.44 Colt

The .44 Colt was an American centerfire revolver cartridge produced commercially from 1871 until the 1940s.

The cartridge was developed for the United States Army, and introduced by Colt's Patent Firearms around 1871. The Army used it until 1873, at which time it was replaced by the better known .45 Long Colt cartridge used in the recently adopted Colt Single Action Army revolver.

The .44 Colt was used in the Richards-Mason conversions of Colt's 1860 Army percussion revolver. The conversion process involved boring through the chambers of the obsolete cap and ball revolvers to enable them to chamber centerfire metallic cartridges.

The original .44 Colt loading used an outside lubricated bullet. Benet cup and Martin-type primers were later replaced by more reliable Boxer type primers.

The ballistic performance of the original .44 Colt is comparable to the .44 Remington, and less powerful than modern .44 Russian loadings. Cases for the modern ".44 Colt" chambered handguns are typically made using trimmed .44 Magnum, .44 Special, or .44 Russian brass and a historically inaccurate .429 lead bullet. (As opposed to the older "heeled bullets" with a larger .451" diameter outside lubricated bullet.).

Commercial black powder and smokeless ammunition remained available until around 1940, by which time the .44 Colt had been entirely supplanted by more modern handgun cartridges such as the .38 Special and .44 Special.