{"id":364,"date":"2018-06-17T00:02:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T04:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/64.25.106.130\/?p=364"},"modified":"2019-09-19T20:53:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T00:53:40","slug":"454-casull-penetration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/17\/454-casull-penetration\/","title":{"rendered":"454 Casull Penetration"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 454 Casull was originally developed as a high performance hand gun hunting cartridge.\u00a0 With about 50% more energy than a 44 Magnum it has become very popular as a bear defense handgun cartridge.\u00a0 When in bear country, make noise while walking, use your tiny bells, and call out \u2018hey bear\u2019 or something periodically \u2013 Plan A.\u00a0 Wild animals will often shy away from anything unusual.\u00a0 If you see a bear heading your way with intent, a cloud of bear spray in front of the bear will often discourage it \u2013 Plan B.\u00a0 If not, remember, bears kill and eat large animals on a regular basis.\u00a0 That is nature, red in tooth and claw.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t feel like being\u00a0 part of the nature menu right now it\u2019s time for Plan C.<\/p>\n

The main problem is that a bear has hundreds of pounds of massive, thick skull, thick fur, tough hide, heavy dense bones, gristle, and muscle protecting its vitals.\u00a0 Ordinary handguns won\u2019t do much to a Brown bear except make it mad.\u00a0 As for all dangerous game, penetration is the most important consideration.\u00a0 A flat meplat or bullet nose helps.\u00a0 In preparation for a Western hiking trip I decided to test various loads both straight on and at a 45\u00b0 angle to simulate a glancing impact.\u00a0 The target was 1.5\u201d of Purpleheart to simulate a skull or heavy bone, backed up by 6\u201d of spruce in the form of four 2×6\u2019s all held together by staggered 3\u201d deck screws for a total thickness of 7.5\u201d.\u00a0 Purpleheart is the hardest wood I had readily available.\u00a0 It is considerably harder and more crush resistant than Rock Maple, for instance. \u00a0For the 45\u00b0 angled shots the slant thickness was 10.5\u201d on the diagonal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Ruger Super Redhawk, 454 Casull, 7.5\u201d barrel, 21 feet from target<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

90\u00b0 penetration<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

90\u00b0 retained weight<\/td>\n45\u00b0 penetration<\/td>\n45\u00b0 retained weight<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Buffalo Bore 7B 300gr JFN (exposed lead nose) 1550 fps<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

3.7\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

284gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3.0\u201d (a)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

288gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Corbon Hunter 335gr HC (Hard Cast) 1550 fps<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

4.6\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

194gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

4.6\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

258gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Corbon Hunter 325gr FPPN (Flat Point Penetrator) 1550 fps<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

> 7.5\u201d (b)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

325gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

10.1\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

325gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Federal Swift A-Frame (hollow point) 300gr 1520fps<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

5.0\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

268gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

6.7\u201d (c)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

279gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Kimber 1911 45ACP, 5\u201d barrel, 21 feet from target<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Remington UMC 230gr FMJ 835fps<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2.1\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

230gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.8\u201d (d)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

230gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Remington Golden Saber +P 185gr JHP 1140fps<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

3.0\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

185gr (e)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2.6\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

185gr<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

(a) The corner of the lead tipped JFN apparently caught on the 45\u00b0 impact. It tumbled sideways and didn’t penetrate as far as the 90\u00b0 shot.<\/p>\n

(b) The 90\u00b0 Corbon FPPN blew straight through the 7.5″ stack, the only round that did so.\u00a0 Even though the bullet was not recovered there was no jacket or core material in the channel through the wood.<\/p>\n

(c) The 90\u00b0 Federal Swift A-Frame expanded as expected, retaining 89% of its weight.\u00a0 The 45\u00b0 impact shot collapsed the A-Frame hollow point from the side, causing\u00a0 that round to not expand significantly, to penetrate farther, and to retain more of its weight.<\/p>\n

(d) The 45ACP FMJ distorted for the 45\u00b0 impact and tumbled slightly resulting in less penetration.<\/p>\n

(e) Both of the 45ACP Golden Sabers packed Purpleheart into their hollow points and did not expand.\u00a0 They also did not loose any weight.\u00a0 The 45\u00b0 shot tumbled slightly.\u00a0 I added the 45ACP to illustrate the difference between a personal protection cartridge and a bear cartridge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Note that the 45\u00b0 Corbon FPPN penetrated 10.1″.\u00a0 It kept straight all the way and was not diverted or destabilized by the angled impact.\u00a0 This is a hard lead core flat point bullet with a thick jacket that completely covers the core including the base.\u00a0 Here is what one looks like after going through 10.1″ of wood.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately it’s not available anymore.\u00a0 If you are looking for this kind of penetration there are some alternatives.\u00a0 Grizzly<\/a> sells a 300gr 1400fps metal jacket lead core round.\u00a0 These use the Belt Mountain Punch bullets.<\/p>\n

Another possibility is the Magtech<\/a> 260gr 1800fps lead core FMJ Flat.<\/p>\n

There are monolithic copper penetrators from manufacturers such as Underwood<\/a>.\u00a0 As they are less dense than cored bullets, they take up more powder space for a given bullet weight and can’t be loaded to the same energy levels as a lead core bullet.<\/p>\n

I’m waiting for someone to make a tungsten cored heavy brass jacketed flat nose penetrator.\u00a0 As tungsten is denser than lead, this would leave even more powder space for a given bullet weight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One common recommendation for this application is the Hard Cast bullet.\u00a0 Note that these penetrated less than half as deeply as the FPPN with a heavier bullet at the same muzzle velocity.\u00a0 Here’s the 90\u00b0 HC after 4.6″.\u00a0 Also note that it only retained 58% of its weight.<\/p>\n

The Federal Swift A-Frame penetrated deeper than the hard cast, retained over 89% of its weight, and expanded to 0.75″ as recovered.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, I have enough Corbon FPPN for all the predatory bears I could conceivably meet so that’s what I’ll be carrying.\u00a0 If I couldn’t use that,\u00a0 I’d either take Federal Swift A-Frames or repeat the test using Magtech FMJ Flat, Grizzly Punch, and the Underwood Penetrators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 454 Casull was originally developed as a high performance hand gun hunting cartridge.\u00a0 With about 50% more energy than a 44 Magnum it has become very popular as a bear defense handgun cartridge.\u00a0 When in bear country, make noise while walking, use your tiny bells, and call out \u2018hey bear\u2019 or something periodically \u2013 … Continue reading “454 Casull Penetration”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[47,49,48],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ordnance","tag-47","tag-bear","tag-casull"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irrelevant-tech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}