RugerForum.com

[ribber]

If I was hunting large game i.e. moose ,elk and bear with a .454 Casull, Which bullets would you recomennd, 300 grain Hornady XTP, XTP/ MAG or Hard cast. or maybe a different bullet all together. Maximum distance would be 75 yds. or so Thanks in advance, ribber

[Nard]

I have been playing with 300 grain Sierra soft points for my .454 SRH. I started a few years ago using a good dose of 2400 with fair results but I just started using Unique. 12 grains shoots real good at 30 yards and I'm guessing it'll do the number on anything with 4 legs and this load is easy to shoot too, the bottom of a beer....... uhh Coke can will cover up 6 shot groups easliy at 30 yards. My shooting buddy says he doesn't even like to watch me shoot those 2400 loads!

J.B.

[sixshot]

Easy answer for me, for tough game use tough bullets. I've used cast slugs on big game for over 40 yrs, never had a problem. Bullet placement is the real key, that & penetration, if your jacketed bullet of choice will give you penetration then you have a good big game slug. The Hornady 300 gr XTP has an excellent reputation & for your 454 the mag bullet would be even better.
You have a lot of velocity at your disposal with the 454, some bullets won't hold up if you are running full throttle. Just remember, getting some expansion with handgun bullets is a plus but NOT at the expense of penetration.
Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel has taken hundreds of animals using the Hornady 300 gr XTP in his Ruger 44 maggie, its performed very well, you can look on his website & see the results.

Dick

[dougader]

I like the xtp mag and gold dot in 300 grains, but for moose I'd opt for the Cast Performance or Beartooth hard cast bullets in 335 - 350 grains. I really like the LBT style bullets... WLNGC or WFNGC.
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Doug

[volshooter]

For a few years I played around with a .454 casull. I had the best grouping and kills with hardcast.

I'll have to locate my data but I do remember that hard cast get more fps than jacketed with the same powder. I also found hardcast more accurate with my SBH.

I remember my first serious shooting session after sighting in.
I hung an old iron skillet in front of a freezer. After a few rounds I discovered the 340gr WFP had gone through the cast iron skillet and freezer but two of them had also passed through treated 4x4's of my barn!

Hog and black bear are the toughest thing we have here. My SBH with 290gr WFP hard cast will stop anything I will ever get to hunt.

The .454 was very abusive, loud and WAAAYYYY to much for my hunting so I traded it off on a AR15.

For deer use the HP's fron Hornady, they work extremely well.

I sure don't miss the shooting secessions with the .454.

It is a powerful, versatile and accurate round.
Practice is less than pleasurable for me though.
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"Kick a Buck"

[ribber]

Hi, I'm back in town and just read your replies. The reason for my confusion was Mark Hampton's book "Handgun Hunting ". In one chapter he dislikes cast bullets saying "hard cast are not all they are cracked up to be" and later on he likes them. This is all just theory for me anyway as handgun hunting is not legal in Canada . thanks for your input ,ribber

[Short Barrel]

I'm not sure who Mark Hampton is but I know some serious,hardcore revolver men that swear by hardcast bullets.The hardcast bullets rely on the meplat to generate shock and large bullet diameter to make a good wound channel and they just plow and plow deep through heavy bone,meat or gristle.When handgun bullets fail on game,it is usually a failure to penetrate.Hardcast bullets are known for consistent,deep penetration.It is possible to get a hardcast bullet with an internal casting flaw or they could be cast too hard or soft,but a quality,hardcast bullet is usually dead reliable.

There are some quality,bonded core "soft point" that are built very stout and can work just like a hardcast or may even mushroom a little and even generate more shock than hardcast and penetrate well also.Then there are a lot of soft points that are way too fragile and expansion can be a crapshoot at varying velocities.Soft points and hollow points don't always open up like they are designed to do.The hardcast just react more consistently than the average,run of the mill jacketed bullets.

I once shot a wounded mountain lion at a distance of about 6' with a 3" model 625 S+W in .45 ACP.The load was a Federal 230 gr Hydra Shok hollowpoint.The hollow cavity pinched off when it hit bone and failed to mushroom.The bullet acted like a round ball,doing little damage and only penetrated about 8".Jacketed bullets can just be fickle about when they will open up.

Again,I believe there are some top of the line,premium jacketed bullets that would perform more consistently if used within the velocities they were designed for.

But the hardcast just keeps on plowing.That is what it is designed to do.It doesn't need a certain velocity or resistence to open up.It isn't meant to open.It is meant to penetrate deeply,no matter what resistance it meets and it's hardness gives it a consistent performance that many other revolver bullets don't have.

I just believe that at hangun velocities it is tough to design an expanding bullet that will open every time.If a bullet expand well at 50 yds out of a 6" gun,what happens if you use the same bullet in a 4" gun,out at 100 yds.There has to be a lot of difference in how the bullet performs.

I just don't think you can go wrong with a good quality hardcast bullet, but a few makers have come a long way with jacketed bullet designs and you just really need to know which ones are top performers and which ones are so-so,especially when you get into animals larger than deer.

[63November]

My preferences in 300 grain handgun bullets in the 45 revolvers are:

Hardcasts for plain penetration

Speer Uni-Cor (SP) for expansion along with fine penetration

or

Sierra SP for a penetrating jacketed bullet.

IMV, the standard XTP is too fragile for heavy bone contact, the mag-XTP too tough for soft tissue expansion (and it slips through rather than tears due to its shape.)

I've tested some of the common stuff:

These are 1200 +/- fps impacts with heavy moose leg bones with wet newsprint to trap them.








The 300 XTP-Mag in this pic impacted the neck muscles/tissues of a moose at point blank. No bone was broken; it was simply stopped from an impact speed of approx 1500 fps. (Another bullet, a Speer SP - Uni-Cor 300 grainer, hit the back of the skull and drove through, breaking the lower jaw and exiting.)

FWIW, I've shot the 300 Sierra as well as moderately hardcast 320s through a brown bear, with both entry and exit holes, at 454 speeds.
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#1 45-70, 350 Speer #1 45-70, 350 North Fork
M77 30-06, 190 Hornady #1 9.3X74R. 286 Hornady

[Boxhead]

Mark Hampton hunts primarily with a hand rifle not a sixgun.

[ribber]

So, I looks like the vote would go to cast bullets or Speer and Sierra jacketed bullets. I can't recall seeing those jacketed bullets here on the Island , so it looks like I'll try some penetration tests of my own. I'll let you know how they turn out and thanks for all the help. Ribber