Buffalo Bore 454 Casull 360gr Hard Cast – Tremendous Big Game Load

Description

The Buffalo Bore 454 Casull 360gr Hard Cast is the heaviest bullet they load in the cartridge, and it exists for the situations where nothing else will do. A 360 grain LBT lead wide nose at 1425 fps carries about 1623 ft-lbs, and since it does not expand, all of that goes into driving forward through whatever is in the way.

• Buffalo Bore 454 Casull 360gr Hard Cast Overview
• 454 Casull Heavy Ammo Ballistics
• Why The 360 Grain LBT Lead Wide Nose Bullet Keeps Going
• Specifications
• Revolvers That Take This Dangerous Game Handgun Load

Buffalo Bore 454 Casull 360gr Hard Cast Overview

Buffalo Bore item 7C loads a 360 grain L.B.T. style hard cast lead wide nose to 1425 fps, producing roughly 1623 ft-lbs. Twenty rounds per box.

The 454 Casull operates at around 65,000 psi, roughly double a 44 Magnum and comparable to a modern rifle cartridge. It is a lengthened 45 Colt case, so a 454 revolver fires 45 Colt happily while a 45 Colt revolver must never see a 454 round.

Against the 325 grain load in the same catalogue, this one gives up a hundred feet per second and takes back 35 grains. The energy figures land within fifty five foot pounds of each other. What separates them is sectional density.

Dick Casull spent the 1950s loading 45 Colt cases far past their limits before building a cartridge and a revolver that could contain what he wanted. Freedom Arms brought it to market in 1983 and SAAMI standardised it in 1998. This load is the far end of what he was reaching for.

454 Casull Heavy Ammo Ballistics

At 1425 fps a 360 grain bullet produces about 1623 ft-lbs, from grains times velocity squared divided by 450437. That is roughly seventy percent more energy than a heavy 44 Magnum load generates, from a case only slightly larger.

Momentum is the number that matters for a non-expanding bullet: 513,000 grain-feet per second here, against 495,625 for the 325 grain at 1525 fps. The heavier bullet wins on the measure that predicts penetration, which is the entire reason to choose it.

Recoil is at the top of what a revolver produces. Even in a Freedom Arms Model 83 or a Ruger Super Redhawk this is a serious load, and most shooters plan their range sessions around it rather than shooting it casually.

Trajectory suffers a little for the extra weight. At 1425 fps a 360 grain LBT lead wide nose bullet is a hundred yard proposition for hunting, which is well beyond any distance a defensive encounter with an animal happens at.

Why The 360 Grain LBT Lead Wide Nose Bullet Keeps Going

The L.B.T. wide nose profile puts about as much flat frontal area on a bullet as the shape will allow while leaving enough bearing surface to shoot accurately. That flat face cuts a full diameter hole for the whole length of the wound channel rather than parting tissue and letting it close.

Cast hard from a lead, tin and antimony alloy, the bullet does not mushroom and does not meaningfully deform against heavy bone. At 360 grains there is enough mass behind the nose to keep it tracking straight after it meets a shoulder.

That straight line behaviour is the whole point of a dangerous game handgun load. A charging animal rarely presents a clean broadside, and the bullet has to reach the spine or the vitals from whatever angle it gets. An expanding bullet may not.

The trade is a wound channel no wider than 0.452 inches. On deer or hogs an expanding bullet does more visible damage and Buffalo Bore builds those in the same calibre. On anything that can hurt you back, the trade runs the other way.

Buffalo Bore sizes and lubricates these bullets carefully, so leading stays manageable even at this velocity. Done right, 454 Casull heavy ammo in hard cast fouls a barrel no worse than jacketed ammunition.

It reduces to one idea. A 360 grain LBT lead wide nose bullet, cast hard and driven fast, is the simplest and most reliable way to reach something important inside a very large animal.

Specifications

Revolvers That Take This Dangerous Game Handgun Load

This load belongs in a revolver chambered for 454 Casull: the Ruger Super Redhawk and Alaskan, the Freedom Arms Model 83, the Taurus Raging Bull, the Magnum Research BFR and comparable heavy frame guns, plus single shot pistols and rifles in the chambering.

A 454 revolver fires 45 Colt without difficulty, which makes practice much cheaper and considerably less painful. A great many owners shoot 45 Colt at the range and load the deepest penetrating revolver ammunition they can find before heading into the backcountry.

Never attempt the reverse. 454 Casull ammunition is loaded to pressures a 45 Colt revolver cannot survive, and while the longer case will not chamber in most 45 Colt cylinders, the point is worth stating without ambiguity.

Sight regulation matters. A 360 grain bullet prints well above a 250 grain load at any distance, so confirm point of impact with the exact ammunition you intend to carry.

Deepest Penetrating Revolver Ammunition Availability

This Buffalo Bore 454 Casull 360gr Hard Cast is in stock and ships from our Collegeville, Pennsylvania shop. MAG5 Firearms is a family owned FFL dealer, and orders of this deepest penetrating revolver ammunition normally leave within one business day.

For a slightly lighter and faster hard cast bullet see the Buffalo Bore 454 Casull 325gr Hard Cast. For a lead free expanding option try the Buffalo Bore 454 Casull 250gr Barnes XPB, and for the largest bore in the line the Buffalo Bore 500 S&W 440gr Hard Cast. Tested velocities are published by Buffalo Bore Ammunition.