Hey Guys,

The .45 Colt has been 'tweeked' pretty significantly these days.  You can take a factory Ruger Blackhawk and drive a 265 grain cast lead bullet at 1450 fps with no modifications to the revolver.  Then you start with the custom jobs with the five shot cylinders getting 1500 fps with 310 grain bullets, and the guy who gets 1250 fps with a 400 grain bullet, all with a pistol length barrel.  

What kind of performance do you get with a 16-20 inch barrel with this cartridge? &nbsp;If you had a .45 Colt, 5 shot or 6 shot 'revolving rifle', what kind of ballistics would you be getting?<!--emo&???--><img src="http://beartoothbullets.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo-->?

El Lobo in NM

i chronographed a .45 colt load consisting of a 260 gr. JHP/22 gr. of 2400 powder. the vaquero produced 1300 fps and the Winchester gave a reading of a little over 1600 fps, not bad for the old .45 colt....gutpile

oh &nbsp;i forgot to mention the vaquero was a 4 1/2&quot; barrel and the winchester was a model 94 trails end with the 20&quot; barrel...gutpile

El Lobo,

I think it is both safe and reasonable to expect an added 250-300 fps out of your carbine over the same loads in your sixgun... provided that they are loaded with slower handgun powders, (H110/W296, AA #9, 2400 or Lil' Gun) &nbsp;Don't expect that kind of gain if using fast burning powders like AA #2, Red Dot, W231 or even Unique and Universal Clays. &nbsp;You'll get some increase yes, but not nearly what you could acheive with the slower burning powders mentioned.

Let us know what you find out!

God Bless,

Marshall

El Lobo,
All the big time gunsmiths that I have talked to consider 35 fps for every inch of barrel, using the faster powders, to be the standard measuring stick. &nbsp;I have noticed this to be fairly consistant.

God Bless

Will

If you look in the 'Articles&quot; section you'll find &quot;Dissolving the Myth&quot;. &nbsp;It will answer your question completely. &nbsp;