.454 Casull brass

richhodg66

Well-Known Member
Don't own one, but I shoot a lot of .45 Colt, normally and have pretty much run out of large pistol primers, but have a decent quantity of small pistol and also small rifle, which I'm told the .454 uses.

Any problems with buying a quantity of Casull brass and trimming it to .45 Colt length to shoot with small primers? I hate the idea of wasting specialized brass, but I wouldn't do it to very many.

If I understand correctly, the cases are dimensionally the same except for length, is that correct? I'm sure the brass is stronger somehow than .45 Colt brass, does that equate to thicker case walls and different internal volume? I onlt shoot moderate loads in my .45 Colts, and all are strong guns. Would I need to adjust loads much?
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
I dont see the advantage. But you are correct outside dims san length & primer pocket are identical.

If ya would like a few to test your theory. Pay shipping a d send me a address and Ill send ya some.

CW
 

Ian

Notorious member
The advantage is he can keep shooting without LP primers.

.460 S&W will also work if you have large rifle primers. No problem trimming Casull to .45 Colt and using small pistol primers (dimensionally the same as small rifle). I think the brass is thicker in the head so smaller internal volume, but you know how to work with that.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Yep, the 454 is thicker in both the case walls AND in the web. Simple to figure out the volume with water. Trim the 454 to length, fill to level and weigh the water. Fill a 45 Colt to level with water and weigh the water. The difference will give the percentage of difference between the two.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Seat an old primer cup to measure fhe water if you already decapped the brass.

Now help me understand something here. When measuring cas internal volume, do we measure fired or resized brass? I decided resized was the way to go because internal volume is most important at ignition and the bullet is moving by the time the case starts to expand, but that was just my logic.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Comparison of volume displacement only needs to be in the same state from the same form whether it's chamber formed or die formed .

Y'all have heard the tale of 3 , 30-06's enough times that you can probably recite it . 1 gr of water is a lot of brass or a lot of movement . I'd bet there's almost a 1 gr between the brass from the RBH and the Rosschester 92' fired and the margin is under under .1 if I'm wrong from fired to sized in the steel dies shoved down from .494 to .468 in the carbide sizer leaves no room for doubt .

The 06s displayed over 5 gr across the LC43 brass and almost 2 gr from the near Match chamber 760 to the closed groups 2" for neck sizing only 110 . Just informational .
 
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richhodg66

Well-Known Member
The advantage is he can keep shooting without LP primers.

.460 S&W will also work if you have large rifle primers. No problem trimming Casull to .45 Colt and using small pistol primers (dimensionally the same as small rifle). I think the brass is thicker in the head so smaller internal volume, but you know how to work with that.
Yep, that's the intent.

I have enough small primer .45 ACP brass that I could keep shooting that for a while. Somewhere around here, I have a .45 ACP cylider for my Blackhawk, so I guess I could go that route. The .454 brass would solve that problem. My second most shot pistol round, .44 Special, would be a problem.
 

richhodg66

Well-Known Member
I keep a big coffee can of small-primer .45 ACP brass for a "just in case". I actually wish ALL .45 ACP were SP, but that's another rant.
In my very unscientific tests, my standard load of 4.5 grains of 700X has slightly better accuracy, slightly less recoil (perceived) and most importantly, seem to throw the brass in more or less the same place. I prefer it over large primer .45 ACP.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
This “large” and “magnum “ primer thing the last thirty years is way over rated. Unless you are shooting ball powder, it is a waste.
 

richhodg66

Well-Known Member
Well, I finally got around to testing this tonight and it worked well. Trimmed them on a file type trim die and loaded some of my kind of standard light target load of 6.5 grains of Red Dot. It was late and I really wanted to try this out, and since I knew it was a light load in a very strong gun, I didn't measure the case capacity of the cut down .454 brass against a standard .45 Colt case, but I will before I load up any "real" .45 Colt loads.

I only got ten .454 cases, I guess I need to get some more now. Feels good to be shooting the big bores again.