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Joined: Feb 2009
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I have bought a FA in 454 casull.
and am experenced with SA revolvers.

I have loaded some lite loads with 265g cast bullets and 7.5g of trailboss powder.
Great accuracy.

I want to try some warm loads.
Can sombody help out with techniques for shooting heavy recoil revolvers.

thanks...

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NO one-handed stuff!

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Grip it and rip it.

grin

okay, seriously - I have a .480 Ruger in the Super Redhawk. Not quite as hard kicking as some revos, but when I am planning to shoot it I'll usually wear PAST gloves to take some sting out of the hand.

For accurate handloads, whatever bullet you're using, in a straight wall magnum revolver case, I turn down the expander plug down until it's at least .005 to .007" smaller than bullet diameter, to get a tight bullet fit. I then seat the bullet and apply a heavy crimp. This step assures best consistency and prevents the recoil from pulling bullets. I like Redding Competition Handgun seating dies, or Hornadys if I can't get the Reddings.

I like Lil-Gun for magnum loads, but there are other powders that work well, too.

Congrats on the FA, they are beautifully made, regardless of how hot you load them. smile


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You don't want a death grip, a good firm grip is key. The reason some people get bit with the big bores is they have a death grip for the first shot, then realize it's not so bad. On the second shot they ease up on their grip, then proceed to plant the front sight blade in their forehead. I've shot plenty of 454's 475's and 500's, they aren't as bad as some say, but you do need a good firm two handed grip on them.

The real key to mastering them is lots of dry firing, and limit the amount of full patch ammo you shoot in a range session. You might find a cylinder or two of full patch ammo is all you want to put through it, and that's fine. Trying to shoot through a flinch will lead to long term flinching. I made that mistake about 15 years ago with a 44 mag, and I'm still fighting a handgun flinch to this day.

Personally I prefer the recoil of the heavier bullets, I know it sounds counter intuitive but with the 454 pushing the lighter bullets fast, that ~30gr charge of powder accounts for a very snappy recoil. A 360 gr cast bullet will still have plenty of recoil, but not as snappy.

The other thing to remember is you don't have to load the 454 to the gills to kill big game. A 300-360 gr cast bullet at 1200-1300 fps will take anything in NA, and will be much easier to shoot than the hotter loads.

The reason I settled on the 480 is I had the opportunity to shoot many of the bigger bore handguns and I simply couldn't handle more recoil.

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I have to say I agree with 458 Lott's post for the most part.

The PAST shooting gloves are good, but they have a seam across the palm that digs into my hand, so I switched to Uncle Mike's shooting gloves for heavy revolver work because the palm is one one piece. Might be worth knowing that.

Limiting your exposure to full power Heavy loads is a really good idea. On a typical range session with the Heavies, I will start with a few cylinders of standard power loads to warm up, then some "warm" loads, then shoot a predetermined number of cylinders of Heavy loads. After that, I'll go back to some standard power loads to finish out the session.

When I was shooting a LOT of Heavy .44 Mag and .45 Colt loads, I' be able to shoot a dozen cylinders of the Heavies at a single session at most. Since I don't shoot them as much now, I'll typically limit my exposure to the noxious stuff to 3 or 4 cylinders of Heavies at the most.

As for what kind of bullet you need for what kind of game, I think 458's numbers are a bit high for most hunting. John Linebaugh has said or written more than a few times that there is nothing in North America other than the great bears that you can't kill with a 45 Colt shooting a 260 gr cast bullet at 950 fps. A lot of other experienced handgun hunters like Paco Kelly (who has killed black bear and zebra with the load Linebaugh mentioned), John Taffin, and others have said they've done more or less the same thing. Most of my handgun-killed game has fallen to a 300 or 325 gr bullet at 1200-1300 fps, though, but I've had the sense that I'm using way more power than I need. The last couple of whitetails I shot with my .45 succumbed to a 265 bullet bumbling along at 925 fps and they were just as dead as all the others.


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Some good advice here from the contributors. I mostly shoot moderate .45 long colt hand loads, and plan to use a slightly hotter one for hunting in my Ruger Super Red Hawk. I occasionally shoot the .454 Casull factory loads and would like to try one for the experience on a hog.

To control the .454's punch when shooting at a bench, I slightly bend both of my arms at the elbow, I don't keep the gun totally held out and stiff, this allows some pushing and give from the revolver and I don't get banged so hard.

However, I know that I need to keep the gun well away from me to avoid getting hit in the forehead. There are some You Tube videos showing women getting smacked this way. The .454 is a hard recoiling cartridge, and I only shoot less than 12 rounds a day. I confess that I am worried about flinching though, in a hunting situation I probably will only get one shot off anyways, and when I do take a shot I am totally concentrating on the animal I am aiming at. You get so pumped that I don't notice any kick of the gun, maybe the "bang", and the animal being hit.

Last edited by HE112; 04/14/12.
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Originally Posted by HE112
... in a hunting situation I probably will only get one shot off anyways, and when I do take a shot I am totally concentrating on the animal I am aiming at. You get so pumped that I don't notice any kick of the gun, maybe the "bang", and the animal being hit.


True dat.


"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars

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