doubt that they would ever have any problems. It is worth noting that the M-29 will wear at an almost (if not the exact) same rate with full power loads, yet I regularly see guys claiming that unless you are shooting silhouette competitions with ultra heavy loads, the M-29 .44 should last a lifetime.
BTW- I don't know why the difference in Linebaugh's dimensions and mine but while my Blackhawk had the same thickness between chambers, the outside wall thickness ran several thousanths more in my Blackhawk which is appreciable. The biggest difference between the 25 and the BH is that the stop notches are offset to the side of the chamber on the BH while they are directly over center on the 25's. That is the weakest link in
any handgun. That and the fact that the S&W had a lot more small parts that wear quicker, are the reasons that loads listed for the BH are not always listed as being safe in a 25/625.
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