7Ultra,
I have hunted with big bore handguns for 12 years now and have taken dozens of big game animals with them. Let me give you my opinion of the new S&W monster rounds.
Well, first let me respond to some of your direct statements and questions.
Personally, I feel these are about as far from the perfect "First" big bore handgun as you could get. These rounds are expensive to shoot with factory ammo, can be very tricky to handload for because of the large case capacity, especially with the lighter bullets which are the only ones that really offer extreme velocity for a handgun.
The handguns are extremely large, heavy, not user friendly in the field for a new handgun hunter and they are expensive. I agree quality is worth the extra price but in this case I am not sure if this is truely worth it.
As far as shooting 45 colts and 454s in this revolver, acuracy will be very poor with the jump needed before the bullet reaches the forcing cone of the barrel.
Even more important, if you shoot alot of say 45 colt ammo for practice, the gases will score the chamber ahead of the 45 colt case mouth. If you shoot enough of these shorter loads when you go to the full length S&W the longer case will expand hard against this rough area and extraction will be very hard, sometimes needing the cases to be pounded out.
Same will happen with the 454 only with fewer rounds becauase the pressures are so much higher then the colt.
Also, the 460 S&W will not accept lower pressure loads, this is a major problem with these huge case capacity big bore revolvers. With the powder they use, they just do not respond well to low pressure loads without using very heavy bullets.
It all sounds good and it is a very good sales pitch but I have polished out enough 454 chambers to know that using the shorter ammo is not a good idea.
Now as far as ballistic performance, the only bullets I have seen reported that will perform at high velocities, +2000 fps, are the very light 200 gr bullets. The SST muzzle loader bullet has teh best B.C> of the bunch but a 200 gr .452" bullet will be a very poor penetrator. Something they do not mention in the articles praising these new super rounds.
Even loaded with this bullet to 2200 fps and zeroed at 200 yards. YOur mid range trajectory will be +4.1" which is not terrible but at 100 yards you better be aware of it or some very bad things can happen quick in the field.
As far as 250 yards with this zero, you will be -7" low. Now if you take a center hold on a whitetail at 250 yards with a 200 yard zero, if you hold behind the shoulder you MAY just clip the brisket. If you hold on shoulder you will be taking a leg out at the elbow or lower and this will resullt in a lost animal that will eventually die a very slow death.
In my opinion, which is based from on game performance on many big game animals with big bore handguns from 41 cal up to 50 cal, in teh 45 caliber rounds, you really should be puching 300 gr hard cast lead bullets, especially in a round the size of the 454 and now the 460 S&W. On game performance is simply amazing, the problem is that these are not 250 yard bullets no matter how fast you can drive them in a handgun.
FOr example, take a 300 gr CPB loaded to 1800 fps in the 460 S&W and zero it at 200 yards. Your midrange trajectory will be +8.0". This is far to much in my opinion for a revolver mid range. At 250 yards the bullet will hit -13" which again is certainly not good for taking center hold shots. In fact on a whitetail, you better hold about 4 to 5 " over the line of the back to get a center hit. Possible, yes, practical, not really.
If you want to hunt with a big bore handgun, it would be my advise to hunt at ranges under 150 yards and zero at 100 yards if you want. Personally, I handgun hunt to get the thrill of getting close to the game, kind of like bow hunting but with a gun which I greatly prefer.
DO not get caught up in the B.S. that the light weight very fast bullets are great game killers, they are not. USe a heavy, wide meplat hard cast bullet and your results will be dramatically more impressive on game.
In my opinion, the perfect bullet weight for the 460 S&W would be the Cast Performance Bullets 395 gr WFNGC. With this bullet you would have performance enough to tackle even cape buffalo. For lighter game, a 300 gr WFNGC would be my choice.
I would choose these two bullet weights simply because they make this huge 45 cal magnum much more user friendly to load for and generally more accurate as well.
My opinion of what a perfect first big bore handgun would be, go get a 6 1/2" Ruger Blackhawk in 45 Colt and have the trigger tuned up by a good smith. Total will run around $400 for a stainless revolver. You can start with lower power loads such as the traditional Colt loads, 255 gr lead bullet at 950 fps and then work up to some extremely impressive loads such as the 360 gr WFN loaded to 1250 fps. The Ruger revolver will certainly handle this level of power, in fact I have witnessed some Ruger 45 Colt shooters matching 454 performance exactly in their factory Blackhawk revolvers, not I certainly do not recommend this but it clearly shows the strength of the Blackhawk. They are also generally very accurate.
If you want a scoped handgun, I would highly recommend the Ruger Super Redhawk in 480 Ruger. This round has impressed the hell out of me. I practice with 325 gr HP bullets loaded to around 1200 fps and for serious work I load the 325 gr pills up to 1500 fps in the 7 1/2" barrel. For heavier game, the 425 gr WFNGC can be driven to 1200 fps and simply will not stay in any north American big game, not even moose or bison. Ammo is relatively cheap but better yet this round is a joy to load for. IT can be loaded with very low pressure loads as well as full tilt loads that will even outperform the 454 as far as on game performance goes on heavy game.
This handgun combines with a straight 2x or 1.5-4x Burris handgun scope would be very hard to beat.
If you want to reach out with a handgun, drop me a line and I will build you an XP-100 that will give you 400 yard reach and carry more energy at that range then the 460 has at 100 yards. Plus it will offer 300 yards center hold shooting.
Big bore handguns are not long range tools, you simply can not drive the heavy bullets fast enough to reach that level, nor should you try, the bullets perform much better below 1800 fps on game.
Just my opinion,
Kirby Allen (50)
