The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Lever action .45 LC for primary home defense?

Salt · February 2, 2002, 11:58 AM

Personally I recommend the .44-40 & .38-40 over .45 Colt in a lever gun.

The .45 Colt case was never intended for the lever guns, while the bottleneck cartridges .38-40 & .44-40 were designed for the lever guns.

The .38-40 & .44-40 bottlenecked cartridges are designed to expand so as to seal the chamber against blowback of fouling, thus keeping the action clean. Granted this feature of the older .38-40 and .44-40 cartridges are really only necessary for the original BP loads, but they have about the same terminal ballistics as the .45 Colt and were designed for the lever guns. So I would choose either .38-40 or .44-40 over the .45 Colt for a lever carbine.

BTW, Go with a Winchester M92 or get a Marlin. The Winchester M94 is a longer action(.30-30) than is necessary for shorter pistol type cartridges.

February 2, 2002, 11:58 AM	#11
Salt Junior member Join Date: December 26, 2001 Posts: 673	Personally I recommend the .44-40 & .38-40 over .45 Colt in a lever gun. The .45 Colt case was never intended for the lever guns, while the bottleneck cartridges .38-40 & .44-40 were designed for the lever guns. The .38-40 & .44-40 bottlenecked cartridges are designed to expand so as to seal the chamber against blowback of fouling, thus keeping the action clean. Granted this feature of the older .38-40 and .44-40 cartridges are really only necessary for the original BP loads, but they have about the same terminal ballistics as the .45 Colt and were designed for the lever guns. So I would choose either .38-40 or .44-40 over the .45 Colt for a lever carbine. BTW, Go with a Winchester M92 or get a Marlin. The Winchester M94 is a longer action(.30-30) than is necessary for shorter pistol type cartridges.