This might be a good time to go over the differences in size that I mentioned a few posts back. My stainless Blackhawk is actually on the full sized "Super Blackhawk" frame, which is substantially larger than the Colt or the New Vaquero. The differences are pretty apparent when you look at their respective cylinders:
The Blackhawk/Super Blackhawk cylinder is both bigger in diameter and longer. This is what allows the Blackhawk to handle substantially heavier loads than the smaller Vaquero or Colt.
Having two different firearms in the same caliber that are safe with substantially different loads can be a problem. God forbid the heavy load winds up in the smaller gun - it would blow the top of the cylinder and top strap right off the thing, likely injuring the shooter. Not good...
What we do, then, to ensure that cannot happen is we take advantage of the longer cylinder on the beefier gun. Here are my three .45 Colt loads. Left to right, the 300 grain LBT loaded to 1,300+ fps, in the middle the RCBS .45-270 SAA, which was designed by Dave Scovill for use in Peacemakers. At 270 grains, it's as heavy as we can go while still having it shoot reasonably close elevation-wise to their fixed sights. I load it to just over 900 fps, and it's safe in all of my guns. On the right is the Lyman 250 grain round nose flat point, which is a slight improvement over the original bullet. It's loaded over 40 grains of FFFg black powder for just over 900 fps, duplicating the original Frankford Arsenal load. It's safe even in original 19th century Colts.
You'll notice the 300 grain load is a good deal longer than the other two. It sticks out the front of the Vaquero or Colt cylinders, so they cannot rotate to line up with the barrel into the firing position. They just can't be shot in the smaller guns, which makes me feel much better. Veral Smith
is "LBT", he cuts the molds. He will put the crimp groove wherever you want, so this is how we take care of this important safety issue.