What are the "cowboy" calibers?

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An old article in the Sacramento Bee called the late gold rush town of Bodie, Cal. "Bad Shot Gulch" based on the high number of shootouts and low number of casualties. It said "An Army or Navy revolver in a belt scabbard is seldom seen. The usual weapon is a Bulldog revolver in a leather or canvas lined coat pocket."
 
In the novel Appaloosa, Robert B. Parker armed one of his cowboys with a double-barrel 8 gauge shotgun. It settled arguments pretty decisively.
I occasionally see empty 8 gauge shells for sale, but I've never seen any loaded ammo at the local Wal-Mart. :) I believe the only 8 gauge load still manufactured is a special slug used in the steel industry for blowing out the drain plug in a blast furnace to pour the molten steel.
 
GCBurner said:
In the novel Appaloosa, Robert B. Parker armed one of his cowboys with a double-barrel 8 gauge shotgun. It settled arguments pretty decisively.
I occasionally see empty 8 gauge shells for sale, but I've never seen any loaded ammo at the local Wal-Mart. :) I believe the only 8 gauge load still manufactured is a special slug used in the steel industry for blowing out the drain plug in a blast furnace to pour the molten steel.
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I didn't read the book (lousy attention span) but I loved the movie!!
 
My grandfather carried a .38 short rimfire pocket revolver in the late 1800's. Which I still have.

ByTheWay. The revolver is marked "Cal .38 Short". It was a black powder weapon.
 
So there were lots of so-called cowboy calibers back then. Did anyone mention the 45 Schofield used in limited numbers by the US Cavalry in Smith & Wesson Revolvers?
 
Elmer Keith said that anybody who objected to the term .45 Long Colt had not had his experience with the short Remington loading still listed as .45 Colt.
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And Elmer Keith wrote of this in the 1930's. The .45Gov't was still in circulation back then and he ran into the cases often. Also make note that Elmer Keith never referred to the .45Colt as ".45Long Colt". He always specified ".45Colt, long case" or "short case".

Fact is, there never was a .45Short Colt or a Long Colt. There is simply the .45Colt. That is the cartridge's name. Whether or not an ammunition company loaded the .45Gov't in a case with the .45Colt headstamp is irrelevant. Hornady is loading their pointy rubber tip revolver cartridges in shorter cases. Are we now to refer to them as ".44Short Magnum" and the rest ".44Long Magnum"? Or do we wait until they've been defunct for so long, perhaps 100yrs or more, that they literally define "obscure"? Most shooters who use the term ".45 Long Colt" have never heard of the .45Gov't and believe the "Long" is to differentiate it from the .45ACP. So these days, we can't even agree what the "Long" is for, only that some folks cling to it despite the facts.

Bottom line is that there were indeed .38 and .41, Long and Short Colt cartridges. There was never a .45Short or Long Colt. Only the .45Colt. Far as I know, the only source of guns marked "Long" is Gary Reeder and he could stamp them ".45 Fat Snapper" if he wanted to. Actually I'm pretty sure he would mark the guns with anything you wanted, with naked ladies to boot. It wouldn't change the fact that it's still just .45Colt.

All these .45 cartridges have distinctive names and thus there is no reason for "Long". If you're using it so the countermonkey at Walmart doesn't hand you .45ACP, the problem is not what you called the cartridge.

.45ACP
.45S&W (Schofield is another nickname)
.45Government (long defunct)
.45Colt


The Schofield !
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That's a #3 Russian. Chambered in .44Russian. Not a .45S&W.
 
I like to browse the gun section of my reproduction copy of the 1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. catalog: good overview of popular cartridges in the transition from black powder to smokeless powder.

The 1897 catalog lists several cartridges presumed black powder unless specifically marked "smokeless".

sears catalog style note: no . before caliber in text, but . before caliber in illustrations.

Rimfires included:
22 BB cap, Conical Ball Cap, short, long, long rifle, extra long, and "special 22 caliber, for Winchester model '90, repeating rifle, 7 grains powder, 45 grains lead, per 50, 25c"
"25 caliber, for Stevens, Maynard and Winchester singleshot rifles",
"30 caliber, short", "30 caliber, long".
32 caliber in extra short, short, long and extra long.
38 caliber in short, long, extra long
41 caliber in short "for Remington Derringer pistol" and long version.
44 "Winchester, model '66, rim fire, 28 grains powder, 200 grain ball" labelled ".44 FLAT"
56-46 Spencer carbine labelled ".56 .46" and noticably bottlenecked
plus 56-50, 56-52, and 56-56 Spencer carbine too.

In centerfire they had a wide array of calibers:
38 caliber short, long and extra long. The short and long for Ballard rifles and Colt's revolvers, the extra long for Ballard rifles.
38 W.C.F. for Winchester model '73 and 38 cal Colt's for the new lightning magazine rifle. Both illustrations look lke .38-40 to me. Black powder loads with 40 grains powder, smokeless with 17 grains powder.
"45 Colt's" for the Colt's Army and D.A. revolvers.

30 Winchester smokeless, 30 grains powder, 160 grain metal patch bullet. The catalog carries Winchester Model 1894 rifles chambered for "30 caliber Winchester smokeless" and competing Marlin Model 1893 rifles chambered for "30-30 Smokeless caliber"

There is even a selection of pin-fire cartridges in 7 M-M, 9 M-M and 12 M-M.

I suspect the name "45 Long Colt" is a newer name for what was known in its day as "45 Colt" or "45 Colt's"
 
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I don't know how popular it was, but no one has mentioned the .38-40. It's a necked down version of the 44-40.

Anyhoo, We just love our pair of Puma "Bounty Hunter" mares legs in 44-40. What fun!

Woody
 
I think it might be a good post to mention that not all xx-xx callibers are bullet size and powder volume.

a 38-40 is a 40 caliber cartridge, a 56-50(spencer) is a 50 caliber
some were just named for name sake, like 38 special is not a 38 caliber for example.
there were many many rimfire sizes and then sharps with all the bottle neck stuff........its a long list.
 
NP. It's just a pet peeve. It's like "proactive;" people just add stuff, and you can never get it taken off.
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Yep. Love it or hate it, ".45 Long Colt" is here to stay.
I have pet peeves like that too. I hate it when people say "front shoulder" when referring to an animal. Technically I guess it's correct, but redundant because no animal has a rear shoulder.
I don't think either term is going anywhere though.
I was going to mention the .38-40 but I was beat to the punch.
Has anyone said .22 for an old west caliber? It's been around since well before the Civil War.
 
I wonder what caliber those bulldogs were usually in.

I also wondered about the .22. I assume the .22lr wasn't common?
 
Paul, I take a dim view of ignorance (not yours), but in general. If I am right and the world is wrong, then I am still right.

For instance, the above picture, the cartridge on the left is 45 Colt. The one on the right is 45 S&W or 45 Schofield.

If you REALLY want to split hairs, talk about the Army cartridge with 45 Colt rim diameter and 45 Schofield case length that could be chambered in either gun....and THAT one was NOT 45 Short Colt either.

The cartridge is 45 Colt. The malt liquor is Colt 45. I think we put that one to bed.
 
I wonder what caliber those bulldogs were usually in.

Various. There was even a specific .44 Bulldog, but the pattern of gun was made in a wide range of calibers from .32 to .45.


I also wondered about the .22. I assume the .22lr wasn't common?

The .22 long rifle came out in the late 1880s as the .22 Stevens long, rifle cartridge.
Meant for single shot rifles, it was not crimped. What we know as the .22 LR with a firm crimp was originally called the .22 Smith & Wesson Long, made for use in revolvers.
 
The .22 rimfire came out in the 1850`s which became the .22 short, .45 Government AKA .45 Short.
 
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The so called .45 short colt was actually a .45 Schofield. It was a tad shorter than a .45 colt but could be fired in a colt. The .45 Colt could not be fired in a Schofield. The U.S. army bought a lot of .45 Schofield cartridges because of the interchangability with the .45 Colt. A lot of Army folks had Schofields.
 
Technically true, though the Schofield's rim was larger, thus you could not fully load a 45 Colt with them. They developed a hybrid cartridge that would run in both.
 
First I agree it is 45 colt. The terms 45 long colt and 45 short colt are nicknames.

I don't like the term 45 long colt either. I am starting a movement for 45 Magnum Colt. These can only be used though for handloaded rounds that have high pressures that exceed 25k...and head stamped 45colt:)
 
I guess if I start reloading, I wouldn't mind grabbing some of these cowboy guns. As is, the rounds are too expensive, but now that I've got some reloading stuff, I wouldn't mind a 45 Colt... or a 44 Magnum.
 
Technically true, though the Schofield's rim was larger, thus you could not fully load a 45 Colt with them. They developed a hybrid cartridge that would run in both.
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Yep! This was the reason for the .45Gov't. A cartridge that could be fired in either sixgun, without worry of rim interference possible when loading the Colt with .45S&W.

But .45Schofield is a nickname as well. "Technically" speaking, the name for the cartridge is .45S&W. ;)
 
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