Been a while since I did my gun of the month post and this seems like a good candidate. Picked it up last week and haven't had a chance to get out and shoot it since my brass won't get here until tomorrow.
For anyone not familiar with them, they're a gas operated semi auto chambered for either the 44 Auto Mag, 45 Win Mag, 45 Wildey Mag or the 475 Wildy Mag. It uses an adjustable gas system so that it can be tuned to the specific load being used. I had a chance to get one in 475 Wildey (including brass and dies in a nice wood case) a few years ago but I passed on it because as cool as they are, it just wasn't worth the $2800 to me at the time. I stumbled onto this one by being in the right place at the right time and got it for a fraction of what it's worth.
To give a little scale, here it is next to my full size Kimber.
There's no denying that it's a huge gun in pretty much every dimension. It's noticeably easier to get your hands around than a Desert Eagle is though. Between the weight and the gas system the recoil is surprisingly light on these in 45 Win Mag. I've never had the chance to play with one in 475 Wildey though and I imagine that they're a bit snappier!
The 45 Win Mag is in the same league as a 45 Colt +P and just a touch behind a 44 Mag from the same length barrels. It'll throw a 250gr bullet at around 1350 fps from a 5" barrel. The bullet in the loaded round shown is a 260gr Hawk FP. I'll probably try a few different hardcast loads as well until I find a suitable hunting load. The 45 Win Mag uses either .451 or .452 bullets so I can always shoot cheap 230gr bullets for the 45 ACP for plinking.
I'll post some update when I get a chance to shoot it, probably next weekend. If anybody else has one of these, post up some pics!
