THE GUN ROOM

Important Announcement

The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More

Dick Casull originally called this cartridge the .454 Magnum Revolver. It was developed by him and Jack Fulmer in 1957. Announced by P.O. Ackley in the Guns and Ammo magazine it did not make many waves. The main reason was the original round used a duplex load of powder and normal handling tended to shift the powders around and this made the performance erratic. After that problem was solved the problem of finding a gun that could hold the high pressures that the cartridge operated at. Almost rifle pressures. The first pistols were reworked Colt and Ruger single actions. With a solid head Colt 45 L cases. Then the possibility of putting one of these hot rounds in a old Colt reared it's ugly head so a proprietary case was developed that was 0.10 longer than the parent 45LC case, which also had thicker walls to hold the extra pressure. That solved, Dick Casull designed his own single action pistol with tight tolerances and extra weight. This is being produced by Freedom Arms of Wyoming. (see gun of the week)

Now commercial ammo is being loaded by Winchester, Hornady, Buffalo Bore Cor-Bon and Black Hills Ammunition. The cartridge is now legitimate. Primarily a hunting cartridge it is also popular with the Metallic Silhouette shooters. Anyone considering going to Alaska to hunt the big bears should seriously consider carrying one of these guns. Better than Winchester 45 Win. Mag and a handful to shoot, it will do the job and then some.

For reloading use hard cast bullets or buy jacketed bullets. The heat and velocity of this round is fierce. It handles bullets from 240 grs to 360 grs and three other weights in-between. The velocities sound like rifle speeds at 1425 fps to 1916 fps. It actually can out shoot several popular rifle cartridges in power and energy.

I have shot several good Freedom Arms pistols in this caliber and was surprised how easy they were to shoot. The gun just rolls up in your hand and your ears explode. Even with muffs and plugs you can feel the conclusion rattle your partials in this caliber. While it is not fun to shoot with full bore loads you can put 45LC ammo in it and shoot all afternoon for fun. Then when 'myrights' comes by to shoot you put the full size Casull loads in it. What a buddy myrights is. He will shoot your pistol in for you, just ask him.

Sarge

I shot one of those Freedom Arms beasts at the range one day, A guy had one there and was trying to get other folks to try it, but was getting no takers. I was shooting a T/C Contender and so I figured "no problem". He was wearing some recoil gloves and I soon found out why. Most unpleasant handgun I've ever fired. I had black stuff on my palms rubbed off the rubber grips as they rotated in my hands. Nearly caught a hammer in the forehead on the first shot. After firing off all the rounds he told me what load he was using. Don't remember the number or grains but it was a compressed load of H110. Wouldn't have shot the thing if I'd known what the idiot had loaded it up with. Might be a good gun with a reasonable load.

Im an Nowegian Handgunner and have been shooting my 454 casull for 4 years now...

The first mounth of shooting was pretty painful but i got used to it.

Now i shoot it with no glowes and singlehanded.

my favorite load is 300gr hornady xtp mag. in 1630 f/s.

Its a pretty hard load but its not painful ore unplesent at all......

This gun is now my favorite of all the gun i have.....

Welcome to our web-site! "Gunrockets" works very hard to ensure it is one of the very best, catering to those who are hunters, shooters, reloaders, and 2nd Amendment supporters.

I have to admire the fact that you regularly shoot the .454 Casull, that pistol will really give you a pounding! I don't own one, and never fired one, but would like to, one day-- because of the severe restrictions we have to contend with, here in New York, a lot of indoor and outdoor ranges won't even let you fire a pistol that powerful, partly because of the noise it generates, and the power it produces, I do own a Ruger .45 Colt with 7 1/2 inch barrel, and an Armscor M1911 "Slabsides" .45 ACP, and an old .455 British Webley, but my handloads for them are never assembled with maximum velocity-- I find that I can comfortably shoot my big bore handguns all day, at milder velocities, and save quite a bit on the components, (a pound of reloading powder here in N.Y. now costs us about $23./U.S., (that['s about 1/2 kilo). I also hand cast most of my own bullets with a hard alloy, and have had VERY good results with them.

I was interested in finding that you own several handguns, in Norway, I was under the impression that handguns, (and long guns in general), in Europe were very restricted, and that the average person there simply can't own handguns! (I spent 2 years in Europe, in the Army, in the early 60's, and wasn't allowed to own any private weapons--) I would be interested in hearing back from you, about this, (Oh, and by the way, "Ich can auf deutch lesen und schreiben, wenn es dir leichter wurde!")

I told my lovely wife that I really want .454 (redhawk). She keeps telling me to put one

on lay-a-way. Maybe soon. It is a very intemidating looking gun, but that's a lot of money.

I owned a 454 Casull in a Thompson/Encore and found the round and the pistol to be a blast!

I am not too sensitive to recoil....but this was really pushing my limits. I found the recoil to be so severe that I can't shoot it very accurately.

Which brings me to my next conclusion:

The .454 Casull would make an excellent rifle cartridge!!

You'd be pushing nearly 2,000 fps with the 300 gr bullet out of a 24" barrel for a whopping 2,600 fpe.

You could take any critter in North America up to 150 yards........

Sadly....the only way to do this is to purchase and aftermarket barrel and stock. No biggie but it'll cost you some serious bucks as no major manufacturer makes rifles in this caliber. (no pun intended).

Any thoughts about the idea of the .454 as a rifle caliber?

Important Announcement The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
THE GUN ROOM	[email protected]