SAA caliber choices?

I have SAA clones in both 38/357 and 45 Colt. I shoot the 45 Colt a lot more and I like it better.

SA revolvers just beg to be chambered in a big bore caliber. Either the .44 spec or .45 Colt will serve you well in ANY application you can think of and the fun of shooting a big bore revolver with a nice load is awesome. No need to magnumize everything.

Hi...
I have SAA clones in .44Spl and .45Colt and hope to add more in the future, including possibly .357Mag.
I particularly enjoy shooting my Uberti Cimarron in .44Spl.
I have shot several hundred rounds through it and am very pleased with it's accuracy, fit and finish.
I have thousands of rounds through the .45Colts, mostly because I have had them for a long time.

I thoroughly enjoy shooting both calibers in my Uberti clones as well as in my BlackHawks. I just load less powerful loads for the Uberti clones.
If I ever acquire a Uberti clones in .357Mag, I am sure I will enjoy it as well as I do my BlackHawks in .357Mag, but again I would probably load slightly less powerful loads for a SAA clones that what I typically shoot in my Rugers.

The 45 Colt is on top, the other 2 are in 38/357.

I have SA revolvers in 22lr, 32 H&R, 38/357/9mm, 44magnum, and 45colt/45acp.

I like them all. The Ruger Blackhawk "convertible" that can shoot 45acp is very useful. It is ballistically similar to 44 special or 45colt, but much cheaper and easier to find.

I recently bought a Cimarron Frontier 7 1/2" in .45 Colt. I wanted to get the original SAA experience for under $2,000 so I went for.45 Colt. I meant to get the original screw style cylinder release, but screwed up the order on Bud's website. My fault, not theirs. It's still a nice gun.

I reload for both .38 Special/.357 Magnum and .44 Special/.44 Magnum, and originally was going that way. Instead I went with. 45 Colt, for which I don't yet have reloading gear.

Any one of the three would be a good choice, with. 38 Special being the most economical, especially if reloaded. .44 Special would be a good compromise of power and accuracy.

If I could find a four click Bisley clone, I'd probably get it in. 44 Special.

There's nothing more satisfying than a SAA in .45colt that shoots poa right out of the box.

Uberti el patron.
Fyi.
.45colt is really easy to reload.

I've recently purchased Taylor/Ubertis in .32-20 and .45 Colt, great fun. The .32-20 due to owning a Marlin 1894 in that caliber and when I found how much fun it was to shoot the .45 Colt became a must have. No regrets as both are accurate and fun to own/shoot.



.32-20



The pair together.

I shoot .38s in cowboy action. It's hard to beat a .357 revolver for versatility, as you probably know. My usual match load is a 105 grain bullet at about 725 fps which is easy to shoot quickly and mild for new shooters. I've also used a .357 case full of Goes black powder topped with a 158 grain bullet.

That said, a tradtionally styled SA revolver in a big bore cartridge is very cool. The .45 Colt is sort of the obvious choice but I have a real fondness for the .44 Special. Not to mention .44-40, 38-40, etc.

Have fun.

I cast my own bullets as well as reloading my own cartridges. I can make two .38 Specials from the same amount of lead and powder as one .45 Colt cartridge. I enjoyed my .45s until arthritic hands and thumbs began to object. I don’t see any point in downloading a .45 to make it shoot like a .38, so I sold the .45s.

The point is, consider how much ammunition you are actually going to shoot as well as keeping it enjoyable.

Armored farmer

There's nothing more satisfying than a SAA in .45colt that shoots poa right out of the box.

Click to expand...

Yes sir you are so right about that! Even more fun when it does it with both factory ammo and handloads!

ontarget

I have single actions in all three calibers (.357, .44 Special, and .45 Colt), and I would say I have the most fun with the .45 Colt.

Also have a Rossi Model 92 in .45 Colt so that kind of favors my choice of that round as well though I would love to get another lever action in .357 too!

Only advantage of a 357 is if you're not reloading or want to shoot CAS competitively. For fun and woods carry hard to beat a 44 or 45 SAA. I have single actions in 38/40, 44 spec and 45 Colt sold my 357s cause I just wasn't using them.

One big advantage of the big bores is you can thump steel and take down deer without the ear ringing.

I prefer the balance of the 45.

That ended up being my choice, but I have to admit, for plinking and such, putting out 38s from the SAA of a hoot.

I have Ruger Vaqueros in .357/.38 and .45 Colt.
I am a Cowboy Action shooter and mostly use .357 but I solely used .45 Colt for s couple of years.

If you aren’t a competitor and / or need to save money on ammo I recommend the .45 Colt.

I like shooting my my .357 Vaqueros for enjoyment but I love shooting my .45 Colt Vaquero just for fun. The .45 just adds a little something.

Have to go with 45 Colt - had the same "dilemma" and in the end decided to add one more caliber.

I will probably get s SAA SAA uberti in .357 simply because I have a .357 carbine......but the old .45colt is the ticket.

The .44Spl strikes the perfect balance between weight, power and strength. People love the big .45Colt but at original levels, it is a lot of wasted powder capacity.

I have a Cimarron Model P in .45 Colt. I like it just fine, but I wish that I had gotten it in .44 Special, as it is my only .45 Colt and I prefer the .44.

Deanimator said:

If I could find a four click Bisley clone, I'd probably get it in. 44 Special.

Click to expand...

Did somebody say Bisley?

This one left Hartford in 1909. Chambered for 38-40. Lots of wear on this old girl, almost no blue left and the grips have a lot of wear too. But I really like her with the 4 5/8" barrel.






This one left the factory in 1907. Also chambered for 38-40. Quite a bit more finish left on this one.






This one left the factory in 1908. It is chambered for 44 Special, but that is not the original caliber. A 2nd Gen barrel and cylinder were added at some point chambered for 44 Special. No idea what it was originally chambered for.
The grips are replacements too.






Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I like my Single Action Armies chambered for 45 Colt. Although I have some Rugers chambered for 357 Mag, I prefer the lighter weight of a 45. Because the holes are so much smaller in a 357/38 the gun weighs significantly more.

This pair of 2nd Gen Colts are my Main Match CAS pistols. The top one left the factory in 1973, the bottom one in 1968. The one at the bottom was a real bargain, $680 out the door. Of course that was almost 20 years ago. Somebody had stripped all the finish of that one, I didn't do it. Years of shooting nothing but Black Powder through it have given it quite a patina.






This pair of 2nd Gens are almost pristine. The one at the top left the factory in 1973, the one at the bottom in 1963.






I'm not sure when this Uberti Cattleman shipped but I bought it used, probably around 2002.






Anyway, I like 45 Colt. 45 Colt will put you in the poorhouse unless you reload it. Last time I bought factory ammo it was about $22.00 for a box of fifty. Those days are long gone, looks like factory ammo is going for more like $35-$40 for a box of fifty these days. Yup, you can shoot 38 Specials all day long much cheaper than 45s, but it ain't the same.

Of course I have not shot any Smokeless 45 Colt ammo in years. I only shoot it loaded with Black Powder.






44 Special vs 357 Mag vs 45 Colt?

44 Special factory from HSM:

Grain Weight 240 Grains
Muzzle Velocity 845 Feet Per Second
Muzzle Energy 381 Foot Pounds
Bullet Style Flat Nose


Black Hills 357 Magnum:

Grain Weight 125 Grains
Muzzle Velocity 1500 Feet Per Second
Muzzle Energy 625 Foot Pounds
Bullet Style Jacketed Hollow Point


HSM 45 Colt Cowboy Loads:

Grain Weight 250 Grains
Muzzle Velocity 860 Feet Per Second
Muzzle Energy 411 Foot Pounds
Bullet Style Flat Nose


You be the judge.

By the way, that 45 Colt 'cowboy load' is no pipsqueek. A 250 grain bullet going about 800 fps was the standard loading for a long time.


Also, lots of guys start out in CAS with a 45, because they just have to have a 45. But for shooting really fast many find out they can shoot pipsqueek 38 Special loads with almost no recoil, which allows them to shoot really fast. So many who start out with 45s eventually trade them for 357/38s.

I should say, the most important consideration would be cylinder mouth diameters. If you are firing 0.452" bullets down a 0.455 or 0.456 diameter chamber mouths, your accuracy will be horrible in any 45 LC. I did own a S&W M25-2 which had 0.456" chamber mouths and it was never that accurate and leaded with 0.452" bullets. It did shoot better with 0.454" cast bullets but those were hard to find at the time, so I traded the thing off, and have been happier for doing so. I have read that modern Colt SAA cylinder mouths are 0.458", which is insane. I am glad I never purchased a Colt brand SAA, I would have been disappointed as I want to hit my target. 44 Special throats should be around 0.430" and the average cast bullet is 0.429, so potential accuracy should be better.

Given that, I called USFA before I purchased my Rodeo and found that they were cutting their chamber mouths to 0.451” ± 0.001". Because of this, my Rodeo is quite accurate, and in comparison to my USFA Rodeo to my USFA 44 Special, I prefer my 45 LC Rodeo



over my 44 Special USFA



This is primarily due to the cylinder pin upsetting in the 44 Special when I push bullets above 800 fps.

But, I can push 240's to 1000 fps in this revolver without any issues at all



It also shoots well out to 50 yards



I believe the original 44 Special loads were kept rather sedate to duplicate 44 Russian loads, and because S&W had for so long sold the 44 Russian for its accuracy attributes. If you look at the advertising of the era, S&W touted accuracy and penetration in wood as a quality attributes, the 44 Russian was one of the best in their cartridge line up for penetration in wood. However, S&W sort of forgot to include the 45 LC for comparison. Without a chronograph, owners in the 1890's would have a hard time telling the difference in velocity between the cartridges, and I will claim, someone today ought to prove that the velocity difference really makes a lethality difference. The assumption is always, more means more, but where is the rigorous test data to prove that? Does a recipient of a 0.429 slug laugh it off in good Western movie style, but jump like a jackass when hit by a 0.454 slug? The difference in diameter is 0.025", which when put in terms of Grand Canyon equivalent diameters, is infinitesimally small.

Size and weight wise how large of revolver do you want?

The original Ruger Vaquero is large and heavy which makes it a good match with the 45 Colt. Lots of extra steel around the chambers, larger grip that fits most folks better and weight for to reduce recoil. It is a very durable gun. I have a pair that are over 20 years old that have had seen many thousands of 45 Colt rounds both in CAS and CMSA. In fact one of them is hanging in holster on the headboard on my side of the bed so you can say I really like this model.

However I consider it to be oversize for the .357 Magnum. Someday I want to get a New Model Ruger which is on a smaller frame. I do have a Pietta S.A. that I really enjoy it's smaller size and lighter weight for packing. For Cowboy Action Shooting it will serve you well and the 357 Magnum is powerful enough for serious use such as self-defense.