Been working on this for a while. Started off with a .357 and handloading 180-200 grn bullets and sending them subsonic through a 16" barrel and 9mm can. Sound level was excellent. Similar to a suppressed subsonic 22. We shot some deer in the head out of the bow stand but never felt it had the power to attempt body shots.

From there moved to a Ruger American with 16 barrel in 450 bushmaster and a liberty cosmic. Nice light setup but even subsonic it was simply too loud. The combined larger bore and shorter barrel were just too much.

Decided to move to a single shot to save action length with a long barrel. Started with plans for a Ruger #1 in 45-70 but they are just so big/heavy. Then I ran in to a Browning 1885 Highwall in 454 casull with a 28" barrel. Less weight, more barrel, less case capacity. Perfect!

Worked up a load for it that is going to be brutal. Noise is not much more than a suppressed subsonic 22 but it makes a hell of a racket when the bullet impacts. 385 grn lead .454 airgun bullet sized down to .452. The airgun bullets are made with large cavities and soft lead so they expand at low velocity. Powder is 8.0 grns of Hodgdon Titegroup. Velocity consistent at 1064, 1069, and 1049. Next step is accuracy testing.

All my feeders are set at 50-75 yards. T&P to the first doe that walks out on Nov. 2nd.

Wish I could have seen the look on your 'smith's face when you asked him to thread the end of your 1885 Highwall barrel for a suppressor.

I never would have thought to go with a 454 Casull. Very nice!

POTD material right here. Thanks for sharing! Be sure to post some pics once deer season arrives.

Ear muffs?

I applaud your research, resourcefulness, determination, and outcome. I hate what you did to that fine rifle, though.

GottaRide said:

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I hate what you did to that fine rifle, though.

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It did feel a little disrespectful. Not too bad though with it being a newer production gun. You have to think if JMB was still around he would be proud to see his first design paired with modern technology and still in use.

A little update for anyone that might use this info for future reference. Went ahead and seated the bullet down to 1.755 overall length, and was able to drop powder down to 7.6 grns of titegroup and maintain average velocity of 1045. Pretty sure this will be my final load. 4 shot group at 25 yards showed sufficient accuracy. Next step is shooting 50-75 yards and finding a little piggy to test it on.

Took advantage of the cloudy afternoon and went to go sweat it out in the blind. Not the boar I was looking for but a decent one. 75 yard shot. Didn't take a step.

Head was down eating quartered towards me. Entrance high in front of shoulder.



Small exit behind opposite shoulder.

When we left, I moved the camera so it was watching the dead hog to see what would show. Nothing too crazy except the volume of buzzards. The first one showed up around 11am the next morning. The carcass was 90% eaten by sunset. Coyotes and hogs hit it during the night and the only thing left by the next morning was hair.

Turkey Vulture coming in hot.

I held off on bow hunting this season because we never see any good bucks that early and so I could save my doe tags for some rifle projects. Took the high wall to the bow blind this afternoon to pop a doe. Entry was dead center from the front. Bullet stuck in the skin after about 30 inches of penetration. She ran about 30 yards with a blood trail comparable to an expandable broadhead. Think this will be my go to for hunting the rut this year.

50 yard high shoulder shot. Shoulder, spine, shoulder, exit.

Got another round of bullets delivered with a softer mix. 2% tin, 98% lead. Cameras have shown a nice boar showing up every night between 800pm-130am. Decided I'd settle in 75 yards from the feeder until the solar lights start to die down. About 1015 my motion detector goes off but the lights are fading. Can barely make out his silhouette but get an angled away shot that I know will work. Entrance was further back than I wanted. No exit but the bullet obviously did its job up through the vitals. He ran about 35 yards. Super fun shooting stuff with this setup. 4 shots..2 deer, 2 hogs. "pfffft.......WHACK!!!!"

A buddy has been after this heavy 9 for the last two seasons. He drove back to town mid last week for a four day hunt. Cameras showed his deer had been through but only in the dark. Knowing this was a solid 6-7yo deer, I talked him in to hunting with this gun for the true test. I knew from the hogs that it should get it done just fine and the shots from this stand are all within range. The morning started slow. Seemed the rut was winding down. The does more at ease again. Around 9:00am, his deer pops out in a spot where nothing ever comes from. Ive gotten 100 pictures of this deer in the last two years and never seen him in person. Now, as if finally scripted in, he just appears for my buddy on the first morning of the hunt. I ID'ed him quick. "That's your deer" followed by a shot that "sounded good". Like he shot a watermelon. But the deer acted like nothing was wrong. He trotted off about 30 yards and hopped a fence like a bad dream. We both looked at each other like "what just happened". I could see that he stopped as soon as he got out of the open but didnt know for sure what he did from there. We gave him 15 minutes and then snuck out to go eat breakfast and try not to think about it. On returning, he had not taken another step from where he was last seen. A double lung shot a little far back that took a little longer to take affect. Ive seen deer act exactly the same way with the same shot from a bow. The bullet did not exit but you could see the lump under the skin.



Entrance side.



Exit



The recovered bullet speaks for itself! Over 2x expansion while maintaining the shank to drive penetration.