The .45 Long Colt
 

Nation	Year	Max. press.
U.S.A.	1873	15500psi (traditional guns)

The classic cowboy round, the gun that won the west, and all of that. Actually this is still a pretty good round, and is still viable for defense, although there are better rounds available. The major drawback of the round is the flip side to it's history and heritage. The fact that it has been around for over a hundred years means that care must be taken in working up loads. The cartridge itself is bigger and has a larger case capacity than the .44 Magnum, but until recently, metallurgy, and human daring, had not been up to filling the huge case with modern powders. In order to prevent fools from killing themselves, or even worse, ruining good guns, the .45 L.C. has been divided into several classes, reflecting the different generations of guns which chamber it. As can be seen, in modern guns (Ruger, Contender, Dan Wesson, etc.) the round is a close competetor of the .44 magnum. There are those who consider it to be a better stopper because of it's larger bore (.454 vs.  .429) than the .44 Mag. In experimental loadings, and in the Cassul .454 loads, the power of this round can greatly exceed that of the .44 Magnum, but these loads can not be used in all guns, and I have not given data for them.