Alaska444 said:
I was going to buy the .454 Casull a month ago but backed out after reading of the many issues with jump crimp with these high power loads. If you get a full and detailed account of Greg Brush, his Alaskan .454 jammed after I believe 5 shots from jump crimping and he had his wife bring his hunting rifle to finish off the beast that was down but still grunting. I suspect that one of his lucky shots severed the spinal cord and that is why he is still here.
From my reading of Greg's account, he fired only 2 or 3 rounds before the revolver got jammed up. The same thing happened to Craig Medred (Anchorage Daily News Outdoors Writer) while hunting with a Freedom Arms .454 Casull. It has also happened to me at the shooting range with my SP101 in .357 Magnum. While my loads were not that hot, my crimps were not that hot, either.
If you crimp well, and test your rounds, you should proceed with confidence.
Lastly, the .44 in Ruger Super Redhawk will handle rounds nearly as powerful as the .454 average load. Stopping a charging bear is a matter of hitting the cns so penetration is the key which a .44 can do quite well. Anything after that is pure luck, as Greg Brush so avidly admits. The one stop shot without a cns hit is not going to happen the way it does with a high powered rifle when using any of the "high" powered revolvers since there is no hydrostatic shock involved below 2400 fps or there about.
Just my own take on the issue. Good luck. Sounds like you should have fun what ever you decide.
I don't know about the "average" 454 load, but my reloading manuals and other published data for the 454 Casull put it at 150% of the 44 Magnum's maximum energy levels. Plus the .454 Slug (at .452" diameter) has 11% more frontal area than the .429" diameter 44 Magnum slug and approximately 17% more mass (given the same shaped slug).
The difference between the .480 and the 454 is likewise impressive. 10.4% more frontal area and 16% more mass. But the 480 Ruger actually has less power than the .454 Casull. But the immutable facts of physics do give the 480 a clear edge over the 44 Magnum in both energy and momentum.
SOME proponents of momentum as the deciding factor in killing power and stopping power give the edge to the 480 Ruger over the 454 Casull, despite its lower physics figures. Mostly because the slug is heavier and will penetrate deeper into vital organs or structural (or skull) bones.
At 48,000 psi (SAAMI specs) the 480 Ruger has a lot more pressure than the 44 Mag (36,000 psi), but a lot less than the .454 Casull (over 50,000 psi), making recoil a LOT more manageable than the Casull, but, reportedly not much more than the 44 Magnum. However, the 4 mag tops out at 1200 ft-lbs energy, the 454 Casull at 1900 ft-lbs and the 480 Ruger at 1300. But that is only part of the story. Momentum for the 44 Mag is
Remember, energy shreds flesh, but momentum breaks bone. Against heavily muscled and thick-skinned game, penetration is essential. Anything less just irritates them.
Second to last thought: The concept of putting a 2.5" barrel in front of a 2" cartridge never made much sense to me, ballistically (spelling?) speaking. You are throwing away a lot of power at the expense of muzzle blast and hearing loss. Check out the "Ballistics by the Inch" web site and remember that magnum cartridges benefit from longer barrels than standard cartridges. Boost the volume of a cartridge and you should boost the swept volume of the barrel to match.
Last thought: The 480 Ruger in the 5-shot cylinder ()the 6-shot had rather thin walls between chambers, resulting in 1) interference between adjacent cartridge rims and 2) sticky extraction (reportedly).
If I ever find a 7.5" Ruger Super Redhawk with a 5-shot cylinder and 7.5' barrel, I will be all over it. I MIGHT even be willing to trade my 7.5" SRH in 454 Casull for it. Though the fact that the 480 is now a discontinued cartridge and the 45 Colt/454 Casull is not likely to go away soo are mitigating factors.
Lost Sheep
Remember, verify for yourself everything you learn from casual sources. Believe only half of what you see and one quarter of what you hear. That goes double for everything you find on the internet.
P.S. I have long advocated for an extended-frame Super Redhawk chambered for a cartridge a little longer than the .500 Smith & Wesson. Call it the "500 Bill" after Bill Ruger.
