Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

266 страница из 495

.45 COLT

(0.451", 0.452" or 0.454") Back when I was a kid in the 1960s when few had .44 Magnum handguns, the .45 Colt was popular with handgun hunters. Adopted by the army in 1873 for their Colt Single Action Army revolver, the original black powder load was both accurate and effective with its 255-grain lead bullet. Today this cartridge is gaining in popularity due to Cowboy Action competitions, though I have seen a few hunters using it for deer with hand-loaded ammunition. For hunting, there are good bullets available but not much in factory loaded ammunition. Again, the new magnums and other cartridges such as the .454 made this cartridge less popular than it used to be. You can fire a .45 Colt in a .454 Casull cylinder BUT if you do that, make sure you thoroughly clean the cylinder’s chambers, especially the shoulders. This is critical since fouling can result in a tight chamber for the longer .454 round, with a hazardous increase in pressure. According to Bob Baker at Freedom Arms, this is one reason why they recommend an extra cylinder chambered in .45 Colt if you plan on firing a lot of .45 Colt ammunition in your .454.