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In 1846 Texas Ranger Captain Samuel H. Walker praised Colt's Paterson revolver but suggested changes. “With improvements, I think they can be rendered the most perfect weapon in the world for light mounted troops...”

Spurred by the Ordnance Department's order for 1,000 of the new pistols, Walker and Sam Colt collaborated on a .44 revolver of immense proportions. The prototype built by the New York City gunshop of Blunt & Syms weighed four pounds, nine ounces. Production, contracted to Eli Whitney, Jr., included 100 additional revolvers for public sale.

The following October, at the battle of Juamantla, a Mexican soldier ran his lance through Captain Walker, killing him.

The Walker Colt, built 150 years ago, failed to spark a trend to bigger pistols. Colt's iconic 1873 Single Action Army was not a big gun, despite its beefy .45 Long Colt round. Development of smokeless powder in the 1890s made revolvers more effective, but not larger. Not until 1955, when the .44 Magnum appeared, would a pistol round hit significantly harder than the .45 and its contemporary heavyweight, the .44-40. Their 255- and 200-grain bullets clocked 900 fps and 1,100 fps, respectively. The .357, trotted out in 1935, drove 158-grain bullets faster than 1,200 fps, just edging the big-bores with 550 ft-lbs of energy.

By most accounts, the .44 Remington Magnum was inspired by Idaho cowboy and gun guru Elmer Keith, a Guns & Ammo legend. But engineers at both Remington and Smith & Wesson brought the project to fruition. Factory loads moving 210-grain bullets at nearly 1,500 fps carry over 1,000 ft-lbs of energy. A 240-grain bullet at 1,350 fps also doubles the punch of the .45 Colt. The .44 Magnum put handguns on a different plane.

Ed McGivern had already proven that pistols could be used at distance. His exploits with the newly minted .357 included hitting man-size targets at 600 yards. The .44's heavier bullet added lethality to reach. It was a bona fide hunting round.

The trend to pistols with rifle-like performance gained steam in the 1960s, when Remington came up with the XP-100, a handgun built on a bolt action. It debuted in 1963, its 10 1/2-inch barrel chambered for Remington's .221 Fireball cartridge. Fitted with a nylon stock, the XP-100 was drilled for a scope and weighed 3 3/4 pounds.

Four years later, Warren Center designed a single-shot hinged-breech pistol with interchangeable barrels. Ken Thompson manufactured it. The T/C Contender was so successful, it lasted nearly four decades without substantial change. J.D. Jones used it to develop and test in the hunting field a potent line of wildcat rounds on the .444 Marlin case. The improved G2 Contender followed a more robust mechanism, the Encore. Like the Contender, it comes in rifle and pistol form.

Meanwhile, Herb Belin and his engineering staff at Smith & Wesson contemplated a revolver that would hit harder than the .454 Casull, a round fashioned by Dick Casull and Jack Fulmer in 1957 to out-shine the .44 Magnum. A five-shot, fifty-ounce, single-action revolver designed by Casull and manufactured by Freedom Arms in Wyoming had become the archetypal .454. While Clint Eastwood gave S&W's .44 Mag a big boost on screen, it couldn't match the .454's haymaker punch: up to 1,900 ft-lbs of energy with 240-grain bullets at 1,900 fps.