44mag or 44-40 or 45 colt?

[fingers]

For the money spent, I myself if I were you I'd would wait for a 44 or the 45 in this carbine.
Certainly the 357 is no slouch, but you'll get better use of the bigger ones for big game hunting IMO.

my two bits

Or you could get both!!!

 

[Camp Cook]

I would go 45 colt with hand loads as you can get it up to almost as potent as the 454

I disagree thats like saying a 30-30 is almost as potent as a 30-06.

Not going to happen...

 

[thebigslide]

Guys thanks for the comments. Do you think its impossible or to much of a problem to convert a 45 Colt over to 454 Casull? Or do you think its not worth the headache and just get the factory offering?

Not worth the headache. Even the Rossi guns factory chambered in 454 have a short lifetime. They lockup just plain isn't strong enough and the lug will eventually deform to the point that the headspace opens up.

 

[thebigslide]

I disagree thats like saying a 30-30 is almost as potent as a 30-06.

Not going to happen...

This is absolutely correct. The 454 brass is much thicker to begin with. But even if you cut down 454 brass to use in some hot 45 colt handloads, the 454 case has room for a larger amount of a slower powder by quite a bit. And the carbine length gun has a long enough barrel to really take advantage of that.

 

[Sun_and_Steel_77]

As for the short barreled/take down guns I would go 45 colt with hand loads as you can get it up to almost as potent as the 454, and significantly above the 44 mag from what I've been reading.

Complete and utter Balderdash!...from what I've been reading.

 

[USP]

alright, that guy at Prophet River got me again. I have a .45 Colt Trapper on order now for "my official Wendy shove it up yer dumper this gun aint gonna be registered" celebration gun.

Should be here in about 6 weeks.

Any recommendations for what ammo to buy? I hear with this caliber I want heavy cast right and no jackets? How is brass life expectancy? I will not load crazy hot, maybe 75-80% of max and leave it there. Thanks for all the help.

Wayne looking forward to trying your tip out here.

 

[Camp Cook]

Actually the specialty 5 shot single action revolvers in 45 Colt can be pushed to 454 Casull levels and there is no reason you can't do that in a Puma M92 in 454 Casull the question is why would I load 45 Colt to those levels when we have the 454 Casull.

Will a Win 92 handle those levels probably but I wouldn't just because I wouldn't I'd keep my loads to top Ruger/Contender reload levels.

 

[Freyr_255]

I disagree thats like saying a 30-30 is almost as potent as a 30-06.

Not going to happen...

http://www.gunblast.com/Paco_Legacy_454.htm

Notable quote:

It was discovered when smokeless powder was introduced to the public, how strong these designs really were. As steel became better and better, stronger and more resistive to pressure, the 92 became an eventual mini-powerhouse. In the late 1970s a company called Rossi, had been reproducing the 1892 designs in many calibers and for a number of cartridges...like the .357 magnum and the 44 magnum. And for Christmas 1998 my wife bought me a Rossi rifle model ‘92 in 45 Colt, with a 24 inch barrel. Which I have been running 50,000 psi pressures in ever since. Nary a problem except one....the loading tube kept cutting the retaining screw off at the muzzle from recoil generated by the heavy loads.

I guess I am big enough to admit that I didn’t think the 92 design would take the 62,000 psi+ pressures of the Freedom Arms/Casull 454 cartridge over a sustained amount of shooting at that pressure. And I have stated that many times in print.

But so far my Legacy Puma 454 is still tight after 500+ rounds of 60 to 65,000 psi pressures, and another 250 rounds of my heavy handloads. This 92 is a little different than the others Rossi used to manufacture, now Legacy. The biggest change is what they did to the loading tube. No more screw cutting! Like the 22RF rifles that have a loading tube that has a spring rod that goes over the cartridges into the tube to give the rounds tension, so the cartridges will cycle, a scaled up version of this is on the new 454 Legacy. It opens at the muzzle with a twist and the rod is withdrawn to the loading port cut into the tube itself, so you can just drop the rounds in. I was able to get 10 .45 long Colt rounds in the tube and still close it, and it allowed nine .454 rounds. But short of getting into a war, nine rounds is certainly enough.

If you do some math his 45 colt loading of 325gr NEI/Keith at 54,000 psi and 2221fps generates 3559 ft-lbs of energy. Kind of impressive if you ask me which is also one of the reasons I decided to get a Puma in 454. Even if I hit 3000 ft-lbs I'll be impressed and legal to hunt bison with it.

 

[Freyr_255]

Actually the specialty 5 shot single action revolvers in 45 Colt can be pushed to 454 Casull levels and there is no reason you can't do that in a Puma M92 in 454 Casull the question is why would I load 45 Colt to those levels when we have the 454 Casull.

Will a Win 92 handle those levels probably but I wouldn't just because I wouldn't I'd keep my loads to top Ruger/Contender reload levels.

Cause 454 brass can be a ##### to find(same with the gun).

As it stands though the 454 and 45 colt actions in the Rossi guns are the same as far as I can tell. Just the barrel,feed guides, and mag tube are different.