45 colt to 454 casull, worth it?

[Kroberts]

I just saw that ruger is now chamfering there Blackhawk with a 5 shot 454 casull and 480 ruger cylinders. I currently have a Blackhawk in 45 colt that I love to shoot full bore with 250s at 1450fps. Since I saw the new chamberjng I have an ich for the 454. My question is, is it worth the upgrade in power to the 454 over the colt. Which I would trade in the current Blackhawk for the change. At the time being, all that gets hunted with the revolver are squirrels and deer. And still have yet to take a shot at a deer. If I go the 454 it will more than likely get scoped to hopefully make use of the rxtra velocity and flatter trajectory. So is it worth the extra performance potential and recoil of the 454 even though the colt will take care of any rampaging squirrel with authority. And will mostly be loaded and fired at upper end colt power anyway.

All opinions and tips welcome.

Kyle

 

[Gary Kaney]

Go with the 454 and don't look back. I have a Freedom Arms Model 83 with both cylinders. I hardly ever use the 45 Colt.

 

[wyosteve]

I'll just throw this out though I suspect you're already aware. You might consider a S&W 460. It will shoot .45 Colt, 454 Casull and 460 S&W. Would cover all your scenarios/uses with one gun. Just my .02.

 

[StrutNut]

454 is a beast and that Freedom Arms is the ticket. If I bought another 454 I would get the Freedom Arms version again. It is incredibly accurate and very robust. I am not sure about the Ruger but that cartridge is the deal. I reloaded for it and I did have some hot loads and some milder loads for general shooting. The Factory rounds from FA seemed to have more recoil than my hand loads. I had to sell it a few years ago when I get laid off. Man I miss that handgun. There is no comparison between those two rounds. 1 is for play, the other means business.

 

[Pdvdh]

The 454 will give you more velocity, power, and recoil. If you don't object to the full powered 45 Colt recoil in your handgun, then you're a candidate for the 454.

Freedom Arms 454s are built like bank vaults. No cylinder gap on a Freedom Arms, and they don't ever seem to shoot loose over time. My brother owns several Freedom Arms. He's also owned and shot a number of other brands of revolvers in 454 and 45 Colt. He likes his Freedom Arms revolvers. He's a gunsmith and owns a local gun shop. He likes the 454 Casull and his customers must also, because he always has some 454 revolvers in his showcase. And always has a couple Freedom Arms revolvers on display.

The only 454 Casull revolver I own is a double action Ruger Alaskan with 2 1/2" barrel. I hate the muzzle blast. Recoil isn't too bad, but the MV and recoil is reduced because of the 2 1/2" barrel length. I bought it for bear protection and wanted to be able to quickly fire all rounds with one hand, in the unfortunate case where my other hand might be in the bear's mouth. I went 2 1/2" for convenience of packing the revolver around.

I'd suggest a 5" barrel for hunting, for the improved MV and sighting length for longer shots. Somewhere in the 5 - 7 1/2" barrel length.

A Freedom Arms will usually generate more MV than any other revolver in identical barrel length because there's virtually no gap (maybe 0.002" maximum) between the cylinder and the barrel. But they cost an arm and a leg.

 

[Ernie]

Most guys are not capable enough to shoot beyond what a 45 can do in field conditions on game.
That being said the 454 Casull is a great cartridge.
I have taken sheep, whitetail, and mule deer with the FA.

 

[Methow Packer]

I've been there. My first was a Gary Reeder converted Blackhawk .454. LOTS of recoil. Wound up using 45 colts loaded up as you are doing. Changed to a Gary Reeder .429 GNR which is a necked 454 to .44 cal.. WOW big change in recoil but still heavy recoil for the performance you get. Did one more Gary Reeder Blackhawk stainless octagon barreled 410 GNR which is a 44 mag necked down to 41 cal. Now we're talkin. perfect performance n recoil. To sum it all up, unless you are looking to hunt grizz etc. save the effort. 44 mag. 45 +p and or a hot 41 mag will take care of most that you're going to hunt and with control and plenty of energy. This is my take on the subject

 

[Kroberts]

I'll have to look into the freedom arms and see if it's something I could afford. They sounds like amazing single actions. Your all replies definitely have my interest in the 454 up. I'll do some more playing with the full power colt until I get the money saved up and decide for sure if the 454 power is something I'd want to play with. What would you all suggest as the bullet weight having the most recoil. Right now I have a mold for 250 gr that I'll run up to 1500 fps. I'm thinking about getting a 300-325gr mold.

Kyle

 

[Ernie]

I'll have to look into the freedom arms and see if it's something I could afford. They sounds like amazing single actions. Your all replies definitely have my interest in the 454 up. I'll do some more playing with the full power colt until I get the money saved up and decide for sure if the 454 power is something I'd want to play with. What would you all suggest as the bullet weight having the most recoil. Right now I have a mold for 250 gr that I'll run up to 1500 fps. I'm thinking about getting a 300-325gr mold.

Kyle

With my FA's I always ran 300 grain XTP's or a 300 grain hard cast

 

[Pdvdh]

Kinda depends on your primary intended use.

We run 300+ grain hard cast lead bullets for brown bear defense. I'm loading 335gr hard cast bullets with a gas check on the rear. 1200fps out of my 2 1/2" Ruger Alaskan. You'd likely get 1,400fps in a 5" barrelled FA single action revolver. Maybe even a bit more.

A guy located 10 miles from me killed an old starving boar brown bear that charged him around 5 years ago with a 360gr hard cast bullet from his 2 1/2" barrelled Ruger Alaskan. Severed the boars spinal cord just behind the neck firing double action from the hip as the bear closed in on him. Charge started from 30 yds and the bear skidded past him 10 feet after he severed the spinal cord. It was a death charge. Kill or be killed. The guy was still puking 30 minutes after the bear was killed.

 

[MachV]

This SRH is my second 454 Casull (I'm a slow learner)This whitetail was taken with Casull rounds but I have all but given up on the Casull and only shoot stout 45lc loads out of it these days. The 45lc loads are far more accurate in this pistol and more fun to shoot. Dead is dead and the Casull is just not that much flatter than the 45lc.
Never give up on a good shootin 45!

 

[yorke-1]

FWIW, if I had a 45 Colt that shot well and I liked it I would look to the 480 Ruger instead of a 454. The 480 is a heck of round and throws some significant lead down range. I've owned a few 454s, 45 Colts, 44 Mags as well as a 460 and 500 S&W. The 480 is my favorite of them all.

If you did go 454 I would check out the Magnum Research BFR. They're only a little more than the Super Blackhawks but much closer to a Freedom Arms as far as quality. I'd say that the BFR is 85% of a Freedom Arms for 50% of the money. I've owned 3 and they were all excellent guns.

 

[Kroberts]

I was actually about to ask about the BFR, since the freedom arms is quite a bit out of my price point. I thought about the 480. But the biggest thing pulling me to the 454 is that I can get plated bullets cheap and still run them towards the higher end of what the 45 colt can do. for when I want to play. Though I did do some testing with the rainier plates bullets and could only hit 1300 fps before accuracy fell apart. I might try some Montana extreme bullets when these run out, about 470 to go. They're a bit cheaper, and are rated for 1500 fps. With that I should hit the guns limit before I hit the bullets limit. That aughta be plenty of thump to play with out of the colt until I make up my mind on what to get. By the end of about 1000 full power loads between the two bullets I should know if I want the extra power or not. Though I like the idea of the extra safety margin the 454 offers when running the full power colt loads.

That's an awesome kill MachV.

Kyle

 

[larryaguilar]

I sent a ruger to Gary reeder for a conversion to 454 over ten years ago. I paid about $1300.
I use it as my scouting side arm and when I tag out. I have never taken any game with it.
Load 29.5 of H110 with 300 cast bullets. I have total confidence it can take care of any problem I might encounter. To this day I get great pleasure by just holding it. Yes it does have recoil, but that's the fun part. I did overload some 360 cast which made the barrel loosen up. Sent it back to reeder he put on a new barrel(no charge) and told me not to load them that heavy. My bad. Almost sold it Once, so glad I didn't.