Personal Reflection: Here’s another of Gerald’s fictionalized accounts with something he learned and thought others ought to know as well. The more myths he could debunk, the better.
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Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:21
Dear George,
You may think that what I am writing about is off the wall, but I want to tell you about something I have just learned that has really helped me. Maybe it proves what you are always talking about too.
You know how I wanted to get a Taurus Gaucho but couldn’t decide whether to order it in .357 Magnum or .45 Long Colt? I know the so-called purists tell you not to say “Long Colt as the name is just .45 Colt. But I like the name Long colt as no one can mistake what it means and get it mixed up with the .45ACP. I really wanted the Long Colt caliber but I have always heard you can’t load them up to high pressure because the case was designed for black powder and can’t take smokeless pressures. Not that I want to use high pressure loads all the time, but I would like to be able to.
I was watching a guy’s table at one of the gun shows while he went out for lunch and reading one of his Guns and Ammo magazines. It had an article about the .45 Long Colt and the idea its case can’t handle high pressure. A guy decided to look at the case in cross section so he used a rotary blade to slice through it length wise. He found the .45 Long Colt case is as strong as the legendary .44 Magnum! And because the .45 L.C. case has a greater diameter than the .44 Magnum (which is not a true .44) and it has more capacity when you load to .44 Magnum power the pressure is only 80% of the Magnum.
So what I am saying is, the idea that the .45 Long Colt cases are weak is another one of those things that everybody knows but is not true. Hooray to the guy who decided to actually look for himself!
Here’s another thing, the top reloading manuals said the same wrong thing “the cases are weak” and everybody, including me, believed the manuals instead of looking for themselves. Isn’t that like people you talk about believing wrong stuff about the Bible instead of looking into the Bible for themselves?
I guess you could say that the argument for believing the .45 Long Colt couldn’t hold the pressure was a weak case!
See you,
Karl
