Hot rodding weaker .45 Colt guns has led to the premature failure of many fine older .45 Colt revolvers.
Elmer Keith blew up a few Colt single actions before he moved to hot rodding the 44 Special in the S&W Triple-Lock. Of course, we know the rest of the story-he managed to convince S&W and Remington to make the 44 Magnum a commercial cartridge quite a few years later.
Still, used with discretion in the correct guns, 45 Colt is a cartridge with enormous potential.
I think a combination of cowboy shooters and liability concerns over someone tossing modern ammo in an old black powder frame have led to most of the 45 Colt ammo on the market being pretty anemic compared to what even a "normal" smokeless Colt SAA or one of the Italian clones can safely handle.
You typically can't fit the original 40 grains of black powder in a modern case(you need a balloon head case for that) but even 36 or 37 grains(what will typically fit in a modern case under a 250 grain bullet) of FFF Goex makes for quite a stout load. It will sting your hand, especially in a single action if you don't handle it like it was meant to be handled(I preach "let it roll" all the time when I'm out with folks who have limited single action experience).
I have two cases of the no-longer-made PB powder stashed back, and this is one of my favorite powders for 45 Colt. It can make a nice plinking load or can be ramped up a bit to give something warmer that's still well in spec. I won't go to Blue Dot for a standard pressure 45 Colt, but Herco is a nice classic(and mostly forgotten) choice for something a bit warmer, and of course there's also good old reliable Unique. I tend to not like giving out load data on forums, but I mostly just follow the book suggestions from a current Lyman manual for any of these powders. BTW, my bullets of choice are usually soft swaged 250gr round nose Hornadys for the slowest loads, and then I move up to either wheel weights or "Cowboy" bullets from Missouri for warmer(standard pressure) loads. Both of those, again, are 250gr.
For the Ruger section of the manuals, I tend to use a Hornady 250gr soft point and almost exclusively Winchester 296. As a side note, for the sake of safety, I make these loads quite visually distinct. In my loading practices, the Hornady soft point is ONLY used for Ruger loads, and I only make up Ruger loads using that bullet. In addition, I always load them in NEW Starline brass and use a Winchester primer. I'll use new brass for other loads in 45 Colt if need be, but my use of a Winchester primer is a conscious choice vs. using Federal(normally) or CCI(in a pinch) for other 45 Colt loads. The unplated brass Winchester primer sticks out like a sore thumb. In common with my high powered 44 Mag loads(which are safe in any gun, but not always pleasant) I usually put a red X on the case head in sharpie as an additional visual indicator.