What are the "cowboy" calibers?

[addedpulp]

I watch a lot of Westerns. Though it's probably inaccurate, it's much less common to see black powder revolvers and shotguns and much more common to see cartridge Colts, shotguns, and rifles. So, I'm wondering, what are the common cowboy gauges? Does the 12 gauge count? When did rifles become cartridge weapons (usually, you see a lot of Henrys, and they're all using metal cartridges and not black powder). Just wondering about this history, Google didn't help much.

Also, as a side note, why are Native Americans so commonly shown with Henrys but rarely seen with revolvers in film?

 

[303tom]

Yes 12 gauge counts , 10ga. Hell just about any muzzle loader could be used as a shotgun , .45 colt your .44-40 , .32-20 , .45-70 , 90 , 100 , 110. the .32-40 , .50-70 , 90 , 100 , 110 just to name a few !

 

[kingpin008]

Just because a firearm uses metallic cartridges doesn't mean they're filled with smokeless. There have been quite a few black powder metallic cartridges.

 

[PreMod70]

If I was in the West and had to choose between a rifle and a revolver, the rifle would be my choice hands down.

 

[303tom]

Every cartridge I named was BP. That is what .44-40 mean .44cal. powered by 40grs. of black powder. Same with the others I named.

 

[Tommygunn]

"Cowboy calibers" -- let's not forget the "Cap 'n' ball" guns.

.28 caliber, .31 caliber, .36 cal., .41, and .44 caliber. Possibly a few others I am not aware of off hand.

 

[rkammer]

Just to clarify, all cartridge rifles and revolvers up until sometime in the late 1890s used black powder. Smokeless didn't come on the scene until 1890 something.

The most common calibers for revolvers was the 44.40 or 45 Long Colt. beginning in about 1865, the 44.40 was the most popular cartridge for rifles and that is why many cowboys had the same caliber for their pistols. The 45 Colt was never offered as a caliber in lever rifles of the period. It is popular today because many Cowboy shooters want to shoot that caliber in both pistols and rifles.

 

[Kliegl]

And it was never called 45 Long Colt.

 

[Vyacheslav]

well, there's a 45 short colt

and dont forget 45-120

 

[rkammer]

Correct, not until the short Colt came around much later on. It was just "45 Colt". Thanks for mentioning that.

 

[Kliegl]

NP. It's just a pet peeve. It's like "proactive;" people just add stuff, and you can never get it taken off.

 

[Deanimator]

.44 Rimfire for the Henry rifle.

The various .52 and similar cartridges for the Spencer.

 

[BBQLS1]

I watch a lot of Westerns. Though it's probably inaccurate, it's much less common to see black powder revolvers and shotguns and much more common to see cartridge Colts, shotguns, and rifles. So, I'm wondering, what are the common cowboy gauges? Does the 12 gauge count? When did rifles become cartridge weapons (usually, you see a lot of Henrys, and they're all using metal cartridges and not black powder). Just wondering about this history, Google didn't help much.

Also, as a side note, why are Native Americans so commonly shown with Henrys but rarely seen with revolvers in film?

The Henry was designed before the Civil War and was actually in production during. It shot a .44 Rimfire metalic cartridge and was black powder.

 

[303tom]

Don`t forget about the .30-30, early 1895 one of the first to use the .30 caliber X 30grs of smokeless, but still a cowboy round.

 

[loadedround]

All of you forgot one ofthe cowboy favorites, especially in the Colt SSA, the venerable 44 Special.

 

[303tom]

All of you forgot one ofthe cowboy favorites, especially in the Colt SSA, the venerable 44 Special.

The .44 Special was made in the 1900`s !

 

[zfk55]

My favorite is the 44-40. This is my matching pair, a carbine and revolver.

 

[brickeyee]

"That damn Yankee rifle they load up on Sunday and fire all week."

The RF Henry.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

The .38 Special is only marginally an "Old West" cartridge. It was introduced in 1899 (after the end of what I think is the "Old West" era) loaded with black powder, though.

The .44 Special was made in the 1900`s !

1907. But it was developed from the .44 S&W Russian, definitely from the "Old West."

 

[Kleanbore]

Gosh. Don't forget the various Ballard and Marlin cartridges.

S&W revolvers and various rifles in .22 rimfire, .25 rimfire, and .32 rimfire.

Add .32, .38, and .44 WCF -- (The last has been mentioned as .44-40).

 

[CraigC]

well, there's a 45 short colt

Correct, not until the short Colt came around much later on. It was just "45 Colt". Thanks for mentioning that.

There never was a .45 Short Colt. Don't know where this stuff comes from.

 

[Jim Watson]

Timeline for the major US caliber/cartridge developments:

.22 Short - Smith & Wesson, 1857
.44 Henry - New Haven Arms, 1860
.50-70 - Springfield, 1866
.45-70 & .45 Colt - Springfield & Colt 1873

Early production of the Colt SAA .45 (What's a SSA, does it have a clip?) went to the Army. When it got on the commercial market, it was an expensive gun for the day.
A lot of real cowboys and other civilians had to make do with cartridge conversions of cap and ball revolvers that were done all the way through the 1870s.
And, of course there were a lot of other makes and models competing with Colt. Not that a Remington or big S&W was a cheap gun.


There may not have been cartridges headstamped or box labeled .45 Long or Short Colt, but there were definitely .45 Colt cartridges of different lengths. The 1.285" (case length) .45 Colt came out in 1873, the 1.10" case .45 S&W Schofield in 1875. The Army had a lot of Colts and a good number of S&Ws which led to problems with ammunition supplies, the S&W cylinder was too short for the Colt cartridge. The short version is that the Army standardized on .45 S&W for use in both revolvers. But it is a little more complicated than that. At the tolerance limits of gun and ammo manufacture in the 19th century, not all .45 S&W would chamber in a Colt SAA because its larger rim made for more reliable simultaneous extraction, sometimes interfered. So Frankford Arsenal produced the .45 Government; at S&W length with a Colt rim. That worked in both guns although there must have been some cussing when the narrow rim fell off the S&W star.
Remington produced a commercial equivalent in both black and, later, smokeless. It was still headstamped .45 Colt although clearly shorter. 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.

 

[Awsomepossum]

44 Russian

 

[Kaeto]

.56 Spencer

 

[Malamute]

...beginning in about 1865, the 44.40 was the most popular cartridge for rifles and that is why many cowboys had the same caliber for their pistols...

The 44 WCF (44-40) didn't happen until '73, it was the new, more powerful centerfire cartridge for the '73 Winchester. Previous Winchesters, (1866's) used the same cartridge as the Henry, the 44 rimfire, which had a 28 gr charge. Colt didn't chamber a revolver for the 44 WCF round until '78.

Smith&Wesson had cartridge revolvers several years before Colt did. They had 44 S&W American chambered guns, and 44 Russian chambered guns as well. They were top break single action guns. I think they first came out in '68 or '69. They were fairy popular while their patents were in effect, before Colt brought out there cartridge guns. Hickok was reported to own a couple or more of them.

As to popularity, we tend to forget that not everyone instantly adopted every new thing that came out, (or could afford them) or that new guns and ammo were instantly available everywhere. Tons of surplus Civil War guns were on the market for cheap, like percussion Colt revolvers, Spencers, and converted Sharps carbines, not to mention all the muzzle loading military rifles. We know that few Colt Single Action Army revolvers reached civilian hands for a couple years, the factory was busy filling military orders. There were plenty of customers in the east as well.

"Cowboys" weren't the only people in the west, tho that's who many of us tend to think of in terms of the western US frontier in the late 1800's. There were buffalo hunters, freighters, military men, trappers, town people that had stores, hotels, blacksmiths, etc, and all the usual hangers-on around any settlement or town. There were many many miners all over also, many new towns sprung up about overnight when a gold strike became known, a whole town could appear rather quickly to cater to the mining trade and those that followed. Cattle weren't the first thing happening in many parts of the west, but came along later, after the buffalo were killed off, or seriously thinned out, Indians thinned out to a degree, and there were ways to get them to market(railroads).