Well, having worked on this article & almost finishing it, THEN having the father of all computer crashes wipe it out, tends to put a cramp in one's style. Now, we're recovering from the main server crashing!!!!

My fascination with the .45 caliber started long before I was able to buy guns on my own. Dad would do the paperwork with the Sheriff, but the guns were mine. Over the years I've developed two distinct likings, the 1911 series & DA revolvers in .45LC. This isn't to say that I don't like single actions but, the focus here is primarily the DA revolver.

In early '80s I was in the market for a .45 revolver to use as a service gun. I had a reserve deputy commission at the time & the Sheriff generally looked the other way on what most of the reserves used, as long as it was a .38 spl or larger. The regulars on patrol & their reserves HAD to carry .357 magnums but, the rule wasn't especially enforced for any other division and I was a dispatcher.  The only thing out there available at the time was the Colt New Service & the occasional S&W triplelock. Colts were not abundant & I NEVER saw a Smith for sale until recently. All I ever ran across for quite a while were the ones you put up in a vault & let appreciate in value until another collectors wanted it worse than you did.

I had originally wanted to have a .45 new enough to run seriously warm loads in but, I knew that it wouldn't be the case with this oldtimer. Taking it to the range proved that it would hold a good enough group but it didn't strike point of aim with Winchester Super-X the way I looked through the sights. I took my time & finally got it regulated at 25 yards with a series of file cuts to the front sight. I eventually used it to qualify with one time just as an experiment so I could say "I told you so!" This sated my appetite for a while but when Smith came out with their Model 25s in .45LC I knew I could do better (so I thought). Smith had run a series of 4" matte finish guns "The Model of 1989" . Dad went & ordered one as a birthday present for me & the thing sure was nice looking. One minor problem though, the blasted thing wouldn't shoot ANYTHING. Groups were lousy & dad & I were never able to get any handload to even begin to tighten up. Cie la guerre, the gun went on the block less than a year later & left me kind of leery of trying another S&W product for awhile.

This left things on the back burner but, I really got excited when Colt announced that they would start producing their Anaconda in .45!

This is a model 25-9 and has some of the upgraded lockwork parts that Smith developed for the model 29 but is one of the last of the hammer firingpin (original) design revolvers made. Currently Smith uses a minor modification of the internal lockwork but, the BIG difference is a frame mounted, spring loaded firing pin. This is my ultimate idea of a service .45 revolver. I run one load only through this. Winchester 200gr Silvertip.

The last .45 I've got is one of the new Ruger Redhawks. This had been an idea that dad & I had mulled around for several years & thought of sending a .44 mag to Hamilton Bowen or Jim Stroh to get bored out. I guess Mr. Ruger got enough nastygrams over a decade or so from fellow .45 enthusiasts & finally chambered the round. There's not much I can add to what everybody else has written concerning what loads it can take & how it shoots. Needless to say, you can load it up as hot as any other Ruger product & it will eat it up & ask for more.