The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Colt Lightning Rifle 45 cal

Fingers McGee · September 22, 2011, 04:42 PM

I do not have a .45 lightning; but have a friend that bought one of the AWAs in .45 when they first came out. He never shot BP through it; but after a couple hundred rounds of smokeless rounds, it required a complete teardown and detailed cleaning, lubing and tightening of screws. I would guess that the blowback from a straight walled case would gunk up the action a lot quicker than that causing feeding and ejecting problems. My 44-40 Lightning will go 4-500 rounds before it starts acting up and requires a good detail cleaning.

The original Lightnings were not made in straight walled case calibers. Might be a reason for that.

Of course, the above is only my opinion. Someone with experince using .45 BP loadings may have a differing opinion.

September 22, 2011, 04:42 PM	#2
Fingers McGee Senior Member Join Date: March 20, 2008 Location: High & Dry in Missouri Ozarks Posts: 2,113	I do not have a .45 lightning; but have a friend that bought one of the AWAs in .45 when they first came out. He never shot BP through it; but after a couple hundred rounds of smokeless rounds, it required a complete teardown and detailed cleaning, lubing and tightening of screws. I would guess that the blowback from a straight walled case would gunk up the action a lot quicker than that causing feeding and ejecting problems. My 44-40 Lightning will go 4-500 rounds before it starts acting up and requires a good detail cleaning. The original Lightnings were not made in straight walled case calibers. Might be a reason for that. Of course, the above is only my opinion. Someone with experince using .45 BP loadings may have a differing opinion.