As a follow-up to my recent article http://shootingthebull.net/blog/how-effective-is-a-hit-from-a-judge/, I decided to find out how effective a .454 Casull hit would be from a Raging Judge Magnum. Now, I’m not advocating that you use a .454 Casull as a personal defense weapon; the sheer power of the cartridge introduces complications that may not be worth the benefit — the massive recoil would make getting a second shot off rather tricky, the overpenetration would be extreme, and if you happened to miss, the destructive power of that wild round and the liability concerns (if it misses your target, it’s still going to hit something) all lead me to think that it’s probably not the best idea to use a .454 Casull as a personal defense round.
But — it should make for some pretty spectacular footage, right?
So I took the Raging Judge to the range, loaded it up with a Speer Handgun Hunting Deep Curl .454 Casull rounds, and fired one into a block of ClearBallistics synthetic ballistic gelatin. And the results were… noteworthy. But before I show you what the Raging Judge .454 did to the gel block, let’s first put it into context — I’m going to show you what a full-power full-size service pistol with premium defensive ammo does. So in the video below you’ll find two shots: first is a Glock 21 .45 ACP, firing the excellent Federal Premium HST +P hollowpoint rounds. This is about as good as it gets for a conventional handgun, and you can see the shock of impact and the penetration and damage that a premium big-bore hollowpoint can do. Then, it’s followed up by the Raging Judge Magnum shooting the Speer DCHP .454 Casull into another ClearBallistics gelatin block. Enjoy.
The .45 ACP hits hard, sure, but nothing at all like the .454 Casull. It picks up the entire 18-lb block of gel, entirely off the table, and shoves another 18-lb block clean off the screen! It destroyed the table, and the temporary stretch cavity is so huge that it’d likely rip and shred flesh just like a high-powered rifle would. Nor surprisingly, considering the .454 Casull round is delivering rifle-caliber energy and while the velocity isn’t quite up to high-power rifle levels, the bullet is nearly twice the weight of a standard .308 rifle’s projectile, so there’s still a tremendous amount of damage being done.
.45 ACP is one of my favorite calibers, and it’s a potent and proven manstopper, but this sure does put it in perspective!
Over penetration? Sure, but the loss of energy in over penetration is overrated. If that were not so, you wouldn’t see such a large temporary cavity near the entry wound, and none at all when the bullet comes to rest. The ideal wounding shot would penetrate completely through the target and fall to the ground. Ignoring injuring someone behind your target, the exit would will be exponentially larger than the entry would, you will have double the opportunity to bleed out, and lets face it, most of your nerve endings are near the surface of your skin, so you’d have twice the physical pain and psychological shock with an exit wound. People knowledgeable about terminal ballistics generally discount the wounding effects of kinetic energy, pointing out most of your internal structures are able to absorb some stretching and trauma, but I don’t know one that says there’s no damage to such an extreme example as we saw in this video. The .454 Casull, a caliber that can manufacture shot placement by the simple fact that it does massive damage when you miss the central nervous system. Missed the spine and hit a shoulder? No problem, hard to fight with a pulverized shoulder. Bad guy wearing a ballistic vest? No worries, even if the vest doesn’t fail, he’s going to have to weather a blow from Thor’s hammer to the chest. It might not kill him, but the fight is over. It turns cover into concealment, and blinds and deafens the most hardened criminal.
I’m really interested in the Raging Bull, Raging Judge magnums both 454 Casul, 45LC, 45ACP and I’m searching for valid comparison not only on stopping power but reliability 5 or 6 shot with or without 2 1/2″ 3″ 410 capability. I love the versatility of the ammo from sport shooting, self defense, and hunting small to large game. I’ve been looking and plan on buying one please let me know what you think between the two. I would really like the revolver capable of firing every 45 cal pistol and rifle round.
I’m really interested in the Raging Bull, Raging Judge magnums both 454 Casul, 45LC, 45ACP and I’m searching for valid comparison not only on stopping power but reliability 5 or 6 shot with or without 2 1/2″ 3″ 410 capability. I love the versatility of the ammo from sport shooting, self defense, and hunting small to large game. I’ve been looking and plan on buying one please let me know what you think between the two. I would really like the revolver capable of firing every 45 cal pistol and rifle round.