Ladle
 

After about a year of negotiation, the price came down from insane to merely ridiculous. It's Freedom Arms in .454 Casull. Bear defense is a very real concern in this neighborhood. And the Model 83 is on the short list of every guide and DNR man on the peninsula.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311993417.jpg


Am getting a lanyard ring attached. and might get a 6 inch barrel. But that would be next year. Otherwise, I am done buying guns.

that's gonna leave a mark.

Wow! That's a biggun...

it's actually the bare minimum that is considered to have a plausible chance against the local critters.

there are bigger guns. but i learned from wearing motorcycle safety gear, if it isn't light and comfortable eventually you're going to leave it at home.

That's a handful. .454 Casull in a ~7lb lever action Model 94 rifle is a handful. The picture alone made me flinch.

I shot one 3X! that was enought.

It's got a great look to it I like the barrel lenght. I wouldn't change it unless adding the 2" will really inctrase the FPS

i think yer gonna find a 6" barrel to be a PITA, slapping leather on yer side or off of yer chest. ask me how i know. i own a 6" 629 and a 4" model 29. the 4" across the chest holster i bought from WWLholsters.com, is a dream pulling off the chest, let alone my hip. short is good in a panic situation. 2" is not gonna gain you alot in the velocity charts to write home about.

our a&p wrench has one exactly like that. it IS a handful . he buys his anti ursus rounds in anchorage. they are meplat rounds, and they are loaded HOT!


he is a big boy with big hands, but he did go out and have his magna ported, and stated it made a huge difference in muzzle rise.


i think YOU should shoot that TONIGHT and send us some night action shots for our entertainment!

NICE one! I love the simplicity of the lines and revolvers are just so nice to shoot!


Have you ever shot a .454 Casull in anything? THAT is one HOT round!!! I am not a small guy and I do not feel safe shooting a .44MAG handgun! I do shoot .45LC / .45ACP. I shoot a .44MAG lever action when hunting.


I simply do not understand why the .45 is not considered adequate? Even a .357MAG? Lots of speed, lead, and you will need several shots no matter what.

Is that Grizzly or Black, Brown Bear country? One set is considered harder to bring down than the other. The black bears we have stumbled upon were just as interested in staying away from us as we were from them.

dealing with just a black bear is a GIANT PITA and it can and does quite often get ugly fast(see rugers ad re: the black bear chomping on the guy at reservation lake,az) and of course our experiences here in az and new messiko. none of which i ever wanna be a part of, but yer classic "wrong place wrong time" applies often in the woods.


the entire crux of the biscuit here on any bear is MASSIVE WOUND CAVITY expansion. you want /NEED the bullet to NOT break apart and damage as much tissue ,organs,bone while going thru, and to EXIT, causing BLOOD LOSS TO THE BRAIN!


no blood=no functioning organs.


just cuz ya blew up the heart doesnt mean they are not gonna press the attack.

black bears maybe get to 350# here. a .357 /.44 even a .45 is good. 6 shooter/semi auto/double action.


a hollowpoint upon entry will fill with fur/bone etc and not travel as far. ya gots to have the bullet exit. hence meplat type bullets hard as hell that do not deform or come apart. which means more wound cavity expansion and more damage and more blood loss.


a good analogy would be trying to stop a 150 car , 8 unit freight train with a .22 or using a 155 HOWITZER!


me? i gots the nastiest azz rounds from buffalo bore my smiths will safely handle, and the nastiest azz rounds from buffalo bore my 1895GS marlin will handle as well as my shoulder.


and a 12 ga benelli M-2 tactical with breneke slugs and federal low recoil OO buck with streamlight flashlight attached.


and


a M1-A SOCOM with a 25rd mag filled with 180gr remingtons, and a remote streamlight flashlight attached.




i aint screwing around with this! ALWAYS BRING ENOUGH SPOON and of course more COWBELL!

.44 Mag has generally been considered adequate for griz, so I'm guessing Varmit lives on Kodiak Island?

There is a mounted bear, standing up, in a shop in Jackson, Wy. Its front paws are about the size of couch cushions. If I had to bring that thing down, I'd prefer to use a two-barrel .75 caliber anti-aircraft gun.

Damn... That's a serious piece of hardware.

there is a MONSTER POLAR BEAR(ursus-arctos) that "petersen" of petersenpublishing inc. shot with a smith und vesson model 629.


it all comes down to what YOU can handle in a panic situation.


not dissing the single actions in .454, but a double action is alot easier to pull the trigger on when ya got it stuck in his stomach or ear or mouth when mr ursus horribilis is on top of you !

by the way petersen shot this polar bear with (5) rds of .44 mag.


hmmm??? wondering if he was saving the last round for himself?

i live on the kenai. the only reason black bears haven't over run the town is that the browns eat them.

took it up to the farm last night. first impressions, it is big. but fits my hand well. the action is very very smooth. like the sights. easy to come down on a target. shooting is exhausting. only fired twenty rounds and felt worn out. it kicks up, badly. have the lanyard ring ordered. am told there's an art to controlling these things. will have to figure it out. it is also deafening. was wearing full ear protection. and the sound still got to me.

shot an hp printer. a cel phone. and punched some nice clean holes in an old trailer rim.


stats are all over the place. from 1600 to 1900 fps. am shooting something called "backpacker's choice" ammo right now. also have a box of buffalo bore. will take my time figuring out what is best for my purposes..



the factory sells a spare cylinder that lets you fire .45 colt. but thats way down the list of things i need to spend money on.

Four inch is best. I have a .357 in 4 and 2 inch. I prefer the 2 inch. Not like I'm gonna be doing long range precision plinking.

It's a close in weapon. 20 yard max.....center of mass aim. Head shot with the last two rounds.

i imagine a muzzle brake (break? i forget) would be much too loud on that cannon? i have shot a .44 alot and while i am damn accurate, i didnt find the experience all that enjoyable. (neither did the pumpkins i was shooting at). i couldnt imagine that 454.

there is bigger now right? some .500 hand cannon?

btw, is that some antique light table the pistol is sitting on?

Damn
 

When the S**T hits the fan, I wanna be on ODDJOB UNO's side, I'll carry the ammo.

Steve

73 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine :D

$1300

they sell for 2k new. but that is insane when ruger has a gun in the same calibre for $900. anyway, times are hard, and guys are selling their toys. some fair deals out there.


a fair number of people are making .50 type guns. freedom arms has one in something called .500 wyoming express. the guy at the neighborhood gun shop has never even seen a bullet in that calibre.



prized possession, old animators desk.



am still going to look into the six inch barrel. but any decision can wait a year.

Nice score - those are beautiful guns, and probably one of the tightest fit, best made revolvers of all time. I had one of the first ones out, back in the early '80's, when all they made was the 7 1/2 inch. I actually sold it because that long barrel just got in the way. If it were me, I would keep your just as it is now, without switching out to the 6" tube.

I learned a lot about .454 Casulls and heavy .45 Colt loads in those days. I happened to get on board with the trend about the time a rather prolific gunwriter/guide from Oregon (one Ross Seyfreid) was exploring their limits, along with gunsmiths Hamilton Bowen and John Linebaugh. Bowen and Linebaugh built the guns, Seyfreid shot them and wrote extensively about them. I'm still a big believer in heavy .45 Colt loads.

The Casull will shoot .45 Colts with the cylinder that is on it now. No need for a new cylinder. Shooting .45 Colts in it is akin to shooting .38 or .44 Special loads in .357 and .44 Magnum revolvers. The .45 Colt case is simply shorter than the .454 case, that's all. Your gun will shoot them just fine. Great way to practice with it without all the blast, recoil, and expense.

As a matter of fact, most of us wound up using .45 Colt brass to put up our heavy loads for the Casull anyway. It's kind of a long story... First off, the Freedom Arms revolver has a somewhat short cylinder, along with a smallish frame opening. Shorter and smaller than that on the Ruger Blackhawk, Seville, Virginian Dragoon, or other such single actions on steroids. It limits cartridge overall length to a shorter length than will chamber in these other big single actions. Secondly, all of the available bullet molds for heavier than standard .45 bullets have the crimp groove located to accommodate OAL requirements of those other guns. So, even when loaded in the shorter .45 Colt cases, they are too long for the Freedom Arms cylinder. There is no way to load them in the longer .454 cases and still get them in the gun. So, we actually shortened .45 Colt cases to load the big heavy bullets in the Freedom Arms revolver.

Which leads to an interesting turn of events. We all sold our Freedom Arms Casulls, bought Ruger Bisleys in .45 Colt, and sent them off to Bowen or Linebaugh for larger diameter, longer five shot cylinders. And beat .454 Casull ballistics quite easily, at far lower pressures. It's not big trick to launch a 350 grain bullet at damn near 1500 fps from one of these modified Rugers. You sure don't want to do much of that, though. The Bisely grip, along with the Freedom arms grip, is far superior to any other for this level of recoil, by the way. A normal single action grip simply rolls up too much, and the base of the hammer hitting the web of your hand is the only thing that stops it. It hurts. A double action grip is simply out of the question.

Speaking of recoil, there is really only one way to handle this level. It's hard to explain here, but the gun is held in both hands in such a way as to direct the recoil over your off shoulder. You allow the gun to release from your weak hand and fly back over that off shoulder. Your strong side forearm winds up kind of across your mouth, like you are covering a sneeze inside of your elbow. Even then, it's best done in short sessions. You can actually damage your strong side hand if you try to "man up" and do it too much. A couple of cylinders over the course of an extended range session is enough.

Funny, though, we all kind of went full circle on this stuff. Personally, I don't even own any of that stuff anymore. After shooting a bunch of animals over the years, fighting the noise and recoil and all of that, I finally went back to the .44 mag with a normal 250 grain Keith bullet (from the new RCBS mold) at about 1,300 fps. My "heavy" .45 Colt is now a normal six shot Blackhawk, loaded with a 300 grain LBT to about 1,100 fps. Either load will shoot completely through any animal found in Washington and, while I have not personally done so, reportedly any bear found in Alaska as well.

So what is the point of the monster "hurt me" loads? Drilling a deeper hole in the ground on the other side of the animal? Once the bullet exits, it's done. There is no more "more" from there. I learned that almost 20 years ago, and haven't looked back. My hands and wrists thank me, my ears thank me, and my pocketbook thanks me.

So, if it were me with that beautiful revolver (and I will get another some day...) I would simply load it with heavy .45 Colts with hard cast bullets. 300 grains is plenty, 350 gets to "gilding the lilly" a bit. Buffalo Bore and other "custom" loaders of ammunition offer these at less cost than their .454 Casull loads. They are every bit as effective. They just don't have the "ooh ahhh" factor, and they won't drill as deep of a hole in the ground on the other side. They are, however, all you will ever need.

I've had my m83 for about 10 years and have loved it
When I lived in Eagle River, AK I carried it in a chest holster for bear protection. We had several close calls and attacks in that area and my Sig P220 was woefully under powered so got the six inch 454
When I moved south I scoped it and hunted deer and elk
The effect on deer was staggering; literally hooves in the air
I shoot only handloads (360 gr HCGC at 1650 fps) or a little lighter for deer
It takes some mind games to shoot it but it's worth it
Troy