I was going to try hunting with a handgun for the first time this year and I think I got a little over my head. For some reason (ADD for guns) I decided to get a Ruger SRH in 454 casull w/ 9.5" barrel. My problem is I should have stuck with a 44 mag first and then jumped to a .454. Oh well lesson learned.

If your saying the recoil is to much you could always shoot 45LC out of it.

The recoil took a little time to get use to with the .454 and the recoil for the .45 colt feels like a .22 mag. The issue I am having is that I can not seem to stop flinching with the .454 casull. I leave a random chamber empty to see if I flinch or not, and for some unexplained reason I keep flinching. I am a meat hunter and a ethical hunter. I won't take the shot unless I am 99.9% sure of a clean kill. I don't trust my skill yet with the .454 casull to use it hunting. With a .44 mag I have more faith in my skill. I guess I am just ranting and need to shut up and practice more.

A .454 for a first hunting handgun isn't easy to master. On top of that, it's a double action and the recoil is pretty severe. I too would suggest .45 Colt loads until you get comfortable with the platform. You can work up to full-tilt .454 loads. If you don't reload, I would look at Grizzly, Buffalo Bore, and Double Tap's .45 Colt offerings. If you reload, just load it down.

What Witworth said.........

Full house 45lc will do everything the 44mag will do. Then move to the 454.

I personally prefer the 45lc, as I like to feel the bang with out the noise and punishment of the 454.

The 454 is a great round, but I would never start out on one.

You did the same thing i did, i bought the same gun, same caliber for my first hunting revolver. You absolutly need to buy the Hogue tamer grips for it, it is a whole lot less painfull to shoot. I have them on mine and love it, still a hard kicker but much better than the stock grips. It will be the best thing you buy for that gun.

Johnny

Yeah, what he said! Best $20.00 you can spend!

Whitworth and I do not believe in light loads for practice with any revolver. But a flinch insists on working up and a LOT of work to break the flinch. You would do better if you have someone else load your gun and interchanging empty chambers so you do not know where they are. Then shoot from sandbags, it will really help you start control.
The grip change will help a lot but is not the total cure, your mind and muscle memory must be fixed.
To continue to practice with a flinch will only enforce it more. You must put total attention into every single shot and one shot a day without a flinch will be better then a box full where every shot is bad. This was a secret with archers long ago shooting fingers. They would shoot one arrow a day and put the bow away. After a while, the one perfect shot turned into a whole match of perfect shots.
I know you might have to drive to a range so try this. Put one round in, spin the cylinder (Don't peek!) and fire all chambers, then put the gun down for a while. Tell yourself they are all empty and let the live round surprise you. Shoot slow and deliberate for each trigger pull and talk to yourself.
Go ahead and use some good .45 Colt loads for hunting, they will do all you need.
By the way, shooting off hand has another problem to watch for. You will be moving around and when the sights go past the bull, your inclination is to make the gun shoot right then. That will be a wide miss, usually very high. Forget the movement and concentrate on trigger pull only so the gun goes off when it is ready, not you. You will start to call where every bullet goes even if it missed but misses will be very close to the target.

Winchesters reduced recoil loads are like shooting .44 mag. loads,their not bad at all and plenty of horsepower for deer.

As others have said, if you don't have the Hogue Tamers, GET THEM!!!! I have them on my 480 SRH & they make a world of difference. Go to 44 mag level 45 Colt loads. Will be pleasent to shoot & do the job on deer with authority.
And, as 430man said, practice with purpose!
Good luck.

I think you are getting great advice. I think the 45LC is a great round and would be VERY effective on deer!

Load the 454's down with a powder like 2400--NOT 296 or 110

Use a 250 -300 XTP or someting like it ---not a Mag bullet
This would be my first choice

Or Load up on the 45 colt to the Ruger - T/C level with a 250 or 300 gr bullet


I would start with 23-24 gr of 2400 over the 250 and a SRM primer in the 454

It will still feel like something but It will not knock you over

Load to about 30,000 PSI (45 Colt Level) and you will have about the same velocity of a comparable wieght bullet in 44 Mag with more frontal area that will put game down decisively and is a pleasure to shoot

One of my favorite all around fun loads for the 454 is a 255 grain slug over 231 in 454 brass. This runs out at 1150, cuts a ragged hole at 50 yards with open sights easily and will handle any deer that you will encounter. The 454 doesn't have to be run full bore to be effective. My hunting load is a 260 FA JFP at 1900 fps but to be honest, it kills the same as the 1150 fps load just shoots a little flatter

certainly lots of good advice has been shared, the best is to practice. I got involved in organized competition(IHMSA) where you have to concentrate on site picture, and trigger within a time constrained environment. I also had problems with flinch that came from years shhoting without hearing protection. as was said , you have a habit to break, get rid of what caused the habit to start- good grips and less than maximum loads and hearing protection will make shooting more comfortable, but if you continue to focus on what you are trying to overcome, it will continue to haunt you. Instead , concentrate on what you want to accomplish.sight acquisition,sight picture, trigger, repeaat ad nauseam, start with something you can afford to shoot- reloads if you can, rimfires if you don't- I find that it doesn't really matter what guns I shoot as long as I shoot lots and concentrate on each shot as if it was the only chance I was going to get- a repeating timer would work for the que that its time for the next shot. concentrate on what you want to do and the flinch will go away

You guys are great. Thank you for all the advice and helpful hints. I am going to order the Tamer grips and see how that works. I will keep shooting the 45 colt rounds as practice and only shoot one .454 round a day (as regularly as I can). As for reloading that is something that I do not do YET. I am hoping to get started at the beginning of the year, Christmas is expensive! Again, Thank you all for great advice.

When practicing last season for my elk hunt, I was shooting from every field position I could think of, with my unbraked 14" 375 JDJ. I was standing, shooting off of sticks, concentrating on my sight picture and grip on the stick not the grip of the gun(Big Mistake). Well, when she went off, it flew out of my hands, spun around in mid air (Lord only knows how many times ) and came down hammer first on the top of my thick danish skull!!! I did manage to catch it, cradled in my arms stumbling around, Dazed and Confused would be an understatement, more like blood gushing, cussin and swearing. I then proceeded to stuff a bunch of shop rags up under my hat. It took a long time to get over flinching after that. One round out of the 375 and then a cylinder full of 22 LR, over and over again. Good Luck.

This might help the flinch. When I take a new shooter to the range. I have them hold the gun down range and tell them to close their eyes. Now have them slowly squeezze the trigger and actually feel the recoil on thier hands and arms, not listening to the noise the gun amkes. I also usually have them wear ear pugs and muffs to eliminate as much harsh noise as possible. After a couple rounds the person usually gets comfortable pulling the trigger.

This does many things. With the eyes closed they do not see the flash of the gun or it moving. They actually feel the recoil with out the brain adding more to it than there is from the movement and noise. Most say "hay that's not so bad". It seesm to help disassociate all the sudden violence and lets the brain realize each action one by one. When the minds knows whats going to happen and it can be controled it's easier to concentrate on the trigger squeeze and the sights without the fear of inpending doom.

Good idea. Have any of you noticed it is much easier to teach a female and not see a flinch? I wonder if that part of the female brain is numb and does nothing?????

i also find it helpful to get the muscle memory of not flinching by shooting hundreds of rounds of 22lr. i putin 2 or 3 snap caps in my 454 and practice not flinching at all. shoot at 100 yards or so and if you flinch the slightest bit you'll not hit anything. this helps as well. get some reloading equipment and you can load some hardcast loads that will kill anything on this planet that don't recoil bad at all.

This is ALL great advice. But Trademark hit on something we all seem to forget, many, many rounda of .22.

I'll bet almost all of us, and almost any TRUE HANDGUNNER shoots a .22, It's not just for beginners and there is no substitute for practice.

So, shoot plenty of .22 ammo, if you dont have a .22...Get one you will not regret it or better yet get several. Hot rod your 45lc ammo or down load your 454 and work your way back up slowely. And shoot, shoot and shoot some more.

Good luck

Guess I'm not a true handgunner.......just kidding! There's no substitute for trigger time and the .22 is the most economical way to get it. Good advice!

You might look for so Winchester Super-X 454 250gr@1300.The stock number is X454C3 I think.Yery good midrange factory ammo.

Bisley

i plunk a 22 a lot around the house and for small game does help .but still takes time to get used to big bore pistols and practice.

A .22 does help a lot but when heavy recoil is expected, it all goes to pot in a hurry.
It is why we prefer to shoot nothing but hunting loads so we get used to recoil while using the same loss of fear that the .22 has.
Shooting light loads in large guns will still make a guy flinch when the heavy load is shot.
None of us are immune to it. I have shot the very large guns without a problem, then catch a flinch with the .45 or .22. There, I laid it out, the brain is fried!

I think the trigger finger should be attached to the butt instead of the head!

all true dont no about the butt part thow LOL.

I agree and that is why I practice with the loads that I hunt with. That said, I still feel that more trigger time is always useful and helpful.

I confess, I have been a bad boy.
I haven't owned or used a 22 pistol for quite a few years now.
Just got a custom MOA 22lr (Clone 10-22 action) specialty pistol just recently.
There is no substitute for practice-I completely agree.

This is great advice. The gun pictured below gets more use by multiples than any other handgun that I have and I enjoy shooting it by multiples over even my favorite big bores. It has taught me more about shooting than anything that I have used.

I suggest that you invest in a good .22, it will be some of the best money you will ever spend. Although, you may have to go to the doc to get the smile off.

When I first took up shotgunning deer in Illinois(as a young teenager-16),I would get so excited and would jerk the trigger /flinching at the same time that I would miss easy shots at deer 20 yards.I took up hunting squirrels with a .22 rifle to try and get more practice for the up coming deer season, figuring if I could shoot a squirrel with a .22 it would make me a better shot with the shotgun.But I would catch myself flinching/jerking the trigger when the squirrels would show up.At the target range I would shoot good groups because I would concentrate on trigger squeeze talking to myself when squeezing the trigger....squeeze ,squeeze.I started killing my game and this helped me when deer season rolled around I would see that deer and start going over in my head just sqeeze the trigger,this helped me by concentrating on the trigger more than the excitment of the deer being in front of me and this has transformed over into my handgun hunting to concentrate on my squeeze,talking to myself to squeeze,squeeze that trigger and has helped me in getting over the flinch to a great degree,do I still flinch at times?!-you bet,but most of the time I can get off a well aimed shot by telling myself to squeeze over and over again,I don't know if this would help you but it has helped me and I do this also when bowhunting when squeezing my string release.