This article was originally published in THE SHOOTIST  © 1984  - a publication by John Linebaugh -
in the Jan/Feb Issue 1985 Volume 1 Number 2.  It is reproduced here by permission of the author.. 

.45 COLT: UNLIMITED POTENTIAL

by JOHN TAFFIN

In 1873, Colt introduced what was to be one of the most important advancements in firearms history---The Colt Single Action Army .45. That first SAA, which is still in existence in the form of serial #1 was a 7' l/2" barreled sixgun with one piece walnut stocks. Up to this time Colt had been producing "open top" sixguns that is sixguns without top straps. They borrowed ideas from Remington and Smith & Wesson and brought out the solid frame SAA which is still going strong after more than 100 years. Remington had excellent solid frame revolvers and Smith had offered their SA in cartridge ammunition in 1869. Colt blended the two ideas and came up with a masterpiece.

Not only did Colt produced the most perfectly balanced sixgun ever, then or since, they also produced a cartridge, the .45 Colt which was a perfect defense round and game getter. That old original loading of 40 grains of black powder pushing a 255 grain bullet stood as King of the Handgun Cartridges until the .357 came along in 1935.  The .357 had more energy on paper, but dedicated sixgunners either stayed with the .45 or soon went back to it.  Gen. George S. Patton bought a Colt .45 x 4 3/4" in 1916, a .357 S&W 3 1/2" in 1935 and carried both of them in WW1 I in a pair of Myers Border Patrol holsters, both of these sixguns, made famous by newsreels,  carrying ivory grips.

I have come out of the closet, so to speak only recently and now freely admit that I like the .45 Colt.  My first big-bore sixgun was a minty SAA 4 3/4" .38-40 (oh, would I like to have that one back) followed by a brand new Colt SAA .45 x 7 1/2'' in 1957. That .45 Colt was one of my all-time favorite Sixguns , and I parted with it in 1963 only because I was faced with the choice of buying groceries for three hungry young babies or paying  my college tuition, but I could not afford both.  Since that time, the first .45 Colt has been replaced by three Colt SA's ' a Ruger, and a Navy Arms 1875 Remington plus I have three .45 barrels and cylinders in my parts storage for rebuilding any old SA's I find in the future.

There are those that still insist that the .45 Colt not be referred to as the .45 Long Colt. This "Long Colt" was never an official  nomenclature, but there is a reason for it other than simply to distinguish it from the "short Colt",  the .45 ACP. After the US Government bought the .45 SAA and made it the official military sidearm, they also bought a number of Smith & Wesson .45 Schofields which took a shorter .45 than the Colt SA. Military ammunition was standardized with a short .45 over 28 grs. of black powder that would fit both military .45's. At this time bullet weight was changed to 230 grs and this loading duplicated the later .45 ACP. There are short cartridges still surviving from that time marked "45 Colt", so it is easy to see why old timers referred to the present .45 Colt as the "Long Colt".

There have been four .45 Colt cartridges down through the years: the original .45 Colt, the shorter .45 S&W Colt, a .45 1906 (which must have been a real manstopper with its 324 gr. bullet) and the fourth .45 revolver cartridge, the .45 Auto Rim. Only the .45 Colt is still going strong. Two years ago when I wanted some .45 AR brass, I had to wait six months for it as there isn't much available.

When the Colt Single Action was dropped from production in 1941, the serial number range was 357,000. Of these nearly 400,000 Single Action Armys, one half had been produced in .45 Colt with 35 other calibers sharing the other half of the production run. When production was resumed in 1955, the first SA's were .45 Colt. Other .45 Colts that have been produced include the excellent, but long gone 1875 and 1890 Remingtons, a few S&W Triple Locks and Model 1926's and the only other sixgun of note prior to 1941 to be chambered in .45 the excellent Colt New Service

Colt stopped production in the '70's again for retooling and then resumed producing the Single Action again. Alas, the new ones were not the example of the gunmakers art that was so evident in the prewar and early post war Single Actions. And the price tag was a whopping $500. With a situation like this the Colt SA was on its last legs. Production was ceased in 1981. After 108 years the old Colt could not compete in either price or power with the new breed of magnums. Only dedicated old school shooters still purchased the Colt SAA and even they could not justify the price tag, plus the fitting of the third generation SA's leave a lot to be desired. I have three of the last run, and although the finish is exceptional on all of them they are second rate when compared to my Colt's from the 1950's and 1960's.

The old Colt Single Action, especially in the 4 3/4" barrel length has a feel about it that is not possible with any other handgun. The grip fits my hand perfectly, and the Colt just seems to snuggle into place in all but the smallest hand. The same feeling is transmitted whether the Colt is worn in a holster or tucked into a waist band.  No handgun shucks its leather faster than the Single Action Colt. Elmer used to say that no handgun was faster to draw and fire for the first shot than the Colt Single Action . On the performance side there is no finer defense cartridge than a .45 loaded with SWC's of 250 grs. at 900-1000 fps. Until very recently the old 255 gr. factory load from Winchester or Remington  were the finest defense loads available in any caliber. Federal has now brought out some better loads for both the .45 and the .44 Special and Winchester has followed their lead.

From 1955 to 1971, there really was only one .45 Colt available, that being the Colt Single Action. Great Western Arms also supplied SA's for both TV and movie westerns and fast draw contests but most of theirs were poorly made. I have one Great Western 7 1/2" in .44 Special that is a perfect Single Action in every way, perfectly timed and very accurate. During the sixties, the Italians discovered the Single Action and the market with copies, some good, some not so good.

Elmer Keith's first big bore sixgun was the Colt Single Action .45, and since the factory load was not powerful enough for game shooting, he preceded to size down .45/90 300 gr. bullets and load them over a case full of black powder.These gave him the power he wanted but he abandoned the .45 in favor of the .44 Special when one of his loads blew the loading gate off an old SA and took part of his finger with it. If a stronger .45 had been available at the time he would have probably stayed with the larger caliber.

In reloading for the .45 Colt a good deal of common sense must be used, even more so than in other caliber's as there are so many classes of .45's available. These basically can be placed into four categories as follows:

LEVEL ONE:
Pre-war Colt SA' s , New Services and an occasional  S&W Triple Lock or Model 1926. These should only be used with factory-type loads, as 8.0 grs. of Unique with the 250-260 gr. bullet for 850 fps or 35 grs. FFg black powder for 800 fps.

LEVEL TWO:
Post-War Colt SA's and Smith and Wesson M25's. These are made of strong steels, but they are not magnums and the area over the cylinder bolt cuts are very thin especially in the Smith &Wesson.

LEVEL THREE:
The "modern" .45 Colts. These are larger in cylinder dimensions than the Colt SA's and are basically .44 Magnums rechambered to .45 Colt. Strong but approach with common sense. In this category are the Ruger Blackhawk (now out of Production) Mossberg Abilene , Virginian Dragoon, El Dorados and Seville's.

LEVEL FOUR:
The completely custom .45 Colts that we will discuss shortly.

All of the following loads have been used safely in my Single Action .45's.  I am not recommending any further than this.  If you choose to use them., start lower and  work your way up carefully.  Winchester-Western brass and CCI Magnum primers are used for all loads except standard primers are used with Unique powder.

LOADS FOR THE COLT SINGLE ACTION . 45

LOADS FOR THE COLT NEW FRONTIER .45

In 1971 Ruger introduced a Single Action .45 that is basically a rechambered .44 Magnum with a standard Blackhawk finish and grip. Shooters have been experimenting with the .45 Ruger coming up with some pretty potent loads. I've heard unofficially that the .45 Ruger was dropped from production because too many of them were letting go with hot handloads. If this is true, the reader is forewarned to be careful when working up heavy loads for the Ruger. The following loads are used in my Ruger .45 Blackhawk Old Model again using WW brass and CCI Magnum primers. When 260 gr. bullets start pushing 1200 fps in the relatively light Blackhawk, recoil changes dramatically. All of these loads are approaching .44 Magnum velocities and pressures. BE CAREFUL.

LOADS FOR THE RUGER .45 BLACKHAWK

My friend Jim Taylor of Oracle, Arizona is a Pastor and a Pistolero who has had great success with the RUGER .45 Blackhawk   7 1/2" Old Model. His favorite load is the Lyman #457191 300 gr. bullet sized to .452 and placed over 20.0 grs. of #2400 for 1200 fps. Jim tells me that the long range accuracy is excellent and it is a great game killing load. Another friend, Robert Smythe of Saguache, Colorado, is also a long time .45 enthusiast of the old school and has a .45 Seville Single Action 4 3/4" that is one of the most accurate .45's I have ever fired. It really likes Jim's .45 load making one hole groups at 25 yards.

In 1983 I made the acquaintance of John Linebaugh who called me to tell me about custom .45 Long Colt sixguns that he was building and offered to send me a test gun. His claims were, at that time, unbelievable to me. A .45 Colt that would shoot 250 grain bullets at 1700 fps! Come on, now! John claimed 50 to 90% increase in energy over a .44 Magnum in barrels of 7 1/2" or longer, that is, 1500 to 2000 ft. lbs. of energy. Now that is quite a claim and the amazing thing is that everything he said is true.

John sent me one of his custom .45's built on an El Dorado frame with a custom 10 1/2" barrel and a special custom cylinder . I could not believe the loads he recommended and that first trip to the range I was prepared to pound out a lot of cases with a wooden dowel. No problems were encountered whatsoever. The custom .45 came through with flying colors as did the .45 Colt brass.  I used Winchester Western brass loading some cases to the hilt five times, no cracks, no splits. John tells me that Federal brass is even stronger and I will use it in the future as I am having John build me a 5 1/2" .45 on an Abilene frame. For information on John Linebaugh's .45 Custom Single Actions, contact him at Linebaugh Custom Sixguns, Rt.2 Box 100, Maryville, MO 64468 phone 1-660-562-3031 (current address and phone number added by the webmaster  Click HERE to visit Linebaugh's webpages.)

The results with John's Custom .45 were spectacular to say the least. All loads were assembled with WW brass and CCI Magnum primers.

THESE LOADS ARE FOR LINEBAUGH CUSTOM .45's ONLY, DO NOT,  REPEAT, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE THESE IN ANY OTHER .45:

Loads # 1,2,3 were all fired at 50m chickens and 100m hogs on the local Silhouette range and exhibited match accuracy. Lyman's #454424 is their .45 semi -wadcutter designed by Elmer Keith and mine weigh out at 258 grs. cast of two parts type metal to one part lead. All loads show easy extraction except #17 which is a 250 gr. Jacketed Hollow Point at 1724 fps! and #9 which is a 258 gr. cast bullet at 1711 fps!  Extraction was sticky on both of these loads. Both loads 18 and 19 which are 310 and 330 gr. SWC's were fired at 100 meters with five shot groups that could be covered with one hand. Load #20 was assembled with 300 gr. .45/70 bullets sized to .452. Loads #21-23 were put together with 385 gr. cast bullets. Recoil with all loads from 18-23 was downright fierce off sandbags with the knuckle of my middle finger getting slapped hard with every shot. Shooting offhand is much more enjoyable. Load #23 is the equivalent of a .45/70 factory load fired from a 32" rifle.!  This from a handgun no less.!

Linebaugh's .45 sixgun performs exactly as he promised. One of his secrets is close tolerances. Remember when the factories used to do the same? If you measure .45 Colt brass before and after firing in modern .45's as the Ruger Blackhawk and third generation .45 Colt SA's you will find that the brass expands .004" at the diameter above the base. The brass expands .001" or less in Linebaugh's custom cylinders. He has other secrets that combine to make his idea work and work well. The .45 Colt is once again the King of the Sixgun Cartridges!