I am looking for the perfect .454 to carry in bear country. I really want a five inch barrel b/c of ease of hauling it around. The Taurus comes in a five inch barrel but the Ruger only comes in a 6.5. Any suggestions on what to do? A friend recommended getting the Ruger and getting it cut down. Any experience w/ this? Any advice to shed some light on this tough decision would be great!!
Shoot Straight,
PT

I have the Ruger and like it. The barell length is actually 7.5 inches not 6.5. I would want it cut down for carry.

I have no experience with the taurus but I hear it's good too. The Ruger is a 6 shot while the Taurus is a 5.

I’m a big fan of almost anything Ruger, but, I think that I would get the Taurus if I wanted a 454. As has been documented on this forum, it appears that the Ruger has a design flaw, resulting in frequent, heavy case sticking.

Darrel

My paps got 3 .454's. a Redhawk a BlackHawk and a Freedom Arms. the Freedom arms is the best of the bunch, by far. We dont fire either rugers because the cases stick like mad. now i do love the Freedom Arms, but when i got to fire the Raging bull, i totally forgot about it, i loved it. oh, and the 5 shot Vs. 6 shot thing, think of it this way. if you cant put it down with 5 shots of .454 then whats 6 going to do?

Tio
SRH has no design flaw! Sticky brass is caused by three things. Dirty chambers, Hot loads or soft brass. I had a box of the soft brass, Lot 99 Hornady loads when I first got my SRH and they stuck, but since then I've reloaded all my loads for this gun and had not had any stuck brass until I got close to or were using Max loads. You could if your chambers are rough -polish them up some as a couple of people on this board have done and that also seems to stop the sticky brass problem.

As for buying a Raging Bull or Ruger it's your chioce a five or six shot! I prefer the ruger of course! :D

I have the Taurus Raging Bull .454 Casull 5" barrel. Have a about 1000 rounds thru it, mostly 300 gn Hornady and 340 gn LBTs at around 1500 fps. Had a trigger job done to lighten double action and make it more linear, but that wasn't really necessary. Shoots about 2" groups at 25 yards on bags. Recoil for me is not unpleasant offhand. Empties cases easily, but after 15-20 rounds the cylinders need to be swabbed or some cases will begin to stick.
If you want bear defense this is the gun. Here's why: it's .454 with manageable recoil; double-action; easy to handle and carry; 5 shots is more than you will have time to aim and shoot at a charging bruin beginning 25 yards out; plus, it's fine right out of the box. What have I overlooked?

I tried both the SRH and the RB, I went with the 6.5" RB, it has been good to me, and is great to shoot.

for all you ruger .454 buffs read what Gary Reeder had to say on his own form...

"Gary Reeder
your SRH
Sun Feb 22 10:19:42 2004
209.145.238.199
Tony,
Considering the extremely high pressures of the 454 ammo on the market (70,000 psi on two brands of 454 that I know of), and the fact that the Ruger is rated for 45,000 psi, I won't touch a Super Redhawk. I don't personally consider them safe with the newer hotter ammo. Ruger never intended that gun to be used with ammo that hot. Also Ruger suggests that the SRH barrel never be taken out as it is installed a special way to handle the pressures. The Ruger techs know their business so I don't go against them. There is no way to put a brake on your gun without taking the barrel out. Porting is your only choice, but that is only my humble opinion. And I mean that too, these are only my own opinions and a dollar and my opinion will get you a coke out of most machines. Sorry I can't help you.
Gary"

you can get to this topic at... http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=183178;article=5492;title=Gary %20Reeder%20Custom%20Guns

I did similar research before I purchased my Taurus RB. I didn't hear anything bad, even though many of the long time gun manufactures would like to find something wrong.

When I first saw the gun I liked the modern looks of it, plus the barrel was ported/compensated without having to pay some outrageous price. It has double cylinder locks and the grip is awesome and comfortable...not some hard piece of wood or synthetic.

My hands are big, so when I held the gun for the first time, it fit like a glove and just plain and simply made me smile. With all the other guns, my hands would wrap around it too much and my fingers contacted palm of hand, thus affecting a good grip. I couldn't imagine firing a gun with this much power without having grips like the ones on the Taurus RB series. They truly have brought something new to the table.

The thing appears to be built like a tank, yet the shorter barrel lengths give you the speed/versatility you need in dangerous situations. The price is great...I wouldn't pay anymore than 699.00 plus tax and fees for the .454. The online MSRP is not what the gun will cost if you just ask for their best deal at a local gun shop.

Don't want to offend anybody by saying much more because we all have different styles, but all other .454's look and feel like my grandpa's guns that I have been looking at for years. So if you want something unique and with updated technology just buy the Taurus RB series.

The only complaint I have so far is their customer service girls (Cubans?) who answer the phone...their English could be improved. When I had a few important questions, it was frustrating to get an answer. These are typical signs of a newer company going through growing pains. I will ignore it for now and just accept that once the gun is by my side 10 miles in the woods, the girls on the phone wouldn't really play much importance. Is that clear and honest enough for ya? :)

AJ

Nice report, and it can't be over-emphasized how much of a difference the gun fit makes for the individual in controlling recoil.

Taurus has put some real though into grip shapes / materials, and it shows. The 'ribber' grip on the lightweight carry guns looks odd, but it works.

Still if it fits your hands that's a huge step forward. When I started reshaping stocks on single-action Rugers it was a revelation on just how much difference there was in a slight contour change. Not sure I could ever be happy with a 'stock' super blackhawk, but a little work with files and sandpaper made a world of difference.

Same with rifle stocks, huge difference in felt recoil over different stock dimensions. Get what feels right and chances are it will be right (for you).

In responce to Gary Reeder`s opinion on the srh 454 please read; http://www.manufacturingcenter.com/man/articles/m0401stainless.htm

I've read elsewhere that the metal used in the SRH cylinder was to elastic. When the cartridge went off both the case and the cylinder expanded and the cylinder returned to it's original size while the case stayed expanded. I'm not sure if they use this new metal listed above to cure the sticking or if it was the metal that caused the problem. The other SRH had different cylinders and aren't affected by this I'm told.
hope this helps

mountianfreak ,I have a taurus in 454 and it works flawlessly .I have shot mainly300 grain and 335 grain cast lead bullet handloaads in it no problems,Ihave never owned the srh 454 but after all the accounts of stickycases and the fact that it is not ported and that means just more money sending it to mag-na port for a porting job. wouldnt buy one if I had to do somrthing to it everytime I shot it. I used to own a44-mag SRH and the dovetail scope mount areas on top of the frame bent upwards and even after sending money a letter and everthingas according to their service department they would not fix it to say the least I was very disappointed and also mad so I sold the gun and was looking to go bigger so when thetime was right i bought the taurus RBin 454 I tell you another thing the scope mounting system on the taurus beats the pants off of that dorky dovetail system on the ruger . I tell you what I say TAURUS <ALL THE WAY and as previously mentioned if five shoots dont get it done with a 454 then somethings wrong and you aint going have time to crack off 6 shoots so five is plenty.

Besides myself, I know of one other person in my area who has an SRH 454. We both use the same load ( Starline brass, CCI standard small rifle primer, 300 grain Hornady XTP-Mag, and 31 grains of Win 296 ) and neither of us have had any problem with case extraction. None. In addition to the other potential causes of stuck cases, I have a hunch that many of the extraction problems people are experiencing are happening after the shooter has used 45 Colts and has then gone to 454 Casulls without adequately cleaning the charge holes. I agree, Freedom Arms is the best by far, though very expensive. I have never shot the RB, but I have held one and it looks strong.

Gary Reeder doesn't know what he's talking about. The SRH 454 is rated way higher than 45,000 psi. The standard SRH 44 magnum may be rated to 45,000 psi, but the 454 is beyond that. There is no way a manufacturer would produce a 454 revolver that was only up to 45,000...especially since most factory 454 loads start in the 60,000 range.

Rugers are known to have case sticking problem, Rugers finishing work is to be desired, I personally accerize all my Rugers due to there rough edges and there cylinders are very rough need to be smoothed out. Don't get me wrong. I like the durability of the Rugers and there feel, they are beefed up to take a beating compared to other MFG's. My friend has a SRH 454 Casull like me, we were shooting the same loads and his cases were sticking really bad, plus split cases, sometimes blowing some of the brass out the barrel, talk about dangerous, This is why I think Ruger don't want to own up to a defect in there 454 Casull, would be a Liability on Rugers part,since it is not all the SRH 454 they shadow the problem and just fix them as they are sent in, no Charge. My ruger was fine using the same load, sent Bruces gun back to Ruger, Newport NH...He got back from Ruger with new Cylinders, So in tern this tells me the cylinders were a slight bit under sized, this will also cause pressure problems as it did. Ruger did not have a explanation why they had to change the cylinder, but bottom line it seems fine now, and yes dirty cylinders, shooting LC's then 454 Casulls/soft brass will cause sticking sooner than later, the combo of these situations will cause sticking as well, But my friends problem was much more than that. The proof of the pudding is they changed the cylinder, It was even off color;) I think it is random problem, due to mine was fine, I notice when I started using Flitz I could shoot over 100 rounds before any type of sticking, but you should not get sticking after just shooting twenty rounds or so. I still like the Ruger much better than the Ugly shiny 454 Casull Tauras, just my thoughts.
Aim small hit small. RAMbo.