Before looking at hunting loads for the .45 Colt, we need to once again try to dispel the age-old myth of .45 Colt brass being weak. There was some basis for this idea, however, it should have ended more than one half-century ago. The original .45 Colt cartridge case was certainly weak compared to today’s brass. It was of the balloon head, or folded head, variety with a very narrow rim. It was not at all unusual for this rim to pull off when fired cartridges were being resized. However, all of this ended in the early 1950s with the advent of solid head
.45 Colt cartridge cases.

There exists such a wide range of revolvers accepting the .45 Colt great care must be used in assembling loads and choosing which sixguns will safely accept them. SAAMI sets maximum standards for cartridges, however, this must be set at a level safely usable in the weakest common denominator. For the .45 Colt, this is the Single Action Army. In ranking the various .45 Colt sixguns now in production from the least strongest to that capable of a handling the heaviest loads I would list the following order: Colt Single Action Army, Smith & Wesson Model 25 & 625, Freedom Arms Model 97, Ruger Blackhawk, Ruger Redhawk, Custom five shooters built on the Ruger Blackhawk, and Freedom Arms Model 83.

The .45 Colt can be used successfully with every handgun powder offered today. While Unique remains my favorite powder, it is followed by H4227 and, for the heaviest loads, either H110 or WW296. With the .45 Colt, H4227 is almost magical being able to provide excellent accuracy when others will not. In fact, an axiom with me is “When all else fails, try H4227 before giving up.” I have one 4-3/4" Colt New Frontier that is a mediocre performer except with Lyman’s 454424 and 20 grains of H4227, a combination which turns out to be capable of one-hole groups. My brass of choice is Starline’s excellent .45 Colt brass with either CCI’s 300 Standard or 350 Magnum primer being used for ignition. Standard primers are for standard loads and Magnum primers for magnum loads.