I just today picked up a new 454 Casual barrel for my Encore. I suppose now I'll need to invest in new dies to load for it. Are there any others, that I may already have, that will work or do I need to use specifically 454 Casual dies? This is gonna wake up the neighbors! Thanks UMB

45 colt dies will work.

There's one I don't have. Thanks

Gents,
The 454 round is called the "Casull" after Dick Casull who lengthened the 45 Colt and ignited tremendous amounts of research into his creation.
It is a very powerful round out of a handgun. And a 260gr round going 1800 feet per second is anything but casual...Very different spellings and meanings. Casull= power casual= easy going
No flame intended just a bit of insight from an owner of one. 45nut

I was pretty excited to be able to get this barrel today and the correct spelling pased right on by me. I had a good idea of what it was and went ahead and did the deal. I'm glad I did, I'm looking forward to trying it out and seeing just what it's capable of. Maybe I should say what I'm capable of!

I have the 15 in. barrel, and the winchester factory 260 grainers run a shade over 2000 ft/sec out of it.

UMB,

My wife got me a 12" 454 Casull barrel for my birthday in early October and I plan on leaving it with open sights and using it as my close range big game handgun.

I have only tested one load through this little beast. It is the max load in the Speer manual for the 300 gr Uni-Core Sp over 34.0gr H-110 in Win cases and Win SR primers. Velocity ran right at 1910 fps.

This is a very serious load on both ends as it is one of the few handguns I own that produces real pain when fired. I have shot many 45-70 Contenders in longer scoped barrels that do not compare. Even my custom 15" Encore barrel in 50 A.E. which drives the 325 gr Speer Uni-Core HP to 1900 fps is much more comfortable to shoot, of course the 1.5-4x Burris on that barrel adds alot of weight to dampen recoil.

The biggest problem I see with the 454 in the Encore is that the 454 in a revolver already stresses all jacketed bullets and most hardcast bullets. Shoot those same loads in a closed breech Encore which will boost velocities by another 150-200 fps and even the best bullets can fail.

Before you use your 454 on game, see how the bullets you choose will handle the increased velocity.

If you want a good varmint load, take a 250 gr XTP designed for the Colt and load it to 2000-2100 out of your Encore, it will come loose like a ballistic tip out of a 22-250.

About dies, any 45 caliber set of dies will work in theory as long as they are a straight walled case. The 45 ACP will work as long as the die is deep enough to allow the case to be sized at least as much as the distance the bullet will be seated to. One can "neck size" the cases so to speak and they work great in the Encore and brass will last longer as well.

Good Shooting and Hunting!!!

50

I was lucky enough to attend the Linbaugh shoot in Cody this summer. One of the activities was a penetration test. My load, 30 gr H110 under a speer 300 gr soft point bullet going about 1500 fps, penetrated 6 in.(I think) of wet paper and 4 in. of bone. The bullet held up amazingly well and was about 1.75 inches in diameter.

Hey, thanks for the helpfull information here. I did try this beasty out over the weekend and I must say that it does send bullets down range with some authority.
Mine is a 12" barrel and I really thought that the muzzle flip would me more than it is. The recoil is intense, but not that much rise. I've got a 15" 445SM barrel that I sent to Mr. Belllm to have a brake installed, just couldn't hold it down.
I'm going to keep this one iron sights and maybe use it for Ohio deer season this year. I tried out some factory Hornady 300g HP/XTP's and they seemed accurate enough. I've made some hand loads with the same bullet and they're right in there too. I'll try some others before I hunt with this little hand cannon, but so far I think I'm favorably impressed with the cartridge and the barrel. Thanks again UMB