Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

Thinking of picking up a ruger 454 just to play with. How many loads there 454 down or shoots 45LC?

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

I haven' t yet but have friends who have. They said it' s really sweet shooting in the SRH.A friend gave me one of his special loads to try using a 45Colt case. He told me to make sure I only use it in a gun capable of shooting the 454 Casull Being it' s so hot I would rather not post it.The 45 Colt is a nice shooting round and can be loaded to very impressive levels.
Ruger Redhawk

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

Well, I don' t want hot loads for the 45LC, but want a mild load to shoot in 454, like when I shoot my 44 mag at the range all the time, I usually shoot 10gr of Unique.

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

I' ve got a FA 454 which I load down. It' s very pleasant to shoot that way. The first 200 rounds I shot out of it were full power hunting rounds[:o]. FA is the only manufacturer that advises against shooting 45 Colt loads as the shorter casing will allow the buidup of fouling in the already tight chamber.

On a related subject, where can I find a distributor of cast bullets for reloading? I found one source, but their info stated that the bullets needed to be sized for the gun. Is this typical? I' ve been buying mine at gun shows and just loading them. Do you recommend any sources of cast bullet info?

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

Recoiljunky try www.beartoothbullets and www.laser-cast.com for cast bullets suitable for the 454 Casull. I have a load for my 45 blackhawk that I shoot in the 454 at times and they are very mild in it. I forgot www.castperformance.com there are many sorces for cast bullets.

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

I highly recommend laser cast. Been shooting them in my 44mag for some time for target shooting. Very nice.

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

I load mine with LBT 265-grain flatnose and 28 grains of 2400. This gives 1550 fps, a reduced load, but as powerful as any full-out .44 Magnum, and plenty adequate for deer!! I also shoot .45 Colt handloads in mine, the KEY HERE is to make sure you clean any and all fouling out of trhe cylinder before firing .454 ammo again!! Some dangerous pressures have resulted from not making sure of this, because the .454 case mouth could not open freely!! BOOM!! Split cylinder!!

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

Oh man, this sucks. You can' t get ahold of a ruger blackhawk anywhere in MD right now for a decent price. Seems that law took affect where if a handgun doesn' t have some sort of trigger lock built in, you can' t sell them in MD. So ruger has decided not to play MD' s game and all you can get is Taurus' s.

I wonder if I can have one shipped to a FFL from gunbroker. I doubt it. Got some good deals on there.

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

I hate that it interferes with your purchase BC, but I' m still glad to hear Ruger isn' t putting the lock on their revolvers.

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

Bigcountry, I have a Taurus Raging Bull. It is great. very accurate, easy to handle despite the weight, and the compensator does reduce the recoil significantly. it does not fell any worse than a 6.5" M29 S&W with full-charge .44 mag. loads... I think it is easier to handle than the Ruger, and recoils less.

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

I' M NOT SURE HOW TRUE THIS IS BUT ,

i heard in one of the shooting mags that if you fire .45 colt loads through a .454 revolver chamber , that if enough rounds are fired through it beings that the colt case is shorter than the casull , the colt round can actually cause a throat to start in the chamber , and when the casull rounds are fired the brass casing will expand into the throat and cause difficult unloading of the fired brass.

ONCE AGAIN , I DON' T KNOW HOW TRUTHFUL THAT IS :D:D

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

whelen36, there is much controversy over this. some people say that the firing of shorter rounds creates problems, some say it doesnt. some straddle the fence and say that it depends. they think it dependson the shorter rounds pressure and type of powder used. eg a 38spl in a 357mag wont cause a problem but a 357mag in a 357maximum will case a problem. i personally dont know

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

whelen36, if you clean the chambers well after shooting .45 Colt ammo, you won' t need to worry about this problem!!! You should do that anyway......

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

eldeguello ,
i meant that the shorter cartridge basically eats a ring out of the chamber walls from the heat and explosive blast when the shorter shell goes off, where the longer brass expands into when it is fired ( if i' m saying this right ) how does cleaning fix the problem ?? , i' m not sure i understand what you meant buddy :D:D , please let me know as if it would work i' de like to get some .44 specials to use in my .44 mag so i can shoot her a little more often and a little cheaper ( if .44 specials are cheaper that is :D:D:D)

propmahn ,
i heard the same thing that you did , you have just reinforced what i had read buddy , and i think it was in shooting times , and by either " jim carmichael " , or " rick jamison " , i' m not sure which is true as i' ve said i' de like to use some .44 special shells in my .44 mag :D:D:D:D

BTW-would a .44-40 cartridge work in a .44 mag as well , if you can do so without damaging the chambers , i' m just curious about that one , i don' t plan on useing them unless they would be less harmful than the specials and cheaper , i don' t reload pistol cartridges yet :D:D:D:D

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

Nope, won' t work. The 44-40 is a bottlenecked case.

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

whelen, I have shot hot loads in a Ruger .45 Colt for about 20 years, and there is no " ring eaten out of the chamber wall around the case mouth" in any of the chambers! Likewise, I have been shooting my Raging Bull with both .45 Colt and .454 ammo for about five years, and there are no rings in its chambers either. The danger in using shorter ammo in the .454 is supposedly the buildup of fouling at the mouth location of the shorter brass, which is then supposed to make it difficult for a .454 round' s case mouth to open up properly and release the bullet (in effect, the same as using an overlong case in a rifle chamber), which then causes dangerous pressures in an already heavily loaded cartridge. A ring which chewes metal out of the chamber wall would not do this, because it is a depression in the chamber, not a projection into the cartridge space!! Think about this: If a factory .45 Colt round could " basically eat a ring out of the chamber walls from the heat and explosive blast" , so would a .454 which is a lot hotter!! They don' t, at least not in my .454!! Neither the .45 Colt nor the .454 have " eaten a ring" in any of my revolver' s chambers!!

Years ago, I used .44 Special ammo in my M 29 S&W .44 Maggie as well, and never had any damage of the sort you describe. A friend of mine still uses .44 Special in his .44 mag., and I use .38 SP in a .357 for all target shooting! I think this idea of a short case damaging a chamber may have originated when people shot .22 short ammo in soft-steel .22 LR chambers, but I have never seen this in any handgun ion which it is possible to shoot standard-length and magnum-length cartridges. It might happen, but I have never seen this phenomenon in any revolver I have inspected or used. It is not a common problem, even if it has happened. In fact, it may be one of those things which are common knowledge, but just ain' t so!

The .44/40 is, not only a bottlenecked case, it is the .45 Colt necked to hold a .427" bullet. It is therefore larger at the base than a .44 Magnum/.44 Special. It won' t enter a .44 Magnum chamber.

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

i should have added though that after a few grand of 38spls in my 357mag that i have no problems though after shooting a few hundred 38s the 357 do take a more pressure to seat because it you want to seat them you have to push out of the way the fouling from the 38s.
though now that i think about it ive not seen a gun with worn chambers at all so i have to say that i think the problem is more theorectical than realistic. i suppose with a lot of hot rounds it might be possible but that would depend on the steel. i say get it and dont worry about it

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

thanks guys ,
i understand what you were talking about now , i wasn' t sure of what i had heard/read but , when i saw the title of this thread and read down it , i thought it would be a wise decision to ask , so i can safely use specials in my mag. as for the .44-40 , i have no experience with this cartridge , and didn' t really know that much about it except that it was .44 caliber , and it was long enough to fit in a .44 mag chamber, and of course the historical stuff about the winchester rifles and the colt single actions , but now i do , and i' m glad you told me as i really didn' t want to get some ammo that i couldn' t use , thanks again:):)
whelen36:D:D:D

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

BTW-just wanted to let you know my .44 mag is a ruger super blackhawk in stainless , i' ve put a red dot scope on it but , with low magnification , but it is still great for the woods of northeast PA :D:D

RE: Do you ever shoot 45LC in 454
 

When I owned a .454, I only shot .454' s through it once in a blue moon, heck, even when I took it after deer I' d take .45colt half the time! As far as hotloading .45colt to hunt with in the .454, I' d say that' s kind of a waste, a guy might as well reload the .454' s to standard pressures instead of pushing the .45colts that hard. I mostly shot factory loads in mine (was before I started reloading) so buying .45colt was much cheaper to plink with than .454, and when I found rounds that shot well, I figured why switch, might as well hunt with them. I only took .454 ammo when I had sighted with it and when I was on a " first deer of the year" hunt.