I'm not 100% on this, but here's my take on it:

There is a .44 Special and a .44 Magnum cartridge. There is also a .45 Colt, aka .45 Long Colt cartridge. To the best of my knowledge, there is no such cartridge as a .44 Colt, so you may have been looking at a thread with a typographical error!

 

.44 S&W American Case length 0.91 in (23 mm) 1869

.44 S&W Russian. Case length 0.970 in (24.6 mm) 1870

.44 Colt Case length 1.10 in (28 mm) 1871

.44 (S&W) Special Case length 1.16 in (29 mm) 1907

.44 Remington Magnum. Case length 1.285 in (32.6 mm) 1955

There are also :
.44 40 Cal.
.44 Webley
.44 Bulldog.
.44 amp
.445 SuperMag


Are all 44 cal. cartridges listed in Cartridges of the World !

The first three were Blackpowder cartridges. My .44 mag. Blackhawk revolver can shoot .44 Russian .44 special and .44 Mag. cartridges !

P.S. There is no .44 LC and for that matter there is no .45 LC only .44 colt and .45 colt !! My 2 cents !

Steeltown

 

P.S. There is no .44 LC and for that matter there is no .45 LC only .44 colt and .45 colt !! My 2 cents !Steeltown

From the Colt Manufacturing website:
"Colt revolvers come in six standard calibers. Choose the classic .45 Long Colt or any of five others to suit your taste: .357, .32/20, .38 Special, .44/40, .38/40."

And the debate begins.

 

Yes, there was a 44 Colt cartridge. It was a military cartridge that went into service back in 1871. It was discontinued in about 1940. See: .44 Colt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Somewhere I have an old .44 Colt cartridge I got in an old box of .44 Special with balloon head cases. AFAIK, .44 Colt can be fired in .44 Special or Magnum guns; the question is, "why?"

Starline lists this brass and even has it in stock. Here's their description:

44 COLT (Large Pistol primer) 1.095"-1.105" O.A.L.
Essentially a 44 SPL. but .050" shorter with a smaller diameter rim (Same as 41 Mag). Originally used in Colt 1860 cartridge conversion revolvers. Use RCBS #30 or #21 shell holder, or Lee #3.

ETA: There is a .41 Long Colt. Inter alia, click here.

 

It would seem to me, sixgunner, you would benefit greatly by buying a new copy of CARTRIDGES OF THE WORLD. Not only will you spend the next year of your life reading it but it'll keep you outta the bars at night and give you a hell of a lot more money to buy guns.
You are welcome...

 

I sure hope there is a 44 Colt cartridge as I have two Cimarron Richard-Mason Conversions chambered in 44 Colt and a whole bunch of brass and loaded ammunition headstamped 44 Colt.

The 44 Colt is one of those obsolete blackpowder rounds that was brought back to life by cowboy action shooting. As already noted above the 44 Russian can be safely fired in in 44 Colt chambered handgun due to its shorter length. To the best of my knowledge there was only one length of the 44 Colt made so to answer your question the 44 Colt and 44 Long Colt are the same round.

 

Thanks guys.

 

I believe the term " Long Colt" was used because back in the 1870's they also had a "Short Colt", ie. 32 Long Colt and 32 Short Colt. 38 Long Colt and 38 Short Colt. 41 Long Colt and 41 Short Colt. 45 Colt, (Long Colt) and 45 Short Colt. The "Short Colt" cartridges were never that popular and then were dropped for the most part. If you just say 45 Colt, it can be confusing for some who are not well versed on the subject. It's even confusing for those of us who are a little more cartridge literate.

When buying ammo back then, (and nowadays too), you had to be specific. I think some still use the term LONG COLT to help differentiate the revolver ammo from the automatic Colt ammo .


Here is a website that will help to explain it better.



45 Short Colt

 

Long Colt was what they used to call them. Now it's just 'Colt'

 

A 44 Magnum cylinder will chamber 44 Russian, a (modern loaded) 44 Colt and 44 Special.

The original 44 Colt had a heeled bullet of 45 Caliber to fit the bore of a converted Cap & ball Colt Army. Later, the catridge was changed to a hollow based 429 bullet inside the case, and modern loadings use the 429 inside loaded bullet, so will chamber and fire in a 44 Special or 44 Magnum revolver.

The 44 Colt rim is a bit smaller than the 44 Russian, 44 Special (Long Russian) and the 44 Magnum (Extra Long Russian), but chambers and fires fine.

 

.44 colt

The .44 colt is a lower powered cartridge designed for the Army to use in the Richards-Mason converted 1860 cap and ball revolvers. It was a "stop gap" between the 1860 and the SAA, with the much more powerful .45 Colt, which would kill horses at long range...basically a Cavalryman's measure of utility. There was never a ".45 short Colt".... That would have been the .45 Schofield, if the term was ever official. In sum, no they are not the same cartridge. You may find .44 Colt fits other revolvers, but do NOT fire any other cartridge than a so-marked .44Colt in a so-marked revolver. It would make a great story as to why they call you " Lefty"...

 

Does it use clips or magazines?

 

Bill Jordan called those semi-automatic pistol cartridge holders "clips". That makes it acceptable terminology.

 

As to sort of throw gasoline on the fire, there was actually a .45 Colt with the short case:



These are the headstamps of the above:





The short cased .45 Colt round came out around the pre-WW I era when REM-UMC tried to use the .45 S&W case loaded with the 250 gr. .45 bullet used in the .45 Colt round. Real sixgunners wouldn't have any of it.

Bob Wright

 

I thought the term long colt came about because the military started calling the 45 Schofield a 45 Colt and the real 45 Colt which is a longer case the same thing. As a result supply was ordering 45 colt ammo for the 45 Schofield and it wouldn't fit so they decided to call the 45 Colt a long colt to avoid the confusion.

 

Terry,

You're correct.

History of the 45 Long Colt term:

Shortly after the Army procured S&W Schofield revolvers, the 1st time a supply depot accidentally shipped 45 Colt ammo to a unit issued the 45 S&W Schofield revolvers (needing the shorter S&W round), the Army figured out it had a multiple ammunition problem! Coincidentally troops were complaining about the recoil of the original Colt ~40gr load of black powder and resulting poor marksmanship.

Soon the original ~40gr load was reduced to 28 grs. Then government arsenals established the 45 S&W round as standard c. 1887 since it would chamber in both the 45 Colt SAA and S&W revolvers.

Since the 45 Colt cartridge inventory was not depleted for some time, those troopers who appreciated the superior performance of the 45 Colt round and were issued the 45 Colt SAA, specifically requested the longer round, the “long Colt” round with small L.

Other 45s of the time:

Another confused cartridge was the short .45 Frankford loaded only for the 1906 Military trials for a requested new military .45 DA Revolver. S&W designed the cartridge as the .45 S&W Special and chambered prototype Triple Locks for it that were tested in the trails.

The result of those trials was the Army's short-lived ".45 Caliber Ball Cartridge, Model of 1909," full length .45 round with the enlarged rim diameter to .536" - .540" was made for the Colt New Service Model 1909 revolver, briefly adopted by the Army until the 1911 was accepted. It was loaded only at Frankford Arsenal and specifically designed with a larger rim similar to the Schofield for more reliable extraction the Colt Model 1909 DA revolver. This cartridge will not chamber in 45 single actions unless loaded every other chamber. However, the .45 Colt and .45 Schofield cartridges will also work OK in the M1909 revolver.
This was the army's stop gap measure following the .38 Colt fiasco in the Philippines (1899-1902 where the Moros, Muslim converted tribesman, would prepare for battle by smoking pain-killing drugs and tying off their extremities with vines or wire at regular intervals to serve as ready-made tourniquets) and until the 45 ACP hit the streets.

 

Ahhh!! Necro-thread!!

 

Another story I have heard regarding the term "Long Colt" is that it was coined during the period just before WW I when Remington-UMC marketed a round using the 250 gr. .45 Colt bullet loaded into the .45 S&W case, and loaded with semi-smokeless powder. These rounds were headstamped as .45 Colt.

Supposedly shooters disdained the shorter round and requested the "long Colt" rounds.

Bob Wright

 

That no doubt perpetuated the term or even reinvented the term. However the term is recorded in military quartermaster requisitions for ammo decades earlier.

 

I shoot 44 Colt in my Charter Arms 44 spl. The cartridge case is about 50/1000th's shorter than the 44 spl.