Is the 44mag more intrinsically accurate than the 45LC?

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Yes. I have many .45 Colt's and many .44 magnums and .44 Specials. Years of effort tying hard to get my .45 Colt's to shoot as well as my .44 Magnums and .44 Specials have me agreeing with Elmer Keith: I quit the .45 Colt's! Just about any haphazard .44 load I throw together beats my carefully constructed .45 Colt's loads.

[Sur-shot]

What I know for a fact is that the first perfect score for a revolver in a sanctioned silhouette match, a 40x40, was shot with a 44 not a 45. Now it could be that it just happened that way, but I doubt it. Most things of accuracy at 50-200 meters, do not just happen in silhouette shooting, especially with a revolver.

If you have never shot a 44 you may find it a hard gun to master. Shoots great one day and you can not hit beans with it the next. It is that way when trying to learn to shoot a 44 revolver. The hot loaded 45 is no different.
Ed

[44MAG#1]

Again it will be a custom MGM contender barrel with a chamber cut to a sample cartridge Dan Walker is sending them
Read post #23.

[Char-Gar]

It is far easier to find accurate loads all up and down the power scale with the average 44 Magnum than the average 45 Colt. The difference is not in any inherent accuracy of the cartridge but the difference in the average revolver of both calibers. Mind you, I said AVERAGE revolver!

[Thumbcocker]

For accuracy the 45Colt and 44sp out shoot the 44mg. The 44mag loaded to 44sp specs will be more accurate than full mag loads.

I have found the .44 magnum to b very accurate over a wide rage of velocity ranges. Some of my best groups have been with an NOE Ranch Dog 265 rnfp over 22.0 of H110. Not the easiest on the shooter but accurate. At he other end of the scale my favorite Bisley .44 mag. shoots really well with the H110 od and Keiths over 6.5 of red dot.

[Jeff Michel]

I shoot both calibers quite a bit, rifle, revolver and contender. I have found no appreciable difference.

[Bigslug]

I don't chase the bughole group dragon with handguns to any serious degree, so it's more than likely both rounds are better than me. . .

But as a topic of discussion, if the .44 IS the more accurate of the two, do y'all think it might have something to do with the proportionally stouter rim? Leverguns of the blackpowder era were not chambered in .45 Colt because of the relatively puny rim coupled with balloon head cases. Do you think the .44 might be a little more solidly supported in it's chambers?

Or is it entirely a load-density issue? The .454 Casull - essentially the same round - never had much complaining directed against it's ability to group, but then, those guns can take compressed loads of Slow Burn.

[therealhitman]

I dont know that it really adds to the discussion.. but frank barnes said that he had seen several 100 yard, 1" groups from 44 magnum chambered rifles. I've never heard of that kind of accuracy from a 45 colt rifle.

What, offhand? Ten shot groups?

If I shot five 5 shot groups from a bench out of a cold barrel on my .45 Colt 1895CB I would nearly guarantee at least one such single MOA group. Or at least real close. Of course if I couldn't do it in five groups I'd mount a scope on it and try again.

[Bazoo]

What, offhand? Ten shot groups?

If I shot five 5 shot groups from a bench out of a cold barrel on my .45 Colt 1895CB I would nearly guarantee at least one such single MOA group. Or at least real close. Of course if I couldn't do it in five groups I'd mount a scope on it and try again.

I dont recall exactly, but the reference was from the 5th edition of cartridges of the world. I dont remember if it was 44 magnum rifle or pistol notes. I dont have my book handy, but I think, it was single shot rifle from a bench, and 5 shot groups. If I dont forget, i'll check my book when I get home and report back the details.

[M-Tecs]

The 45 Colt was around long before any type of standards. The 45 Colt predates SAAMI by 50 years. Most of the Colt issues are do to this. In equal toleranced chambers/guns they are indistinguishable.

[Lloyd Smale]

but you have to factor in the guns there chambered in and the projectiles they shoot. a 762x39 might be very accurate in a heavy barreled bolt gun using match bullets but the average guy shooting it is shooting an AK and wolf ammo. Same thing with a 3030. Hell of an accurate round in a bolt gun but the typical 94 not so much. Same goes for the 45. In a perfect world it might be as accurate as the 44mag but when you look across the board at the rifles and handguns chambered for them tolerances are much me uniform in 44 mag guns and so are twist rates. Also if your the typical guy that wants to shoot bullets under 260grain you have to fight the poorer bc of the 45 bullets and again the fact that you 45 might not like the standard 452 sized bullet. So I say yes the 44 in inherently more accurate just because if nothing else a 255 grain 44 bullet has a better bc then the same in a 45. But its a small difference. What is a fact is that if you buy say 5 blackhawks in 44 and 5 in 45 id about bet my house that if you averaged the accuracy between them even with your best handloads in both the 44 will win the accuracy challenge and if your using factory ammo or are the type that just has maybe two molds for each or use factory bullets the 44 is going to win by a BIG margin.

There's nothing inherently better about one cartridge over the other.

Anecdotes don't add up to data.

[bigted]

Just to weigh in with the old Colt round ... Try a case full and compressed with 40 grains 3Fg real black powder. Until i loaded and shot some of these in my 2nd gen Colt cavalry model did i see the real potential of the old round.

In the custom barrel id bet that the 44 would be the best choice ... Not the sexiest but im bettin the best accuracy.

[Gee_Wizz01]

OK, this is just opinion but it’s based on actual experience. I always found it easier to dial in 44 mag (and 44 Special) than 45 Colt. That’s NOT saying that the 45 Colt is an inaccurate cartridge but it is saying that I found the 44 to be easier to get good results from. This was done before my casting days so the reloads were assembled with commercial cast bullets and jacketed bullets.
I know people have achieved excellent results with the 45 Colt but for me the 44 Mag and 44 Special are the winners. This is by no means Holy Writ.

When you put the same rate of twist in each barrel, you are doctoring each round with consistency in crimp, weighing each charge, seating force (case neck tension) same primer, I think the only advantage the 44 has is that it may have a bit better BC but using the same boolit styles, both using heavy for caliber RF boolits with the same alloy and same lube, I am under the impression that each will be within 10% of the other one at 50yds.

Shooting light j words, in the 180 to 200 grain range, I think the 44 may just edge out the 45 strictly on BC of the bullet. I think the 44 has a slight advantage over the 45 in this measurement, and that's about it, all else being as equal as you could make it.

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[C. Latch]

but you have to factor in the guns.....I say yes the 44 in inherently more accurate

Inherent accuracy has nothing to do with the gun the cartridge is chambered in. That's what 'inherent' means. But you're absolutely right that the typical .44 will have better dimensional consistency than the typical .45. No argument there at all and if a new handgun shooter asked me what caliber to buy to hunt with, I'd steer them to the .44 (or .41) over the .45 any day of the week.

[gray wolf]

Ruger Super red hawk 44 mag with different loads, rested.
I believe I could get the same accuracy from the 45 colt.
I would expect the pistols be made to proper specs.

I think a fly in the test would be only shooting factory loads.
Factory only and I think the 45 would fall off and distance would be the reason.

J M H O

[Bazoo]

A better comparison I think, would be between the 44 russian, and the 45 colt. The russian, of course was the granddaddy of the 44 magnum. Wonder what the accuracy difference between 2 colt model P's would be, one chambered in 45 colt and one chambered in 44 russian.

[Bazoo]

Thats what im saying minuteshaver.

The 44 russian was offered in the colt model p, and that would be as close as a test you could get cause you cant get a smith in 45 colt. You'd have to get 2 of the same model gun from the same year range, but with 2 different chamberings. Maybe set it up with handloads made close to original specs as possible, and assembled by the same person, so the attention to detail would be the same. Then fired from each of the respective weapons from sand bags. I'd bet the 44 would beat the 45 by a good margin. Be pretty neat.

[M-Tecs]

I have both the 44 Mag and 45 Colt in scoped super 14's. Going the other direction in larger 460 S&W case is the most accurate of my S&W revolvers. My 44 Mag rifle is a Browning 92. The Browning 92 44 Mag does not come close to the accuracy of my two Marlin 45 Colts. No surprise since most of my Marlins best the 92's in accuracy.

[dubber123]

When writer Ross Seyfried set out to shoot a 1" group at 100 yards, he chose the 45 Colt. He succeeded too, but not with poofball loads, his were heavy cast with max charges of H-110/296. That said, I generally have an easier time getting my 44's to shoot. The awful specs on some 45 Colt guns is a major contributor to their lackluster accuracy in my opinion.

[shorty500]

The biggest issue with the Colt is that chamber, throats and groove diameters in the guns have flucuated wildly as well as bullet diameter shrinking since WWII. Some of the most accurate revolvers I own are chambered in .45 Colt, but YES it can be a difficult round to get accuracy from if ammo doesn't match the gun in question. Have extensively tested both my old Silhouette FA .44 and the Colt cylinders in my FA .454s I feel there is little difference IF THE AMMO MATCHES THE GUN AND THE GUN IS PROPERLY DIMENSIONED TO START. I personnally don't see any issues with the twist rate at least if it falls between the 1-16 to 1-24 rates that are found in most .45s