1873, 1892, 1894

[Baltimoreed]

My .45lc brass brass lasts forever but the .45lc nickel will split. I’ll usually find a couple split cases after a 60 rd cas match. But I’ve got nickel brass thats so old it’s lost so much plating it looks like brass. I use brass .45 in my Marlins and ubertis and the nickel in my sa and da revolvers. Everything gets full length sized, I use the same rcbs sizer die for my .45 schofield and long colt brass. I use 200 gr rnfp in the revolvers and 225-250 gr in the rifles.

[Eddie Southgate]

The bulge in brass with the 45Colt chambered rifles is a must , it’s the only way to get the 45 Colt to work in a lever gun.Thats why it was never chambered in lever guns originally, it was unacceptable for the companies.
The old steel RCBS with yellow labels dies take the bulge out of brass that is bulged. My Win/Miroku 92 shoots very well with .460” bullets. The 44-40 WCF was designed to work flawless in the lever gun and does it well.

The makers never chambered rifles in .45 Colt due to the very narrow rim of the original case . The newer style case had a wider rim and deeper cut that now allows the extractors to hook on and remove the case from the chamber . Had nothing at all to do with a bulged case, they just wouldn't work thru any rifle action type with the exception of maybe a single shot . The Winchester hyphenated calibers were designed originally for rifles but the .45 Colt was not .

[bigted]

So my next question is about the 357 mag and 44 mag. Are these chambers large as well?

[Savvy Jack]

2- same querry as to the 44-40 chambers in all three models. Are they generous like the Jap-Chesters chambered in the 45 Colt?

My Marlin 1894CB is only a tab bit oversized. Cowboy loads are fine but if I shoot normal or HV loads, the fired brass is a tad over expanded at the base.

[indian joe]

I have a Uberti 66 in 44/40 --- its OLD - its one of the ones they made with the trigger block like a 73 has
chamber is fat - didnt realise how fat in the body ! We split some cases (only remington)

I have a 92 that a friend rebarrelled (chamber reamer from Brownells I think) and there is no hope of getting the Uberti once fired brass to chamber in the 92 but that same brass will do several cycles in the uberti before we have to resize it

[edp2k]

The problem is that the SAMMI chamber spec for the 45 Colt is very "generous",
and there is a lot of difference between a SAMMI MAX dimension chamber and a SAMMI min dimension cartridge.

That is one of the several reasons Elmer Keith "quit the 45 colt" and went to the 44 spl.,
in addition to the 44 having more meat in the cylinder walls compared to the 45 colt.

Follow Outpost 75's advice and find an old steel sizer and use that, supposedly (I never tried it myself) the old steel sizer's don't
size down as much as the "newer" carbide sizers.
(And nickle brass will split sooner than non-nickled brass.)

Of course then the blown out rifle brass that has been minimally sized may not chamber 100% in a tight, modern revolver chamber,
but that is the unfortunate nature of the 45 colt dimensional legacy.
Unless you want to pony up $$ and have the rifles rebarreled/rechambed with a custom min-tolerance 45 colt reamer.
Even then, since the problem is the SAMMI spec wide tolerances, any given revolver or rifle may be in spec but still overwork the brass
and cause interchangeability problems.

[rintinglen]

Or use the Cowboy Die set from RCBS. A little more money, but it doesn't work the brass so hard.