.44 cal Colt Army to .45; Does it Really Work?

[44caliberkid]

Your .36 caliber cap n ball pistol has a groove diameter closer to .375, so 357 - 358 bullets are a loose fit. That’s why they keyhole. Pure lead hollow base bullets will expand when fired and get a grip on the rifling. 44 caliber revolvers have a bore .450 or larger, that’s why you use .454 - .457 balls in them.

 

[44 AMP]

Pure lead and soft alloys will bump up or squeeze down quite a bit and still be perfectly safe and usually accurate.

Early pistol cartridges were loaded with heel type bullets and the widest part of the bullet was the same diameter as the case, and since lead squeezes down and all the bullets were lead, the .36s became .38s and later when .38 had become the known standard term, cartridge tech changed again, and bullets were sized to fit inside the case, and became actual ".36s" (.357-358) again, but the name ".38" stuck.

Modern .44s are loaded with ".43" (.429") bullets as a result of the same process.