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.454 CASULL

(0.451" or 0.452") Note: When loading this cartridge and you desire maximum loads, you must use a bullet with a thick jacket, so check your manual’s recommendations carefully.

As the .44 Magnum raised handgunning up a notch, in 1957 the Freedom Arms single action revolver and 454 Casull cartridge took it up two notches. At a SHOT Show years ago when I was speaking with Dick Casull, he told me that he got started when he had the idea to push .45 Colt loads above and beyond what was thought possible in what I believe were Modified Colt single actions. To safely chamber this new cartridge, Freedom Arms then built what was and still is a premium single action revolver. Bob Baker, who is now the president of Freedom Arms and with whom I have hunted deer over the years, has taken deer, pronghorn and many elk that I know of with the .454.

What is interesting about the .454 is that until 1998 it was a proprietary cartridge available only from Freedom Arms. The premium Freedom Arms revolver, when coupled with the then most powerful revolver cartridge available, set the handgun hunting world on fire. My friend Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel Knives fame has used this combination with open sights to harvest the biggest and baddest game Africa has to offer. This is quite a revolver cartridge but one that is easy to control as long as the handgun has a Mag-na-brake from Mag-Na-Port, and as long as you use hearing protection, even when hunting. 250-, 260- and 300-grain factory loaded ammunition is available.