Thanks guys great thread...Here's a question for the bear country guys...would a .357 with a hot load be a fools weapon in against a bear?I don't want to pull away for the original thread ...but sometimes you just got to here it from someone thats been there...again,great thread
It's not that it's foolish Ninjaz but there are better choices starting with the additional energy provided by the popular .44 mag. It has been a mainstay sidearm caliber in the Alaskan back county for decades.
Kestrel
I used to reload lots of reduced loads back when I had more free time, but if I need to pick up some inexpensive practice (low-power) loads for the .454, there is lots of 'cowboy' :shakehead loads in .45 Colt - a very inexpensive and convenient option. This is one of the two big reasons I retired my .44 Mag for the .454.
...and that's a great call on your part Kestrel. The main difference between the .45 LC and .454 as compared to the 44 mag is double action revolver choices. With the .44 mag, choices are abundant. With the .45LC and .454 they're not and the shooter will be limited to mostly single action. If single action is all one needs or wants the .45s make great sense.
Windy
Now I'm really confused!
I'm hearing the Desert Eagle is smoother with less recoil but more foot/lbs of energy?... is that the right story?
I do enjoy flexibility of what you can shoot in ammo but I've never been a pistol shooter... only rifles.
If I'm going with a large caliber, and be an infrequent shooter, I don't want it to be like bowling where you torque your wrist out because its not in shape.
There must be a reason the Desert eagle can demand a price of 1600 - 1800.00.
The ideal of owning and shooting a .50 cal pistol is obviously romantic "in a man sort of way" but I expect if it kills my hand everytime I try to play with it, I'll end up selling it as a loss.
Windy, if we're talking about factory loads the .454 produces a good deal more energy than the .50AE.
Typical 454 = 260 gr @ 1800 fps = 1811 fpe
Typical 50 = 300 gr @ 1380 fps = 1228 fpe
Even with similar projectile weights of 325 vs 330 there's a good separation of 200+ feet per second which is substantial. .454 was designed to handle 55-65K cup while the .50AE is around 45K cup, (pressures) iirc.
Essentially, they're incomparable because they're so different. The .50AE is the auto caliber king and that's it's main "bragging point" you could say. The .454 revolver is actually practical, carry-able and completely at home in the field. For every 100 people carrying a .454 revolver in the field or shooting recreationally, there might be only one person carrying/using a DE. Price has absolutely nothing to do with which is better, more powerful or smoother because that's decided by complexity of design and manufacturing. Yes, the .50AE will have less recoil, but that's due to the simple fact that it's a gas-operated semi-auto and because factory loads are somewhat less energetic. Going the route of the DE .50AE also carries with it certain handicaps though such as comfort, ergonomics, complexity, reliability, and field applicability.
The romanticism of the .50 cal is probably also overstated since all it means is that the bore is a half inch in diameter. In other words, you can have a .50cal blowgun, paintball gun, musket, .500S&W or .50BMG. All are completely different and the term .50 cal is only going to be impressive to the layman that heard of the term in a movie.
If you're trying to decide on something like this for yourself you'll have to ask yourself other questions like; how often are you going to fire it, are you going to start reloading, will this be a novelty or fulfill some practical application, and what's the largest full load handgun caliber that you've fired so far and how does it compare in energy to the ones listed above? The reason that I ask is that most people, even dedicated hand gunners find the recoil of a maximum loaded .44mag quite punishing. It's no slouch at all.
I'll be working on some videos in the next few weeks where I shoot all three of these calibers for you so that you can see the comparison.
The only hard thing is sourcing full power .500S&W since I don't have any immediate access to any.
Stoked with Buffalo Bore ammunition, Elmer Keiths favorite handgun caliber is still a potent beast :devil:
J/K I make that mistake all the time. People on this thread keep calling it that... The biggest round I've shot is a .44 magnum, boy, you really can't limp-wrist that stuff! I still have to try anything above that, you guys make it sound like everyday ammunition! 
