Rambling

Larry Weishuhn

The morning hunt had been great fun!  David Cotton, William Nixon and I had been out for the past couple of hours trying to rattle up bucks. And we had been successful. It was as if the really nice 8-point had read and followed the script just as I had written it. The 3-year old came within feet of David sitting against a tree. Love it when a plan comes together!

I debated going back to the deer woods, or, spending some time shooting paper and steel, making certain my .454 Casull Taurus Raging Hunter was shooting exactly where I wanted it, both near and far. I had earlier for a bear hunt in Maine with Randy Flannery’s Wilderness Escape Lodge mounted a Stealth Vision 3-MOA Red Dot Sight, easy because of the revolver’s integral picatinny rail. On that hunt I had carried both my .454 Casull and Rossi R95 .45-70 lever-action rifle loaded with Hornady’s LEVERevolution.  Bear because of the extreme drought in throughout the North Woods, were tough to come by. I finally had a chance at a bear with less than ten minutes remaining.  The bear kept moving. I was having a difficult time staying on target with my revolver, so I quickly switched to my Rossi R95 rifle. I was really glad I had taken my R95 as well as my Raging Hunter to the bear stand.

Now I was back in Texas chasing whitetails, hunting with my Raging Hunters chambered in .44 Mag and .454 Casull. Both really love the various Hornady handgun loads. Numerous times I have shot five-shot groups with the .454 Casull and six-shot groups with the .44 Mag with Hornady’s 240-grain XTP Custom at 100-yards that spread no more than 1 ½-inches, usually three tightly clover-leafing. My groups from the .454 Casull with Hornady’s Handgun Hunter 200-grain Monflex are a big larger, 2 1/2-inch 100-yards. All shots easily fit within the size of a deer’s heart out to 125 or more yards. Groups with 240- and 300-grain Hornady XTP are tighter.

I am continually amazed how accurate the Taurus Raging Hunter revolvers are. My .44 Mag has a factory trigger, which is a bit heavy and takes some getting used to, but once you do, it’s scary how accurate they are. I had some trigger work done on my .454 Casull. In time I will also have my .44 Mag’s trigger worked on as well, but not until after the current hunting season.

While at the Cotton’s Becker Bottoms Ranch I wanted to shoot their 500-yard steel target with both handguns. In the past I had hit the 18-inch steel plate numerous times with both guns. To do so I estimated the appropriate bullet drop at that distance. From a sand bag rest, I held over appropriately, cocked the hammer then the pulled the trigger. First shot from my .44 Mag was a bit low. Next shot I held higher. I heard the bullet hit steel.

At the time my .44 Mag wore a circa 1987 Thompson/Center 2.5-7×28 long eye relief scope.  To me the older, as from the past millennium Thompson/Center and Simmons handgun scopes are the best handgun scopes available in terms of eye relief and “toughness”. I have used a lot of different “handgun” scopes. These are still, simply the best available.

I switched to my Casull with the 3 MOA red dot sight. At 500 yards that dot covers 15-inches, nearly all of the 18-inch steel plate. I used that 15-inch “dot” as a measure for the appropriate hold over. My first two shots just missed steel, first one a bit low, second a bit high. My third shot hit the plate as did my fourth and fifth shots. Thelast round in the 5-shot chamber hit steel, nearly dear center.

Would I ever consider shooting an animal at that distance with my revolvers? No way! But hitting steel at that distance is truly satisfying and a confidence builder.

David and I again tried rattling that afternoon, no bucks responded. Unfortunately, I had to return home, a near four-hour drive, after the evening’s hunt. Back home for a day before heading back into the deer woods, I have decided to remove the red dot sight from my .454 Casull and replace it with one of my older long eye relief scopes. I love the hunting with the red dot sight, close range. But once the distance gets to 75-yards or beyond precise bullet placement becomes a bit more difficult.

I have several hunts coming up where I could possibly shoot one hundred plus yards. With my .454 Casull Raging Hunter loaded with Hornady’s 240-grain XTP Custom I feel comfortable taking those longer shots from a good rest. With a variable scope I can precisely place my bullets in a deer’s vitals at the longer distances.

My history with Taurus revolvers chambered in .454 Casull goes back to 1997 when Taurus initially released their Raging Bull double-action revolver chambered for the round. That fall I used my .454 Casull Raging Bull to take whitetail deer and javelina on the Encinitas Ranch in deep South Texas. At the time I was the hunting editor for SHOOTING TIMES’s sister publication HANDGUNNING. Recently paging through some of the near 30-year old issues past, I found a story about my hunting with the .454 Casull, Taurus Raging Bull.

The thing I remember about that particular Taurus Raging Bull was it shot extremely accurately with the several different loads I ran through it. With it I shot two bucks that fall which I rattled in and shot at about 50-yards. I also used the revolver to take a couple javelinas, 100-yards distant.

The newer Raging Hunters, I really like because of how accurately they shoot, but also because of their integral picatinny rail which makes mounting a long eye-relief scope or red dot sight…easy! Their integral muzzlebrake and recoil reducing grips also make it great fun to shoot. During the past three or so years, I have encouraged many to shoot my .454 Casull Raging Hunter. Most were a bit “scared” to initially shoot it because of all the things they had heard how that caliber handgun produced horrible recoil. After they shooting that first shot, they realize they were lied to about recoil, and, they will want to shoot it again!  Love it when that happens!