Thread: .44 vs .45?
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Old December 30, 2010, 12:38 AM   #12
arcticap
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Join Date: March 15, 2005
Location: Central Connecticut
Posts: 3,166
It interesting that the Colt Walker .44 is listed as having a muzzle velocity of between 1000-1200+ feet per second which approximates the speed of sound of 1,126 feet per second.
And it may not have merely been a coincidence that about 1,100 Walkers also happened to be built.
We all know that the size and velocity of a projectile affects its effective range.
So maybe the Colt engineers had a particular velocity range and power level that they were aiming for as a goal, which for some unknown reason also happened to coincide with the speed of sound.
While we don't actually know whether the caliber was intentionally engineered around the speed of sound or not, the coincidence of the ~1100 figures certainly can't be denied. So maybe it shouldn't be ignored as one of the determining factors that helped to initially establish the .44 caliber designation either. Since it was an intentional design it would be much less likely that the choice that was made was totally a random accident or dumb luck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Colt

Last edited by arcticap; December 30, 2010 at 12:48 AM.
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