I mean, really? Is there anything the .454 does that the .45 doesn't do with less recoil and muzzle blast? I know the .454 is much faster than the .45, but doesn't that only give you more range?

I ask this because I am toying with the notion of selling my SRH .454 for a Redhawk .45 Colt. I reason that the Redhawk is lighter, lower recoil, has plenty to drop a deer out to 100yds, and won't make me deaf with a single non-protected shot.

That said, I really like my SRH. A lot. Really just don't want to be deaf, and if I'm just gonna shoot reduced .454 or .45 Colt, it just seems reasonable to have the lighter-weight and more visually-appealing Redhawk.

Discussion?

First off, a 1000 ft lbs handloaded 45 colt out of a 7.5" RH will make you just as deaf, just as quickly.

Also, you'll find that RHs have considerably worse SA trigger pulls than most SRHs. I also like the ring positioning much better on the SRH.

I agree about the power, but loading down a 454 SRH is what I have done in the past. Excellent case life, easy extraction, works out fine.

Besides, there is just something about a shiny SS DA 45 colt that doesn't sit quite right with me. My blued Bisley is much more the 45 colt I envision.

Add a Hogue grip to your 454, it increases its beauty by 1000 fold - those SRH factory grips look like a reject bathroom color scheme from 1973. Ugliest things I have ever seen. How the Ruger folks saw that design and figured "ah ha, this is it" is completely beyond me.

I have already sold my Ruger 454 and replaced it with a Blackhawk 45 colt with 4 and 5/8th bbl. Its just more fun and a lot more handy. A 360 gr LGC at 1080 fps will do the job at the top end and all you need is a nice set of grips.

As you know the full house loads for the 454 can only be achieved with very hard premium bullets that will not distort as they enter the forcing cone. It is a fine engineering achievement, but more than I need.

Don't get rid of the SRH, it is a much better gun then the RH. Download or just shoot .45 Colts out of it. The .45 is a great deer caliber and will do anything the .44 or .454 will do. Don't worry about bullet jump with the shorter .45's. I have a 45-70 bfr that the bullet is so far down in the chamber it is hard to see, but it shoots sub 1" groups at 50 yd's and I have never missed a deer with it. I have some fantastic groups at 500 yd's with it. My BFR's are more accurate then the Freedom arms guns and all have large bullet jumps. My friend has the Freedom .475 and the best we can do is 3" at 50 yd's. My BFR .475 has shot 3/4" groups at 50 yd's. Mine has a longer cylinder. The Freedom's cylinder is short and the bullet is right at the end of the cylinder.
What I am saying is that you should get good accuracy with the .45's even though they are way down from the forcing cone. Work loads and you will be surprised.

I carry a 7 1/2" SRH in 480, and it is by far my favorite revolver. I'd always thought that a 5 1/2" redhawk would be so much nicer to pack. Then I shot one, in 44 mag. The redhawk grip is far inferiour to the superredhawk in recoil management. I would never buy a redhawk after having shot one. The super redhawk is actually lighter as well, due to the stub grip frame vs full grip frame on the redhawk.

Thge only thing the redhawk has is looks, but when it comes to shooting, the super redhawk is a much better gun. Just load the 454 however you want it. Thats the beauty of more powerful guns, they can always be loaded down to whatever level you want.

Ditto what has been said about loading down the .454 if you don't need or want the extra power. However, I'd have to work real hard to get such poor groups out of any FA I own or have shot bfrshooter. I can do better than 3" at 100 yards without the benefit of a scope.

The real benefit I see from the .454, as with any other longer case, over the .45 Colt is the ablility to drive the heavier bullets at useable velocities. The problem with the .357 Supermag was that most everyone was trying to make a .357 Swift out of them and causing whatever gascutting problems that were reported in the Ruger frames.

The bulk of my .454 and .475 shooting is done with rounds that are loaded down from max. I just like knowing I have the extra powere if I want or need to use it.

If you really are thinking about going lighter and handier, I would suggest a Blackhawk I think it captures the spirit of the 45 Colt much better anyway.

I think the biggest difference between the two are the pistols thus chambered for these rounds. The Casull will generally be a revolver that was built for the additional pressures involved. Keep in mind that the 454 started out as a hot-rodded .45 LC by Dick Casull and I believe the lengthening of the case was done so that they would not be chambered in .45 LC caliber pistols that were not up to the additional pressure/abuse. Thus said, can a .45 LC do what a 454 Casull can? I would say yes, but if you hot rod the round like Dick Casull did, you are essentially just recreating the 454 Casull.

MS, we have a lot of work to do on the FA .475. We might be using the wrong boolits. What boolit and load have you found best in the .454 and do you have the .475?

RRRRRR>....

I have both, and then some....

I wanted the hot rod, but feel better sitting in the Lincoln....

Just that, the full house loads of the 454, will get your attention. It does not bother me to bad, and want to keep it that way.

I really like the colt loads for lots of shooting... But than again, I push them a little too....

Having both also keeps me from forgetting to clean the chamber. No mixing ammo, no makes too much pressure, no make any extra booms.
This keeps me from having a real bad-shooting day....

This is my story, and I am sticking to it….

bfr,

Sorry for not geting back to you sooner, been out of pocket the past several days. For the 454, I have run the gamut from FA jacketed bullets, through the Speers, Hornady XTPs to the Cast Performance and economy cast bullets. I know I am lucky, but I have yet to find a load the .454s won't shoot. Powders I am using are WW 296 and 231, 2400, and WC820.

Yes, I do own a Model 83 in .475. Again, I have run Speer & XTPs in both 400 and 325s, as well as the Lee and Cast Performance bullets in the 400 grain weight range. The 325s shoot very well, but the recoil gets a bit whippy. I use the same powders for my .475 as I do with my .454s with the exception of using 700-X when loading .45ACP cases as projectiles. !2.0 grains of 700-X will get an ACP case moving right at 1900 fps out of my 6" barrel.

Hope this helps.

Ballistics aside if you mean what is the difference in game taking ability between the 45colt and the 454 probable little to nothing. also you can shoot 45 colt in your 454 if you clean your cylinders and don't let a lot of crud build up you should have no problem as I have been doing this for many years with none of the so called extraction problems

I have never seen any need, outside of not reloading, to shoot .45 Colt ammo in a FA .454 revolver. Just load them down and use the .454 cases.

Both are worth having in my opinion but I have the .454 and have shot the 45 LC's out of it but loading down my .454 works great for playing around.I love the 300 Speer Unicore at several velocities.Fairly inexpensive and fun to shoot as is some of the Cast Bullets I have.Want the extra umph??It's there if you need it and if not load it down and have lots of fun with little recoil.

Good luck...Jayco

To load down the 454 would certainly work ballisticly speaking, but the reason to use 45 colt brass is to make sure @ a glance which is which

I can tell by the degree of crimp whether one of my rounds is loaded heavy or not. Both types of load have plenty of neck tension, the crimp is just a good indicator for me.

wait untill you get older and your eye's arn't as good and that type of I.D. will become very difficult as I once could tell across the room not anymore

I've been sawing the ends off coke bottles for most of my life; my eyes aren't great now. I can check without using my glasses; bad thing is I usually poke myself in the eye when I do. Seriously, it works well for now and if necessary, I can adapt.

I have been "Way Behind" on my reloading from several things that happened last year.I have a bunch of 360 grain Cast for my .454 and my first outing with 23 grains of H-110,I think it was like 1172 fps and I haven't been back "Yet" to get it where I want it at 1300+ fps.The 1172 fps load was nice to shoot unlike some of the Cor-Bons I bought to measure velocity at 60,000 PSI in 300 Jacketed and 335 Cast.

The 45 Colts are like shooting 22's in the heavy Raging Bull.

Take care....Jayco

You are right about the lighter 45 colt loads Buffalo Bores 325 grain 45 colt load clocks 1420 fps out of my 6" barrel ruger and 1400fps out of my brothers redhawk

mshitman, we have been doing extensive work with the Freedom .475 and have it down to 3/4" groups at 50 yds. We contacted Freedom for the twist rate. It has a 1 in 18 twist and the BFR has a 1 in 15" twist.
We find the Freedom likes lighter boolits of around 325 grs. The BFR comes alive with 400 grs and up, refusing to group lighter boolits.
Of course for bear protection, it would not matter if one got 3" groups at 50 yds with a heavy boolit in the Freedom.
My other friend with the .454 never works on loads and rarely gets over to shoot (he lives 5 minutes away) so we have done no work with it. If anyone has a very accurate load for the Freedom .454, please post for me.

I'm curious that you've found both guns finicky on what bullets they shoot well. In my 480 SRH, I've tried 310LFN, 320LFN, 390LFN, 400 Lee, 400 LFN, 435 SWC and 460 gr WFN and I've been able to get every one of those bullets to print 1" at 50 yds for 5 shots, and selection of which chamber I load them in. I think there might be another bullet or two I tried that I've forgotten. The 310 and 320 were loaded around 1000 fps, and the 390-460 in the 1100-1200 fps range.

Paul, the group size with different weight boolits is a function of velocity also. Since I use mine for hunting, I load close to top loads (most accurate of course) and think the lighter boolits would do OK if loaded down for plinking.
Handguns work just like rifles in that the twist rate governs what weight bullet it will shoot good. If this was not the case the barrels would have any twist desired and not be chosen for it's purpose.

I simply haven't found that to be the case. I've loaded the 400 gr bullets down to 700 fps with mild loads of unique, and while I never tried to get the 1" 50 yd groups, they would shoot in the 2-3" range, and I'm sure could be made to group better with some tweaking.

In my .308 rifle, I've loaded 110 gr spitzers and 168 gr spitzers down to a 2200 fps, and they'll print MOA, I've also shot 150's, 165's, 180's and 220's into MOA groups.

I think it is more of a function that some guns and chamberings will shoot just about anything well, and others are very picky. My 350 Rigby, previously a 35 whelen ackley is much more finicky, only one or two bullets will group with it.

Paul, you have just said what I have been saying. Most any weight bullet will shoot from a given twist at the proper velocity. But if you use, say a 110 gr. bullet in the 30-06, it is meant to go very fast for varmints. However in the twist for heavy bullets, you will not get varmint accuracy so you download. Not much good for anything but plinking.
Try shooting a long bullet or sabot from a muzzle loader with a 1 in 60 or 66 twist and tell me you get small groups. Try shooting a round ball from the current fast twist inlines and tell me they shoot great. Know what? I won't believe you!
Each twist rate is designed for a specific bullet weight, length and velocity range. Go outside this range and accuracy goes to pot. Otherwise, every gun in every caliber would just have the same twist.
Gun makers try to hit the middle road so several weight bullets will shoot good, but every single gun made will like just one the best.

I shoot patched round balls in my Scout pistol and get very good groups regardless of whether you believe it or not. I also have not found any difference in accuracy or cosistency between the 325 and 400+ grain bullets in my .475. I have not tried the 275 grain bullets in the .475 nor do intend to. The only change I need to make when shooting the different bullet weights is to change out the front blades. I do not have to adjust the rear sight.