[Jeff Higgins]

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.