Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Picked Up A Freedom Arms 454 Casull

Found a pristine Premier grade that I picked up last night. This thing is quite lively under recoil, but manageable. I shot eight shots with it tonight, and I can still feel it in my wrist. Unfortunately I am an average shot with a handgun, at best, so I can't really say how well it shoots. This is gonna take some practice.

Since you're suffering so greatly with the wrist pain, I'd suggest you dump it quickly and cheaply...........please pm me before posting!!!

I'm jealous, good luck with your great find.

Kurt

Nice revolver! I'll bet it would be a joy to shoot with some standard pressure 45 Colt ammo.

What is the deal with FA being so into saying you need a second cylinder for .45 Colt loads? Any difference than shooting .38 Special in a .357.... Just scrub the cylinder well when moving back to the longer loads?

Oh I'll get this baby handled! My previous big bore was a Dan Wesson .44 mag. My using load was 320 gr. hard cast and 22 gr. H110. I have dies for the 454 and will down load it until I can master the full power of this round. I used the .44 to take a record book black bear. Those big hard casts went through a 500+ pounder end to end. I'm thinking jacketed 260's or 300's and take it elk hunting.
If I want to dink with some light loads I'll just find a light lead bullet load. For anything lighter I'll use the .45 ACP. Love that 1911!

Is there a pic I can't see? Dang!

Tell Ingwe it fits in a thong holster... he'll really be jealous.

...I had one...a 6". "Lively" is a mild term for brutal. I loaded mine with 260 jacketed with enough Blue Dot to make 1650...and the round wasn't even breathing hard. 1900 was top out with a 260. At 1650 20 is all I could shoot in an afternoon while also shooting other less recoiling rounds in between.

After a couple of years I began to get concerned about the "discomfort" in my wrist and elbow after an day of shooting. I exchanged emails with Jim Taylor who told me what a life of BigBore shooting had done to his joints and the fact that he now has to wrap up before shooting any of the big stuff...so when I found an identical gun in .41 Magnum the .454 took the "long trail" to someone elses safe.

Accuracy wise the .454/FAs combination is truly amazing...if you can get a clean no-flinch trigger squeeze the bullet is going to go right where aimed.

As to the purchase of a second cylinder for .45 Colt for "practice/plinking" loads, the reason FA recommends against using the shorter .45 in their .454 has to do with how fine the cylinders are bored. They are a lot tighter than a Ruger or a Smith. Any erosion of the 1/10 of an inch of chamber could cause a problem when shooting full load .454s. My gun came with a .45 Colt cylinder and I never fired a round from it. So it is recommended that even plinking rounds be made up in .454 brass.

Recently I made the jump to a Model 83 in .475. Using 330-420 grain bullets at 1100 fps the recoil is more of a push than a snap and the gun is much more pleasant to shoot....

Good luck with your .454...it is a great round if you like .45s...

Bob

I've shot some Buffalo Bore 300's through a .454 Super Redhawk, which is a heavy gun, and they chrono's 1620 fps. The recoil was plenty stout. I wouldn't try it again without a PAST glove to get at least a little cushioning. I think I'd load to around 1300-1400 with a BFN hard-cast instead, as one of these so loaded is going to shoot through anything in North America. I run my .480 Ruger SRH with 350's at 1350 fps, and that's about as heavy as I care to shoot.

Unless I wanted to add a scope and shoot at longer ranges, where the added velocity was a benefit, I'd stay away from the heavy Casull loads. John Taffin is another guy who is reported to have hand problems, as a result of so many years of shooting the hard kickers.

Tex, if ya recall I shot Gunners' FA 454 back in Tennerssee. The onliest prob I had was the rounded trigger guard smacking my middle finger so friggin' hard. OTW I didn't find it to be objectionable. Now I know why the old Ruger SuperBlackhawks had the squared off trigger gurd. They DID serve a real purpose.

Not really that way. The square trigger guard on the Ruger is NASTY. Need rubber grips.
The Freedom is a Bisley and you can't escape the guard unless you have small hands. Their rubber grips will make the gun pleasant.

I think that was about when NHk9 was shooting my .480 SRH I confess I have never shot a FA, but I did own a Super Blackhawk in my youth, and I wasn't shy about stuffing powder in the cases I eventually moved to .44 S&W's, and now a SRH in .480. I found the SBH would beat up my trigger finger, with stiff loads. The SRH whacks you in the palm with heavy loads, but is otherwise okay. I added a set of Hogue rubber grips to it. I did own a Bisly .45 Blackhawk for a while, and it really wasn't bad with "Ruger only" loads, and I suspect one of the FA's would be very similar.

post up some pics. I got one not too long ago. Its a damn fine shooter, better than me. I sent it in to FA and had a good bit of work done. That thing is sweet. I'm sure yours is too. Here is a pick of mine.

Congratulations, mine shoots great with the 335 gr Cast Performance WFNGC bullets at 1585 fps with WW-296 powder, recoil is a bit snappy, but very shootable none the less.

Gunner

That 335 Cast Performance is the other bullet I am looking hard at. They were very accurate and effective in my .44.
Gunchamp, love those black Micarta grips. That is one thing I would like to add to mine.
I do plan to try a shooting glove of some sort.
I'm not posting a photo boys, don't have a photobucket account, or what ever it is you need to post here. Mine is a standard 7 1/2" premier grade with the wine colored grips. Nothing special.

cobrad,

congratulations on your find!

I carried one for years as my field gun in Alaska, mostly running full-house loads of H-110/WW-296 under the 300gr FA JFP
with an occasional cylinder of the FA 260gr bullets.

One thing I learned was to handle the F/A revolvers differently than your typical revolver,i.e., do not try to stop the pistol from recoiling, but allow it to roll up. The modified Bisley grip shape (closer to Keith's #5 shape) is made to help retain your grasp on the pistol while allowing it to roll up, dissipating some of the recoil energy. Only you will know how much grip force you will have to maintain to achieve this as everyone's hand is built slightly different and everyone has different hand strength.

Due to many years of full-house .454 and .375JDJ loads out of a Contender, I have Radial and Median nerve damage and wish I had learned the lesson much earlier.


I sold my Model 83 and now carry a F/A Model 97 in .45Colt which will do most anything I want to with a handgun.

Enjoy! It's a great firearm and a great cartridge!

Ed