Recently I built a rifle using a .45 caliber barrel that I chambered for the .460 Smith and Wesson.
With a 16.5" barrel and threaded for a suppressor, our shooting tests using various cast boolits have been very satisfying. The rifle was built specifically for hunting with a suppressor and meant to take both hogs and deer.
I had initially thought of doing the same with a .500 S&W cartridge, but the .460 seemed to be a bit more practical for several reasons. For one, off the shelf .45 Colt could be used as a subsonic round that could be bought at any Mom and Pop shop or even at the local Walmart. For those that don't reload, its a simple matter of buying a box. Most .45's use a 255 grain bullet running around 800+ FPS, and not much can take a hit from one and live to tell about it.
Another reason was that the harder hitting .454 Casull could be used if one wanted to.
Finally, if one wanted to load some serious 405 grain thumpers used for the various .45 rifles, it could be done easily and cheaply with cast lead boolits.
We first tried some .45 Colt loads. Using a suppressor made by X-Caliber, it surprised everyone shooting it. It was accurate and it was as quiet as any .45 out there. I was initially concerned that the short case in the longer chamber might lose some accuracy due to the bullet "jump" but this wasn't an issue at all. We first did .25 yards and stacked the boolits on top of each other, once the rifle was zeroed, it was pretty much a waste of time to shoot at 25 yards.
Then, we tried using the longer .460 cases and stuffed some cast lead 255's in it. These shot just as well.
Next, we tried using the .458 diameter 45-70 bullets that were 405 grains. These were sized from .458, to .452 in three steps. Once again, accuracy was excellent and the suppression was awesome, that .405 grain chunk of lead slapping the berm being the predominate sound. It sounded like a brick hitting the berm at a high rate of speed.
The first rifles we tried were two different Encore rifles. Both were cut back to 16"5 and threaded 5/8-24. Both performed as expected, recoil was mild and sound was not loud.
After shooting them quite a bit, I decided that a bolt action rifle with a magazine for quick re-load capability might be great for pig thumping.
So, I bought a barrel blank in .45, ordered a reamer from PTG and chambered the barrel for the .460. I used a Savage that originally came with two barrels, both a .308 and a .450 Bushmaster.
I had to open up the bolt face a bit for the .460 as it has a bigger rim than the above. Not hard to do really as the bolt face is easily removed from the bolt so that it can be chucked up in the lathe and counterbored. Then, the barrel was fit to the rifle. That was pretty much it.
The cases fit in the magazine that came with the rifle and they feed and eject great. While some care must be used to chamber the cartridges in the magazine due to the rim, once a system is figured out, it works well enough.
The more I shoot this rifle, the more I like it. Soon I will Dura Coat the barrel just to make it match the rest of the rifle. The hard core hog hunters in this area love it. While I haven't killed anything with it yet, I intend to try for both deer and hog.
Another added plus is the fact that if one see's a hog at a distance, you can simply remove the suppressor, load a full house supersonic round in it and shoot at ranges that the slow moving suppressed round would be hitting the ground at.
Its the best of both worlds really. I don't know of anything in North America that could stand up to 405 grain bullet moving at 1000 FPS.
Here's a picture.
Its fun and entertaining. Its quiet too.
What do you think?
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Originally Posted by HotGuns
Don't think momma would like that right now seeing that I just drug home a new Ruger SRH in 454 Casull today.
