My Big Fine Revolver is here!

Going to the range to try it out today! But I found out that 460 realoading dies DO NOT work for 454 Casull and 45 Colt.:mad: So I'm going to make a little road trip this morning to buy a set of 454 dies so I can load some of those up along with a buch of 45 Colts. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Beautiful revolver you have there!!! Let us know how your trip to the range goes. I have a BFR in 45/70 on layaway right now and hope to have in my possession soon! They certainly aren't for everyone, but for those of us who enjoy a little recoil, they do help scratch that itch! You will definitely appreciate the versatility of the 3 calibers.
 
Well I took it out to the range today. I had three loads that I brought with me. 45 Colts using a 255 grain hardcast lead bullet with 10 grains of Unique. So this load would be similar to a moderately loaded 44 mag. For the 454 Casull and 460 I used Hornady 240 grain XTP magnum bullets. In the 454 I used 28.5 grains of 2400 powder, and in the 460 I used 46 grains (man that's a LOT of powder!) of Winchester 296.

I used the 25 yard range and just did some rough sighting in. There were a fair number of people out, and I didn't have a lot of time to do a fine tuning. I started out with the 45 Colts. The gun was about a foot and a half high, so I brought that down. The first 4 or 5 shots seemed to be all over the place, way to the right, then left, then it finally settled in. Not sure what was going on there. The 45 Colts were very pleasant to shoot. You could shoot those all day. In fact, my 8 year old son tried a few and loved it(shooting off a rest). And he only weighs about 45 pounds. I would not even think about letting him shoot my Super Blackhawk(5.5" barrel, 44 mag) with similar loads.

On to the 454 Casull. Yeah these are definitely much more potent than the 45 Colts. Recoil is probably similar to a really hot 44 mag round out of my SBH, probably even a little more than that. But certainly managable. My dad has a Super Redhawk in 454, and that has quite a bit more recoil than the BFR does, since the BFR weighs well over a pound more. The 454 is certainly an extremely powerful round. Much more snort than a 44 mag. Mud was flying up in the air and clearing the tops of some rather tall trees(50-70 feet maybe). I even had a good sized hunk of mud land on me :). This is a fun round out of this gun. It's extrememly powerful but it doesn't beat you up. I would't want to put a couple hundred rounds through it in one sitting, but a few dozen wouldn't be so bad.

Then there's the 460. This is a beast of a round! Recoil is severe, but it wasn't painful, at least not when shooting 1 or 2 rounds every now or then. If you shot a full cylinder of these, you'd say "yeah, that's enough for a while". The mass of the gun is your friend when shooting these. I would not want to fire these out of a lighter gun, unless it had a ported barrel. Water filled milk jugs are impressive when shot with this baby!

I really love the gun. One of my favorite features is that you can spin the cylinder in either direction. That makes keeping track of which rounds are which when you load the cylinder up with various loads.

The next time I go, I plan on spending some time getting it sighted in. I'm hoping to see some nice groups.
 
10 gr of Unique in a 45 Colt is near or at max. The load keyholes at <20 ft? That almost has to be the 460 cylinder working against you with your 45 Colts, too much of a jump to the forcing cone.
 
I got the load out of my Lyman manual under the TC section. They list max at 10.2 grains of Unique for this bullet.

It wasn't 20 feet, it was was about 18 yds. I understand that 45 Colt loads theoretically won't be as accurate as the longer 460 rounds. However, MR also makes this gun in a .410/45Colt version, which uses the same length cylinder(and probably the same barrel) as mine. I can't imagine that they would consider it acceptable in that gun if the 45Colt loads were making 2 foot "groups" at 18 yds.

The only gun I've ever shot in my life that had worse accuracy than this one was an old 25 caliber Jennings mouse gun. And that wasn't much worse.
 
Thats a fine pistola Gdawgs. Congrats!

You won't find a stock Ruger pistol trigger as sweet as a stock BFR trigger...

and yes, BFR stands for Biggest Finest Revolver.

Is that a Judge
Click to expand...

As an owner of both a Judge and a BFR...

....somebody slap that guy. :D:D:D
 
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Gdawgs.......I suggest you try your 255gr cast bullets over TrailBoss @ 90-95% case capacity in .460 cases. It will probably be equal to your .45LC load and you won't have to worry about the crud ring left by the shorter cases. There are also plenty of other reduced recoil loads out there for other powder/bullet combos using standard .460 cases. When it comes to .460, you don't have to load it hot to make it perform well. I like 45gr of H110/W296 under the 240 gr XTP-Mag. Accurate, easy to shoot and still has enough oomph for deer. I also have found that IMR4227 works very well in .460 and it along with the 300gr XTP-Mags or 300 gr Deep Curls are my standard deer load. It is also less temperature sensitive as compared to H110/W296 which is helpful if, like me, you hunt in temps that vary from 70* to 10 below. My X-Frame has tight throats and I have found that it doesn't take much of an increase in powder to make a substantial increase in pressure. Make sure when you load for .460 velocities, that you always use a bullet appropriate for those pressures. Bullets intended for .45LC pressures and velocities can cause excessive gas cutting and erosion. Jacket separation is also possible along with poor terminal performance.
 
Thanks again for the input guys.
Edward, no i usually do not start at max loads. But I did on those 45 Colts because that is an extremely wimpy load compared to the 454 and 460.

Buck 460, i will try reducing loads in the 460 as well and see how those work.

Here's some good news, I bought some factory loaded 45 Colts (255 grain lead round nose), and those grouped nicely with no signs of tumbling/keyholing. So my gun doesn't like my loads. I measured my lead bullets and my Hornady XTP mag bullets, and those both come out to .452" right on the money. According to the MR webside, the groove diameter should be .451, and the reloading manuals say to use a .452" bullet, so I think I'm good there. I was going to slug the bore, but I can't find any 45 cal lead round balls in town.

I also bought some factory loaded 460 rounds, Horndady 220 grain flex tip. I can't get those to group good, but they are tough to shoot, given the recoil. I did get my 454 loads to group better today.

So I'm feeling a bit better since those factory loads shot well. I'm going to try making several different reduced loads for the 45 Colt. I'm thinking 8 or so grains of Unique, 7 grains of 231, and maybe a wimpy Clays load of 5 grains. I think I'll have to go out and get some Trail Boss as well. Never tried it before, but that's the fun part of reloading.
 
Yep, he has plenty of lee-way when loading for this over sized Judge ... I mean BFR :) . Certainly not a carry gun or a holster on hip revolver!! Enjoy it for what it is!
 
Like I said, 10.0gr Unique may be high for standard pressures but both the gun and the powder can take more. My favorite .44Mag load is a 240gr over 10.0gr Unique and that case has measurably less capacity than the cavernous .45Colt. 9.0gr is the classic Colt-level load that duplicates original ballistics with a 250-260gr cast bullet. So no, there is nothing wrong with his load.
 
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