The 454 Casull best information ever posted about it

[CowboyTutt]

No problem ol' friend. Its a custom bullet made by McPherson and my friend has the molds. I need to contact his mold maker and get a set made that a bullet maker can use to cast me more bullets and make them available for everyone. The bullet is modeled after the RCBS Silhouette 45-70 bullet and weighs 410 grain with wheel weights. McPherson changed the diameter and design slightly. Eight grains of Longshot out of Mic's FA 83 with a 5.5 inch barrel was 864 fps average of a 10 shot string. Eight point five grains was 911 fps average out of the same gun. We think 11 grains yielded about 1000 fps but we seem to have misplaced the original data on that. All loads with a CCI 450 small rifle magnum primer. The FA had higher velocities due to the tighter tolerances of the gun compared to the Ruger and my Raging Bull and 8.5 inch barrel. I agree, for hunting purposes at close range, you don't need anything more. The faster velocities and lighter bullets for the Casull offer a flatter trajectory, thus the cartridges use in silouetter shooting as you know or longer range hunting in case you are channeling Jim Taylor.
-Tutt

[Grizz]

No problem ol' friend. Its a custom bullet made by McPherson and my friend has the molds. I need to contact his mold maker and get a set made that a bullet maker can use to cast me more bullets and make them available for everyone. The bullet is modeled after the RCBS Silhouette 45-70 bullet and weighs 410 grain with wheel weights. McPherson changed the diameter and design slightly. Eight grains of Longshot out of Mic's FA 83 with a 5.5 inch barrel was 864 fps average of a 10 shot string. Eight point five grains was 911 fps average out of the same gun. We think 11 grains yielded about 1000 fps but we seem to have misplaced the original data on that. All loads with a CCI 450 small rifle magnum primer. The FA had higher velocities due to the tighter tolerances of the gun compared to the Ruger and my Raging Bull and 8.5 inch barrel. I agree, for hunting purposes at close range, you don't need anything more. The faster velocities and lighter bullets for the Casull offer a flatter trajectory, thus the cartridges use in silouetter shooting as you know or longer range hunting in case you are channeling Jim Taylor.
-Tutt

Hah. Not into channeling

Thanks Cowboy,

Just curious about the loads. They sound hot but it seems they are in the range of the 44 hunting loads. Or the other way around. I didn't push my loads for velocity, but was after repeatable accuracy. These were 320 Gr plane base TC cast over 21.5 Gr of 296. This was in '88 when I started shooting cast. My later loads were 21 Gr. I have no idea what the velocity from the 10" SBH was... once I got to 21 every single load under the 320 was the same for years. until I ran out of them. LOL Never found a reason to race 'em.

I have an old note about a 300 Gr Sierra bullet that was 19 Gr of 296. Daughter took a caribou with that combination. Again, no clue about velocity but the caribou didn't object. My note-taking was not stellar.

I think I mostly found loads in the RCBS manual and started below their start load.

Just fun stuff to review now. My experimenting days are over I think. Thanks again for the info.

[mickbr]

Just resurrecting this thread Tutt as it was such a great read. It was interesting to hear NKJ mention that the first three years of Rossi 454's had the early production run issues and they sorted a lot of it out by 2005.

I was trying to find another thread where testing was done in the 80's I think, folks maybe from the same group... trying very hard to get 454 casull to work in a marlin? Does that ring a bell with anyone? Also was another thread on people testing casull pressures in regular rossi 45 colts and it did okay for a couple hundred rounds but was stretching the receiver. Id like to compile all these anecdotes and experiences with the 454 for my own interest

[AJMD429]

Just resurrecting this thread Tutt as it was such a great read. It was interesting to hear NKJ mention that the first three years of Rossi 454's had the early production run issues and they sorted a lot of it out by 2005.

I was trying to find another thread where testing was done in the 80's I think, folks maybe from the same group... trying very hard to get 454 casull to work in a marlin? Does that ring a bell with anyone? Also was another thread on people testing casull pressures in regular rossi 45 colts and it did okay for a couple hundred rounds but was stretching the receiver. Id like to compile all these anecdotes and experiences with the 454 for my own interest

Yep - there were many such discussions on this forum along that line. I don't remember any of the thread titles, nor necessarily the participants, so would hve to just search the forum for 'Marlin' and 'Casull' and see what turns up...

Here's ONE of the threads - viewtopic.php?t=27722

'Buck Elliott' I think was one of the ones who knew the guys doing the actual testing and development...?

[High Desert Hunter]

I dearly love my FA83 in 454, I was torn between the 454 which I had shot for years in the Super Redhawk, and the 475 Linebaugh. I'm thankful that I chose the 454, this was some 13 years ago. When Ruger released the Bisley 480, I grabbed a 6 1/2" version pretty quickly and I load the MP 385gr HP over 14gr of HS6 for around 1100fps in Starline cases. The 454 is mostly the same RCBS 45-270SAA bullet from an MP mould, these drop at 285gr, Unique was my favorite powder, but have found Longshot setves me quite well in lieu of the Unique I can't get and so am hoarding my last few pounds. Ol Jeremiah did a pretty good video on the 454 with some accurate loads: https://youtu.be/q4HXRMEWNTo?si=9YCLDedayI3KiSs2
I also shoot a lot of 325gr bullets from a set of Mountain Moulds blocks, and some 345gr bullets from a set of LBT blocks, the 325s are a better line range nose design, so I shoot more of them than the heavier 345s. I also have an NOE mould that drops a 355ish grain WFNGC bullet, but I never use it, not sure why I've kept it. I really appreciate the digging up of this old thread, I got a little bit of Jim T's story at the Whittington Center recently, but this has been a wealth of knowledge on one of my favorite cartridges.

Dave

[mickbr]

I'll be doing some load testing soon and will post the results here. The three magnum pistol powders I have on hand are lilgun, N110 and 2400 and expecting that to be the order of power levels also. Just testing the 300gn XTP( non mag version) at this stage and maybe some 240 gn XTP mag if I can find some.

[mickbr]

Found Buck Elliots tests on another forum. Maybe its here on this one as well? This was the info I recalled where they ran marlin 94's with 454 and it was having problems within a few shots. Very good read.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showth ... est-Part-1

[mickbr]

Another thread with Buck commenting that all the Rossi's he had handled by 2008, being a couple dozen, had reciever stretching and widening occurring, possibly towards a separation....interesting.


viewtopic.php?t=12008&start=50


Steve Jones remarks in 2014 that all the newer 454 were doing fine.

Would it be fair to say, that if no Rossi 454's have let go (we know of) in catastrophic reciever fails its a non issue. You'd think in a quarter of a century production it would be big news if it was happening, probably even mass recalls.