All American .45s

Variations and Misconceptions

- Mike Venturino

Almost 40 years ago when breaking into this business, I was thrilled to get an invitation to a writer gathering hosted by one of the major companies. One morning I was pitching an idea to this magazine’s then editor. As I spoke, a much older gent and editor of other firearms magazines sitting nearby slapped his table and literally shouted at me: “I hate it when you young fellows call it .45 Long Colt! There never was a .45 Short Colt!” With what I considered great dignity, I calmly responded, “Okay, but can I finish talking about the .41 Long Colt?” The poor fellow was truly embarrassed, but all ended well. We became friendly and he gave me quite a few assignments thereafter.

With the knowledge I have all these years later, I wish that editor was still alive so I could inform him about two versions of “short” .45 Colt cartridges and several other .45 misconceptions.

Although the U.S. was not the only country to have .45-caliber handgun cartridges, we have had the largest variety. Both Colt and Smith & Wesson were responsible for their own .45 ideas, plus the ammunition maker Peters developed an offshoot of a Colt round and the U.S. government came up with another .45 Colt variation that only worked in some revolvers.

A fact that may surprise many readers is that the very first American .45-caliber metallic cartridge was not labeled as such. It was the .44 Colt, but in fact the barrel groove diameters of its revolvers were over .45 inch. How did such a mix-up come about? It was caused by the manner in which caliber designations were applied in those days. That was often by the diameter of a barrel’s bore.