200th comic! Woot! And I have yet to actually miss an update. Urgh.
I do not actually disparage anyone who buys a RB .454. Hell, I’d like to own one. I’d have damned little use for it other than plinking, and MAYBE hunting, uh, mountain ranges, but I’d like to have one. The only problem with them, in my opinion, is the ammo price. It would be slightly less expensive to shoot solid gold bullets out of a .22 LR. They also make a snubbie of the Model 454, and that’s where I look at it and feel my eyebrows creep up my forehead, as I only think one, all-encompassing word: WHY?
Thanks for keeping up on the comic, folks. It’s been an exhausting week. And next month, we do Comic Con International again. Ye gods.
Oh hey, here’s a video from a musician we got to hang out with at A-Kon:
Erica is a goddamn peach of a gal, and we look forward to hanging out with her again. She’s saucy, quick-witted, and cute as all-get-out. And her music is pretty damn amazing. I don’t have a crush on her like I do Nathaniel Johnstone (may his kilt never fail), but it’s a close thing.
I live in Alaska, and a lot of the folks have moved on from the .454 Casull for bear guns. Most of them use .460 or .500 S&W. You can buy each of those at Walmart here. Not having arms or a wallet of steel, I personally just hike with a .44 Magnum, which despite once being “the most powerful handgun in the world” is, up here at least, considered too small for bear protection.
Last time I fired a 454 I was drunk and convinced I could do it one handed, needless to saw I got knocked out cold when the barrel decided it wanted to kiss my forehead.
Congratulations on making it to #200 and I look forward to the next 200.
Yup. Congrads.
I’ve shot one. It’s up in my list of Nasty-Kicking Handguns. I know a guy who went on a safari in South Africa, and according to his wife, bagged a 2000lb giraffe with one. At 75 yards. With one shot.
Yea, those Grizzly Girl eating giraffes are dangerous. Seriously what did geoffrey giraffe do to her? What next man eating cows, rabid fire ants?
Heh! Rabid Fire Ants are no laughing matter…. (Curls up and hides in corner whimpering “Not again, not again!”)
I wonder what Giraffes taste like?
chicken
No, rattlesnake.
Either way, pretty damned good!
Pretty much any herbivore that gets shot on those safaris, gets butchered up and fed to locals. Sort of like Hunters for the Hungry, here.
Screw Harry Stamper and his drilling crew, this is the solution for the rogue killer asteroid when it gets here!
Keep on keepin’ on. Enjoying it.
I usually classify handguns like that in the same category as those absurdly lifted 4X4 pickups you see everywhere. Rarely are they used for their intended purpose. Most often the owner is just compensating.
I have a Ruger .454. It is the 7 3/4 inch barrel version. I can shot the thing more accurately one handed then two but I will admit that I will not even touch the snubbie version. The only thing that one is good for is shooting the bear as it is chewing on you as a last strike.
Cough. “Diesel”.
Thanks for not making me say it! <3
I bought one, used (the owner had fired 12 rounds through it and decided he didn’t want it) pretty cheaply. I used it for boar hunting. One thing about the RB .454, even when hunting, fer the love of everything, use ear protection. I forgot mine the first time I went out with it. After shooting a nice boar, I now have a permanent reminder not to forget via the ringing in my ear.
Still, I enjoy shooting at the range with it (scares the bejeebers out of the people next to me) and hunting with it.
A .454. snubbie makes perfect sense if you expect to get mugged in a dark alley. Just fire one shot in the general direction of your assailant. You don’t even have to hit. Because he’ll be blind, deaf and on fire. 🙂
Your post just made me chuckle coffee all over my desk pad.
Any day that starts with a comic spit-take is shaping up to be a good day.
Is’t it cheaper to SBR a Mosin Nagant?
Very true, my friend.
.454, when you well and truly want to turn your target inside out.
I have the Ruger SRH .454 Casull. Ammo cost for that gun is why I started reloading.
But I use some Mid-range loads for hunting Central Texas Whitetail deer. Why? Because F You is why!
Dude, Omar, don’t you have better trigger discipline than that?!
…wat?
His finger is outside of the trigger guard.
I had to look pretty close, finally figured out no fingernail was showing.
It really doesn’t look like it
:-/
I know his fingers are on the stubby side, but..it’s hard to see the fingertip past the guard.
I can see it, but you do have to look close. Even Omar isn’t that dumb, thank goodness.
::zooms in:: Wait, no, you’re right. I sit corrected. Serves me right for reading the comic on an iPod touch, I guess. My apologies, Omar.
Reloading solves most of the .454’s price issues, but you might as well get a .460 at that point – more case capacity is more better.
Oh, and they make .500 S&W snubiies as well – supposedly usable as a bear defense weapon(iirc S&W actually made ”Bear Defence Kits” or something). Their use is mainly limited to range plinking, and fucking with your friends. Just put four 350 grain .500 Specials in there, and one 400 grain .500 Magnum. *BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG*”Wow, this isn’t too bad, feels like my .44!” **BOOOOOOM* ”WHAT IN THE FUCK?”
A girl I was dating once got me to fire a .500 Smith and Wesson, a Ruger Redhawk .454, and a Smith Titanium .44 Magnum. Her stepdad apparently wanted to test my manhood or something. The .500 Smith was, by far, the most pleasant of the 3, and since it was the shorter (I can’t say “snubbie” because its not, but it is shorter than the fullsize model). It shot a basketball or so of flash out the end.
The .454 Ruger? Wasn’t terrible, but the Smith Titanium .44…that was unpleasant to fire. I’ll pass on it. Had a 6 or 8″ barrel, weighed about as much as a Glock 19, and I’m sure it was loaded hot.
Yeah, I fired a Raging Bull bout a month ago. Guy let me have two shots. He was willing to give me a third, but my wrists just said “Nope.” I have no need for that much hand cannon.
Now a cap and ball revolver, I could go for…
I’ve shot one of those. It was owned by a complete geek and had been very, very carefully “breathed on”. It was astonishingly easy to fire compared to some smaller caliber guns I’ve shot.
How does the .454 compare to a .45-70? I’ve read the web page on the BFR chambered in .45-70 and it was a bit intimidating.
.45-70 pistol has about the same kick of a .41 magnum. Not too bad really.
The BFR with Winchester White Box isn’t bad. A BFR owned by a recoil junkie who looked up the max tolerance for the cartridge and gun, and then did handloads that size, however…
Dude worked up some loads that were about equivalent in bullet weight and muzzle velocity, to my old 1863 Springfield (.58 cal rifle-musket). With a double powder charge.
As a testosterone test, he invited us to load one chamber, and take a shot one-handed, in bullseye stance. The gun backed me up a step, and left me facing up-range with the gun pointed at the ceiling. I’m somewhat on the tubby side, a skinny dude would’ve looked like an Arab firing a .577 T Rex.
An impressive firearm for sure, but it still does not beat the monstrous Pfeifer-Zeliska .600 Nitro Express Magnum.
http://www.vincelewis.net/60magnum.html
Completly impractical, i know, but damnit i want one!
Godamn! Sawn off elephant gun
I heard a rumor, completly unverified mind you, that one of those beasts dead-stopped an angry elephant with a single frontal shot to the head. Now had it been any other handgun, i would have said “no way”.
A sawed off M79 might have done the trick as well, as long as you had enough distance for the grenade to arm.
Check out the .959 JDJ sometime. It’s not a handgun, but in the same vein of massively overpowered. There are some youtube videos of it being fired. Just ridiculous.
The S&W .460 is a little easier to shoot than the .44mag in my opinion.
I think you could take out a humpback with .454 Casull. Back in the day, whalers used a one inch blackpowder gun called a “Lance Gun” to kill whales with. I’m thinking your going to need a FMJ.
Two shots seems to be about right, oddly enough.
Gentlemen, behold the .700 WTF: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbRvDYUgPk0
I want the Raging Judge… when I get mine I shall name it Anung un Rama