New Ruger Super Redhawk! 454 Casull

[longhorngunman]

Just got this baby! This is my first revolver and I wanted a handcannon. Have several semiauto's in various calibers. But I just had to get a big revolver. Not the prettiest revolver I've ever seen, but seems to be well built. Anyways I have some general questions about this gun. I'm new to revolvers and any advice would be appreciated.

1) It says on the cylinder .454 and .45 colt. I've heard not to shoot the .45's in 454 guns. Is this true or do I just need to clean it more.

2) Also been told you can shoot .45 ACP, is this true and what mods do you have to do. This would save money for plinking use.

3) Just how tough is the Ruger? Can I shoot large grain .454 loads indefinetly or shoot .45 for plinking and save the .454's for the grizzlies.

4) What's a good factory load to bring out the felt recoil of the .454 Casull. Bought some 250g Win X Super's at the gunshow for it. Would Corbon's be better. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[P95Carry]

Longhorn ... big welcome to the club! ........ from my experience the Winchester 240's (or is it 250's) are pussycat loads ... barely half the energy of Hornady. Put some Hornady 300 grain XTP's thru to fully appreciate the power factor!!!

45LC is fine - just go shoot em, no mod's - but, bit like 38's in .357's ... watch out for a ring in cylinders - clean well after use. 45acp - no - no good in this gun. No headspacing and moon clips not useable.

Tough? Yep - as nails. I am working on some homeloads soon but will stay at or below the Hornady power factor - just remember, SAAMI top figure is IIRC 65,000 - so it's a very high pressure round .... I guess even a Ruger would break if you filled a case with Bullseye! LOL!!

 

[Magnum88C]

1) It says on the cylinder .454 and .45 colt. I've heard not to shoot the .45's in 454 guns. Is this true or do I just need to clean it more.

Just brush out the chambers real well and make sure there's no buildup in them and you'll be fine.

2) Also been told you can shoot .45 ACP, is this true and what mods do you have to do. This would save money for plinking use.

You would have to get the cylinder recessed for use with moon clips. Don't know if it'd be worth the money to do. You CAN use .45 Auto Rim (.45 ACP with a rim on it), but don't know how these are priced compared with .45 ACP, might not be worth it.

3) Just how tough is the Ruger? Can I shoot large grain .454 loads indefinetly or shoot .45 for plinking and save the .454's for the grizzlies.

I've shot one box of .45 Colt through mine, the rest have been .454 loads, had it since 2000, no problems.

4) What's a good factory load to bring out the felt recoil of the .454 Casull. Bought some 250g Win X Super's at the gunshow for it. Would Corbon's be better. Thanks for the help in advance.

The Winchesters feel like .44 mag loads -- real wimpy in a .454. The Hornady 300-gr XTP-Mag rounds are full-power loads (rated 1650 fps, I get more like 1673 fps out of my SRH), and also good for hunting (they happen to be soem of the least expensive .454 loads around my parts too). If you want a real pounder, the Cor-Bon 360-gr Penetrators will wake you up in the morning!

 

[mbartel]

I think the .45 auto rim has a rim that is too thick for the cylinder. Could be wrong, but it looks like it won't fit. As for recoil....the Winchester Supreme 260 gr. partition is STOUT....if you want more recoil than this you might want to check out a .500 mag...

 

[umc180gr]

I too have one

Congrats, I too have one of these SRH .454's. I shot mine this weekend in fact. The longer you own it the more you will appreciate it. It is a rugged gun and this is coming from an S&W loyal. I especially like the extractor rod design, no backing out like on my S&W .44. My favorite load is the Hornady 300gr. Sometimes I say "ouch" when I shoot it with those but it is lots of fun. Blast away. Take it to an indoor range if you have the opportunity sometime.

 

[longhorngunman]

Thanks for all the advice. Will try to shoot it this week. There is an indoor range just 2 miles from where I live. Just wish they were cheaper. Grew up on a farm and my father has a lot of land so I have plenty of places to shoot. I bet this thing is loud in an indoor range. Picked up some of the Hornady 300gr's, I'll definetly give them a try.

 

[dakotasin]

4) What's a good factory load to bring out the felt recoil of the .454 Casull. Bought some 250g Win X Super's at the gunshow for it. Would Corbon's be better.

i went w/ a srh in 480 ruger - 7.5" version. in order to bring out the fun factor, i resorted to handloads. wow... there's w hole bunch more available than what comes from the factory...

but, if you don't handload, and you still want to experience most of what the cartridge has to offer, go w/ cor-bon (if you can afford it). they load 'em up proper.

 

[redneck2]

These guns are a real good reason to get into handloading. It costs about the same to load for these as .45 acp. Think maybe 18-25 cents each versus $1 to $2 each for highest quality stuff. If you use hardcast, you can load 20 for maybe $2

I load for a friend of mine who has the same gun. Full house rounds get old in a hurry (at least for me). You can only kill paper about so dead. I load most of his down for "plinking" and practice, and run full power for a little practice and mostly for deer.

While I normally think in terms of progressive presses for pistol, a single stage would be great for this application.

As above, if you use 45 Colt, watch for the crud ring in the cylinders. It interferes with the crimp opening and can really accelerate pressures, and you've got high pressure to start with

 

[P95Carry]

Picked up some of the Hornady 300gr's, I'll definitely give them a try.

Forget the cost factor - and prepare to show the ''ballistic grin'' - it goes near from ear to ear - accompanied often by a muttering which might resemble ''wow'' - or much worse!

Certainly - relaods are way to go. I now have accrued enough brass and just need to cast some 320 hard gas check bullets - and then load some up.

 

[BobC]

From what I have been able to learn, the "crud ring" in front of a 38 spl or 44 spl in a multiple-use cylinder becomes a hassle for chambering and extracting the 357 magnum or 44 magnum. A hassle, but not a danger.

In the 454 Casull, however, the much higher pressures have been known to drive the 454 brass cartridge into the crud ring from the 45 Colt and, the crud into the steel cylinder, with enough force to distort (ruin) the cylinder. Apparently, this is why Freedon Arms policy is to use a separate cylinder for the 45 Colt and 454 Casull.

But, as others have said, just clean the cylinder well before shooting the 454's.

 

[longhorngunman]

Thanks for all the advice. If ya'll know anything else keep it coming. Yes reloading is the next step. A friend of my mothers, just lost her husband recently. He was big into cowboy guns and had a reloading setup. The wife was going to just give it away in a garage sale. I told her to hold all of it since I knew it was worth something. Anyways I volunteered to find out what the value is. I know nothing about reloading however. Guess I should post in the reload forum. I do know the parts are all RCBS, single stage press, scale and don't know what the rest is. He had several dies, saw a lot of .357mag, 45acp,9*18mak, 38sp, and .45 colt ammo ,figure thats the dies. Any help in this area would be great. I'm interested in buying but I want to pay her a fair value for the equipment.

 

[Majic]

First you do have a handcannon. You will see how much of one when you drop the hammer on your first .454.
Next check with that indoors range as some of them don't allow high powered big bore handguns.
For the reloading equipment find out exactly what model press and scale the lady have for sale. Then find out all the tools and reloading equipment that's included. Reloader's can amass a large assortment of what nots over the years (you need to see some of our reloading rooms and benches). The husband most likley had a dedicated bench for reloading so see if that's available. It's really easy to have way over $1000 invested in reloading equipment so find out what all is included and then you can get a fair price to offer her.

 

[happy old sailor]

i have the 9+" bbl one also. 45C is the pussycat load here. seems the 454 is just a 45C magnum, like 38/357. longer case, more bang. the 45C dies are used to load 454 just as 38/357 dies work for both. would be an effective crowd thinner indoors. mine sounds like an elephant gun in the outdoors. you would have to be thick skinned and fully prepared for some frowns and hate comments if indoors. take earplugs to go with the earmuffs just in case. enjoy it, i do.