Gents,
I picked up a 10" 45 WM barrel for my Contender a while back after scoring some factory loads at a very good price. A good reason to buy a barrel I know Comparing the "felt" recoil against my Super Redhawk in 454 I can not detect much if any difference....So that got me wondering...Not wanting to stretch my frame or anything,but how darn far can I push this? My 45-70 is very wicked and nasty and I only shoot cast 405's in that combo but that is a 16".So can I basically drop a properly sized 405 in my WM brass and have a go?
the overall length just won't fit my cylinder in the 454 so trying this in my Contender it just may work. Has anyone tried this out there before? Can anyone provide load data ? hmmmn? 45nut

There's a lot a issues at play here. If you sized the .458" bullets down to .452", you'd still have to worry about stabilizing that big long bullet. And coming up with a load that will SAFELY push it. Short answer, your 45WinMag contender is not, and never will be a 454. You can do some stuff with it though.