I live in Western Oregon, and have been a hunter and fisherman my whole life. I have an acre in rural Benton County, adjacent to a 100 acre field. I am a gun enthusiast, and have been reloading ammunition since 2004.
I am not going to be real technical here. The .45 round for the 1873 Colt Single Action Army and the Remington .44/40 were both pistol rounds using black powder. Rifles chambered in each gave the bullets more speed because there was a longer burn period. Better accuracy from longer sight picture. The Army spec for the 1873 .45 was it needed to penetrate a horse and kill a man at 100 yards. They loaded them real hot, and later reduced the charge to make them more manageable.
Modern day sees lots of cowboy action games and renewed popularity of these rounds. We use smokeless powder now, less smoke and corrosion.
I made the .45lc round above. Cowboy .45 is different from semi-auto .45. Longer casing, rim to seat in cylinder. I used a 250 grain round nose flat point slug and enough powder to get to 1,200 feet per second out of a 20” carbine barrel. I have a reproduction of the 1892 Winchester. It was the last Winchester designed with the short throw, and used pistol rounds. The 1894 is your grandpa’s 30/30, first long throw design and the beginning of the high power rifle revolution. My 1892 is know for toughness, and I will load them at the upper end of published data.
Yesterday a nice little buck was standing in my back yard at about 20 yards. I shot him through the left side, just behind his shoulder. He was dead, but had a bit of bounce left. On the third bounce I shot him again, this time at 30 yards, from the right side quartered away. The above bullet went through the deer from back ribs to front shoulder, and penetrated the shoulder blade. It was hanging in the skin. The first round went clear through, which is why I had dirt in back of the deer when I shot him.
Pointing a firearm at anything and pulling the trigger is not a good idea unless you plan to kill what you are pointing at. It is sad we needed a film start to prove one of these will kill a person and have enough energy left to kill another person on the other side.
All guns are always loaded. Do not touch a gun unless you know how to open it up to unload it. When you touch a gun, unload it. Load it again if you want, then you know.
I have a nice shot of the buck on the ground, not real gruesome, but I don’t post unless requested.