.44-40 vs. .45 Colt

[Don Nix]

 I am going to (hopefully) buy a new rifle. Mostt likely an 1873 sporting rifle. I have seen several  older rifles that I like in .44-40
which is fine but since everything I own is geared to .45 Colt I am leaning toward one of the new  Clones Or a Marlin in .45 lc.
  I am curious  as to the differences in the two rounds ballistics and performance. I am sure that they are probably pretty close.
44-40 was such a popular round  in both pistol and rifle,why wasnt the 45 colt aslo offerred by winchester?

[Fingers McGee]

   Ah, the old Ginger or Mary Ann conundrum   

Personnaly, I like the 44-40; but I'm a Mary Ann kinda guy.

FM

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Winchester couldn't use the original .45 Colt round because of the diameter of the rim on the case, not enough there for extractor's to get hold of...........Buck

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Buck is absolutely right. Here's a pic of an original 45 Colt round.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

You are correct, both rounds are very similar in performance. I shoot 44-40 in my rifles in CAS and 45 Colt in my pistols. You will hear folks advising against doing this, as a 45 accidentally finding its way into a 44-40 rifle will jam up the gun and require it to be taken apart to get the round out. All I can say is I have a pretty good system to prevent that from happening. I shoot 44-40 in my rifles because when I started the game I had a couple of 100+ year old rifles and in those days rifles were never chambered for 45 Colt. But I had been shooting 45 Colt in revolvers for years.

Anyhoo, when I load the two cartridges I use the exact same powder charge in both of them. Whether Smokeless or Black Powder, I use the exact same charge. This means both cartridges will have the same amount of chemical energy locked up inside. Since my 44-40 rounds have a 200 grain bullet and my 45 Colt rounds have a 250 grain bullet, if I was to shoot them in identical length barrels, the 44s would shoot a little bit faster and flatter than the 45s, but they would both have the same potential energy.

By the way, just for the fun of it last year I finally got around to shooting a cylinderfull of 44-40s out of one of my 45 Colts. We always talk about how the bullet would rattle down the barrel and shoot accurately, but all 5 bullets hit the target just fine.

[Fairshake]

Now Driftwood, It's kinda hard to miss from 5 feet with them 45 revolvers, even if that slug was bouncing from side to side. Often wondered if this would work and you have given me the answer. As to which one to buy in answer to Don Nix, That's a hard one and goes to personal preference. However I shoot the 45 Colt in all my guns. If you are thinking about shooting black powder then the 44-40 would be a great choice as you will have no blow-back. The 45Colt will have blow-back as it's a straight walled case. I fill the case full of 2F and seat a 250 grain Big Lube bullet and the blow back is not so bad that I can't deal with it. The 44-40 will have no blow-back regardless of what powder you use. That slight bottle-neck stops it. And as has been stated we would have antique 45 Colt rifles if today's case was the one first designed. All that info and it's still your decision as it should be. 

[Ruidoso]

I also shoot 45 pistols and 44-40 rifle. Several weeks ago I accidently put 44-40 in the 45 colt pistol. Several round went through just fine but then a piece of lead sheared of and jammed up the cylinder. So the moral of that story is still need to be careful.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Again

With all due respect, the bottle neck shape of the 44-40 has nothing to do with its superior chamber sealing ability. It is the thickness of the brass at the neck, not the shape. 44-40 runs around .007 thick at the neck, 45 Colt runs around .012 thick at the neck. With equal pressure, the thinner material will offer less resistance to expanding and sealing the chamber than the thicker material will. High pressure gas has no problem sneaking around corners, and the taper on the 44-40 case is so slight it can barely be called a bottleneck at all.

Here is a photo of some of my reloads. Left to right they are 44 Special, 45 Colt, and 44-40. Notice how barely noticeable the taper is on the 44-40. It's the thinness of the brass that does the sealing, not the shape.

[george rodgers]

One possibility, if you decide to go with a 44/40 rifle, would be to shoot the new short cowboy 45 brass in your pistols. I shoot 44/40 in my rifle and 44Russian in my pistol. It is very easy to distinguish between the two. The case size for short 45 cowboy and 44Russian is about the same.

By the way, this would be an outstanding combination for black powder.

[Don Nix]

 I appreciate al of the infornation..
I decided to go with the 45. For no other reason than I am already gun poor in 45s so i had just as well  keep the status quo.
I have an abundance of 45 brass and a buddy tgat relaods for me cheaply so 45 was the winner.
Thanks again for the insight

[Daniel Nighteyes]

I used to shoot .45 Colt in my rifle and .44 Colt in my pistols.  To avoid any mixups I used, ah, nickel brass for the .45 Colt, and brass brass for the .44 Colt.   It worked for me!

[Joe_Joe]

I dont shoot CAS but want to buy a nice 1873 Win replica to have fun with. I was orginally going to get .45LC but have been reading alot of old posts and it seems like 44-40 performs better. But 44-40 is harder to come by where I am at. Ive heard of feeding issues with the .45LC. Does the .45 usually function fine in the Uberti 1873? I know this is an opinionated issue but was hoping for some insight please. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

nc devildog,

First, I've not heard of any feeding problems with 45 Colt in the '73.  Second, 44-40 works better with black powder than does 45 Colt, regardless of the firearm, because the case seals better against the chamber walls and the action doesn't get as smudgy.  However, if one is shooting smokeless, it doesn't much matter.

Both rounds are quite effective, but if you have trouble getting 44-40 where you are...

Regards,

-- Nighteyes

[Dr. Bob]

I shoot a 73 in 45 Colt with a full case of black powder and don't have blow by problems.  Moose milk and a rag will clean the action real good.  I take the side plates off after every 8 - 10 shoots and don't find a lot of powder residue then either.  Others mileage may vary.

[Bryan Austin]

I too use to shoot 45 Revolvers and a 44-40 rifle. Once in a while I would mess up and get a 45 in the rifle. Luckily for me I did not jam it up hard enough to have to disassemble.

However, my wife loaded and shot a full load of 44-40s in my 45 revolver. They shot fine but the brass expanded beyond resizing and the taper.