Most Common Pistol Cartitdge?

[LubeckLarry]

What was the most common revolver cartridge in use during the cowboy era? Modern dogma would have us believe it to be the .45 Colt but weren't cartridges built around .38 and even .32 popular as well?

[St. George]

Hardly 'modern dogma'...

Probably the most popular and prolific round was the .44-40 WCF, since it could be used in both revolver and long gun.

The commonality (and utility) of the round made it easy to find in most local stores.

Did they use other calibers?

Sure - depending entirely on what purpose they needed a revolver for - with the smaller calibers found in the smaller pocket revolvers of the time.

'In general' - the revolver worn in a belt holster during the era had a caliber designation beginning with a '4'.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[FriscoCounty]

The .45 colt may have been the 'single' most popular pistol only cartridge, but the .44-40 probably out sold it because it was a rifle cartridge.  Also, there were a lot of popular cartridges making it impossible for any one cartridge to be king of the hill. 

Generically, cap and ball was the most popular.  Colt, alone, produced over 3/4 of a million cap and ball revolvers.  Over 200,000 each of the 1851 Navy and 1860 Army.  300,000 of the 1849 Pocket, 46,000 1862, 37,000 1861 Navy, police, etc.  By 1900, over 100,000 1877 lightnings had been produced.  By 1900, about 192,000 Colt model Ps had been produced.

Until about 1870 metallic cartridges meant rifle cartridges.   Until 1869 S&W had a lock on the Rollin White bored-through cylinder. What they produced until then was limited to .22 short and .32 S&W pistols.  It was the approach of the expiration that forced them to develop the no. 3.  and allowed colt the develop the model P and Remington the 1875.

The S&W no.3 was produced in .44 S&W, .44 Russian, .44-40, .32-44, .38-44, and .45 Schofield.  The 1875 Remington was chambered for .44 Remington/.44 colt, .44-40, and .45 colt.

Over its lifetime of production, 46% Colt SAA were .45 colt, 20% .44-40, 15% .38-40, 13% .32-20, and 5% .41 colt.  The Colt Lightning was available in .38 colt and .41 colt.