New Gun Time

[BackWoods Billy]

Hello my friends. It's time for me to get a new handgun and I would love some feed back.I have been shooting Rugers for some time but would like to step it up.I like the .44mag a lot but could go up to .45-.454. I can spend as much $$$ as I want on this gun..I was thinking of a BFR .44 7.5".But now I'm thinking FA:bigsmyl2: SOOOOOO if you had the $$ to spend and not worry about it.What would you buy.I will be putting a scope on it for bench work and pig hunting.All lead boolits of coarse:shock:

[white eagle]

I would ditch the scope idea and if I had deep pockets
would buy a 5 shot 45 (big boy) colt, from the man hisself....
John Linebaugh
with that particular set up you are gaining about 200 fps and
bringing you within a eye lash of the 454 casull of course one could also get a
475 or 500 Linebaugh while you are on the phone with him

[Swede44mag]

FA in 454 would be my choice.

[BackWoods Billy]

Well now I'm up in the air between .44 and the .454 FA field 7.5"

[fivegunner]

I would buy a FA 97. in 45colt 4. 3/4 inch with the extra cylinder 45acp:Fire:

[98Redline]

If money were no object I would be talking to either John Linebaugh or Bowen Classic Arms about a custom .475 Linebaugh.

[longhorn]

I have a FA .454, now 4.75" but I think I might follow Fivegunner's thought if I had to do it over. A full custom from Linebaugh or Bowen or Harton would be nice, but I like my gratification a little closer to instant! Maybe you need more than one........

[BackWoods Billy]

" I like my gratification a little closer to instant! " LOL...Ya,there a eight week waiting period to have a FA made...

[L Ross]

Billy, I have the FA Mod. 97 in 45 Colt and the 45 acp cylinder. Outstanding accuracy and very easy to carry. When I bought mine my buddy bought the Mod. 83 in 454. I have shot his FA one handed with 24 gr of IMR-4227 and the Lyman 454424 and with its weight and grip shape it is pleasant. So you can have 44 magnum performance in an easy to shoot revolver. Loaded full bore it is as much recoil as I can stand for about two cylinders full. Fabulous workmanship, very accurate, but they are a little fussy on ammo dimensions. They are bored so tight your ammo has to be almost perfect.

Duke

[BackWoods Billy]

Thanks you guys.I pretty much made up my mind and going with a FA .454 7.5" barrel with a extra .45 long colt cylinder. Now it's time to wait.LOL... I guess I can start getting some good molds together.(most of what I have is .44)

[Love Life]

Thanks you guys.I pretty much made up my mind and going with a FA .454 7.5" barrel with a extra .45 long colt cylinder. Now it's time to wait.LOL... I guess I can start getting some good molds together.(most of what I have is .44)

I have the exact same gun and set up. The 454 really loves the lee 452-255 RNFP over a scary amount of 2400.

[BackWoods Billy]

Love Life. Do you use the Long Colt cylinder much??

[Love Life]

Not really. I have a rather tall front sight post so when I switch to my standard pressure/speed 45 colt loads I cant get enough adjustment from the rear sight to get point of aim point of impact. I don't see a need to use the 45 colt cylinder to hot rod 45 colts either. That is what the 454 cylinder is for. I am 100% certain you are going to have a huge smile on your face after you touch that thing off with a full house 454. Once you get over the initial shock, and then correct the flinch you'll get you will be shooting 3-4 inch 100 yard groups. The pistol can do better than that, but I can't. I can now sit and shoot 100 rds at a sitting. When I go to a more populated range the people are are glad when I am done. I have even had people ask me to stop. Also nothing I have shot with that monster has walked away.

[Groo]

Groo here
The 45 colt cylinder is used for light [Ruger/tc only] loads in 45 colt cases.
The one thing is to pick tour cast bollets with care as the cylinder is short and many
of the ruger style will not fit,nose too long.
Penn bullets has some cast made for FA guns,, try before you buy..

[big dale]

I would probably just hunt up another old model Ruger Superblackhawk since I have loved them so much for all these years.

Have fun with this stuff.

Big Dale

[Love Life]

The 454 is a beast, but if you give the caliber the time it requires for proficiency you will be extremely happy. Once you master her the 454 is the perfect walking around the woods cartridge IMHO.

[BackWoods Billy]

Groo here
The 45 colt cylinder is used for light [Ruger/tc only] loads in 45 colt cases.
The one thing is to pick tour cast bollets with care as the cylinder is short and many
of the ruger style will not fit,nose too long.
Penn bullets has some cast made for FA guns,, try before you buy..

Thanks you guys.I will call and ask about the .45 cylinder.I guess I can load the .454 any way I want.It's nice to make and load your own Boolits:grin: Thanks for the looking forward part too.Smiles is what this is all about.....

[Love Life]

I can cast some of the lee boolits and send them to you to try if you want. If you want to try them just let me know.

[BackWoods Billy]

I can cast some of the lee boolits and send them to you to try if you want. If you want to try them just let me know.

Thanks.I will when the time comes.:drinks:
PS.Any pigs around where you live in Ca.?

[missionary5155]

Greetings
If I already had 44 molds I would consider a 445 Supermag Dan Wesson. Very Accurate and ups the power factor way beyond. I have one in 414 SM and it will propel heavy for caliber boolits like a carbine in 41 mag.

[c.r.]

Thanks you guys.I pretty much made up my mind and going with a FA .454 7.5" barrel with a extra .45 long colt cylinder. Now it's time to wait.LOL... I guess I can start getting some good molds together.(most of what I have is .44)

Billy, I like your thoughts here....... love the .45 Colt cylinder idea on the mdl 83. I'd personally go with a 4-3/4" or 6" barrel though.

I'm not sure where the comments about the 45 Colt cylinder only handling the Ruger Only loads come from.

you can run a 5 shot 45 Colt up to 50K psi while the Ruger Only loads are ~30k psi loads. and by using the shorter 45 colt brass, you're only increasing your choices of bullets that will fit in the FA cylinder.

in a 5-shot 45Colt on the 83 frame, you'll be able to push a 325 grain bullets to ~1500 fps out of a 6" barrel. JMHO, but this is where the 45Colt will outshine the 44 mag.

the warmest ruger only loads will only push that same bullet to ~1275 fps.

[Swede44mag]

Thanks you guys.I pretty much made up my mind and going with a FA .454 7.5" barrel with a extra .45 long colt cylinder. Now it's time to wait.LOL... I guess I can start getting some good molds together.(most of what I have is .44)

I wouldn't buy the extra 45 colt cylinder you can down load the 454 look in the Lyman cast book. The extra cylinder would be nice but not necessary IMHO.

I have a Taurus 454 Raging bull in 8" stainless steel it is a blast but not the quality of the FA.

[Buddy]

I love DW's myself. The 445 SuperMag is a great cartridge. The collectability of the SuperMags has driven the price up the last few years. DW still has parts for these guns and the guys on the DWforum are really good at helping people understand the DW world. Buy a peice of history, there was an unfired NIB 445 SuperMag on GB this week.

[BackWoods Billy]

Thanks.The good thing about being in the free will zone is that I can change my mind when I want too.LOL.I had my gun guy call about his price on a FA Field 6".I have been thinking a lot about the extra cylinder and I don't think I need it.I never put .44 Special brass in my SBHH I just load it down." by using the shorter 45 colt brass, you're only increasing your choices of bullets that will fit in the FA cylinder." I'm going to look into this.Thanks.

[c.r.]

by using the shorter 45 colt brass, you're only increasing your choices of bullets that will fit in the FA cylinder." I'm going to look into this.Thanks.

Billy, be aware that FA frowns upon shooting 45Colt in their 454 cylinders. Has to do with tolerances and blah blah blah......I'm not going to argue whether they are right or wrong, nor am i going to defend or bash it. It's Bob Baker's company and personally i'll follow his recomendations.

shooting the longer heavier bullets with 454 brass might require you to crimp above the driving band/crimp grooves so that you can keep OAL short enough

~c.r.

[BackWoods Billy]

Billy, be aware that FA frowns upon shooting 45Colt in their 454 cylinders. Has to do with tolerances and blah blah blah......I'm not going to argue whether they are right or wrong, nor am i going to defend or bash it. It's Bob Baker's company and personally i'll follow his recomendations.

shooting the longer heavier bullets with 454 brass might require you to crimp above the driving band/crimp grooves so that you can keep OAL short enough

~c.r.
I do like the bigger boolits.I do thank you for bringing that up. Hope to make it to Texas to try it out on some of your pigs...

[Ed K]

Just shoot bigger boolits that have shorter noses.

[big dale]

You might consider taking some of that money you saved by not buying the extra cylinder and have them put a great polishing job on the trigger of that field grade gun...or just shoot it about fifty thousand times.

Have fun with this stuff.

Big Dale.

[BackWoods Billy]

big dale. My X moved to Plano years ago when my now 30year old daughter was 3. I made a trip there on my bike from S,Ca.back then, You know what I remember the most about that place? The FIRE ANTS..LOL..

[Moonie]

I love DW's myself. The 445 SuperMag is a great cartridge. The collectability of the SuperMags has driven the price up the last few years. DW still has parts for these guns and the guys on the DWforum are really good at helping people understand the DW world. Buy a peice of history, there was an unfired NIB 445 SuperMag on GB this week.

Perhaps one day I will be able to afford to replace the one I had, sadly that day isn't today.

[BackWoods Billy]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_166754dd74a950c0b3.jpg ('http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=918')
There she is. A 6" field Grade. Bought her today for $1,500.00. I think I got a pretty good deal on her.She's in excellent shape.98% Now I have to wait 3 weeks to shoot her.(a lot better then 10 week if I bought a new one.) While I'm waiting I want to make some boolits.Is the size pretty straight up on the FAs? I'm not sure if I "should" get a .452"or a .454" mold to start with. Any help would be great..By the way,thanks for all the help....

[Love Life]

The size on the FA guns is EXACT. .452 for boolits were as big as I could go in mine. Still shot more accurately than I could. This gun really likes the lee 255 rf pb and 300 gr gas checked boolit. For lube either LLA, speed green, or Lotak hard always gave me good results. As for shooting 45 colts out of the cylinder it is perfectly OK as long as you shoot those last.

What I am saying is shoot your 454s first and then shoot 45 colts. The reason behind that is because the 45 colt is shorter and the fouling in the chambers can cause chambering and pressure issues. With the 454 you want to avoid pressure issues because it is already high pressure. Make sure you clean the chambers after shooting 45 colts for the above reasons. These guns can take a lot of punishment, but you want to be careful as usual.

Brass life is exceptional using starline brass with the 454. I have 100 nickle plated pieces of brass that made it to their 8th reload before I had to scrap it using full power loads of 2400. Recoil with 255 grainers is snappy and starts to get retarded past 300 grains and ensure you have a very firm roll crimp or else your boolits will creep forward under recoil.

To finish off my long rant you have selected a very fine firearm. The trigger pull will be fine from the factory and work itself in over time. This is a very viable 100 yard and beyond handgun that is only limited by the boolit design and the user. Best advice I can give is order a couple hundred new starline cases and spend some quality time at the range with oyur new gun. If you have any more questions just shoot me a pm and I will try to answer them as best I can.

[44man]

For a .44 I would go with the BFR. Notice they sped up the twist so you do not need warp speed for stability with heavier boolits.
Next would be the BFR .475. I have not seen a single custom or other production gun to match the accuracy, choice of boolits and ease of loading for.
Next would be a Ruger SBH Hunter.

[BackWoods Billy]

Love Life.Thanks so much for your help.I just ordered the two Lee molds and "should" have them in a couple days.I have the .44 Lee in the 300gr GC and I love it. 44man that .44 SBH Hunter is a real shooter.I'm having a real goooooood time with this stuff.. It's almost time for me to go get a pig..Now with the .454 I can use them Barnes 250 gr XPB in the conder zone (Calif.Sucky Rules)and feel good about it....

[BackWoods Billy]

Well got my molds in the mail today and casted up a few.There both lee molds the 300gr GC and the 255gr PB. I'm using Clip-on WW and droping the in water. Now is this hard enough for full house loads.They come out between 18-21 BHN. Do I need to add in some #7-8 shot or cook them in the oven at 460. In other words(LOL) is water quenched WW good enough for the 454 ?

[Frank]

Backwoods Billy:
Well got my molds in the mail today and casted up a few.There both lee molds the 300gr GC and the 255gr PB. I'm using Clip-on WW and droping the in water. Now is this hard enough for full house loads.They come out between 18-21 BHN. Do I need to add in some #7-8 shot or cook them in the oven at 360. In other words(LOL) is water quenched WW good enough for the 454 ?

When did you take the reading?

[BackWoods Billy]

I wait a week or so to test with the Lee tester.

[Groo]

Groo here
I would stay away from 45colt cases unless you clean the chambers verry well each time
you shoot them..
The remains of the powder and the bullet leavings will build up
at the end of the chamber and cause extraction problems with 454 brass.[ Did in mine ]
Also the gun will shoot very well with 250 to 280 gr bullets as when it was made this was
the norm... Heaver bullets [300 to 340gr] MAY need to be driven faster
because the 454 has a slow twist barrel.
For this reason I use only 454 cases and unless going for Big Game aka bear/moose/elk
or up, stick to 250 to 270 gr bullets. [Yes they can go fast] I have some SSK molds for 454.
PS. Be sure to use 454 dies as 45colt may not size the brass down far enough..

[bbailey7821]

You will not be disappointed with the FA. I have a 4.75" model 83. It's really accurate and not bad to shoot. It really likes the Saeco 454 SWC over WW296.

[BackWoods Billy]

Thanks for the help you guys.