I have a chance to get a coupe of barrels for my contender and one is a 14" 445. Anyone have experience with this in the Contender? The three other are all 14" barrels. 30-30, 41 magnum and (urk) a 45/70. Going to keep the 30-30 but tring to make up my mind on the rest. 45/70 has the tamer but I think it will just be too much. Not sure about the .41

The 30-30 really does need the 14 inch barrel to be consistent for velocity with factory loads, in that barrel length is a good deer and hog hand cannon. You are correct in thinking the 45-70 is a hand full, had one in 16 inch barrel with the tamer it is still a lot of gun which the 445 will be as well.

The 41 should be a good one, have one in 44Mag and have taken several deer with it. But my favorite one is chambered in 7-30 Waters.

Can you shoot 45 colt through a 45-70?

Nope, different rim and case diameters, it would probably go bang and the bullet go out the bore but being the difference in chamber size the case would swell might not be to the point of rupture but I would not risk it.

The .41 mag is a great caliber for hunting deer. I've shot the .41 for over 30 years and love it.

The 445 is just a longer version of the 44mag and you can shoot 44spl, 44mag, and 445 super through it never shot one but do have a 460SW bbl for my encore and that kicks like a mule with 200gr ftx so its probably along the same lines as far as recoil

and the 45lc in a 45-70 diff rim and .004-.007 diff on the bullet diameter so it might shoot but youll get ruptured cases and poor accuracy