Posted on 10/14/2004 5:23:48 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR
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- A 12-year-old San Antonio boy died Saturday afternoon south of Giddings when he was struck on the top of the head by the recoil of a Ruger .454 gun he was firing. The boy, identified by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office as Marcus Wall, was pronounced dead at the scene by Justice of the Peace Paul Fischer.
Sheriff’s Deputy Rodney Meyer stated that the victim and his father, Marc Wall, were with friends dove hunting on the Zoch place off County Road 233. Deputy Meyer reported that when the hunters took a break for lunch, they began shooting a variety of guns owned within the group. The Ruger .454 Casull was purportedly owned by Joe Ramsey of Austin.
According to the Sheriff’s report, when Marcus asked to shoot the Ruger, Ramsey told the young boy the gun was too large for him to shoot. However, allegedly it was later “ OK’ed for him [Marcus] to shoot the gun”. The report did not identify who gave permission for the child to shoot, though Ramsey stood by the boy when he fired.
From the Sheriff’s account of the incident, Marcus was instructed how to hold and shoot the gun. “Mr. Ramsey assisted the victim [when taking aim] by holding his hand above the victim’s [hands] for the recoil,” explained Deputy Meyer.
When the gun was fired, the gun recoiled upward, hitting Marcus in the head causing head trauma. The gun’s owner, Ramsey, received injury to his fingers but was not transported for medical attention.
The Sheriff’s Office 911 dispatch received two calls reporting the incident, though only the second caller could identify their location. Deputy Mike York advised dispatch that he was in the area and had been flagged down and directed to the location. Upon arrival at the scene, Deputy York radioed to dispatch to cancel the call for an ambulance and to send out a Justice of the Peace.
The recoil velocity of the Ruger .454 has been noted for its strength for some time. In a May 2001 article in Shooting Times, author Dick Metcalf reported that “...when the .454 Casull version of the Super Redhawk was introduced in 1999, Ruger spokesmen candidly acknowledged they did not expect the new chambering to be shot a lot for casual plinking or for steel-target competition. Its recoil was simply too severe.”
Deputy Meyer stated that the case is still under investigation.
Amen.
Legal hunting hours for dove are 30 minutes before sunrise to sunset.
Assuming this was 454CASULL -- 300gr JSP at 1,650 fps, my momentum balance shows the maximum free velocity of the 53-1/2 oz. Ruger Super Redhawk (neglecting rotational effects) would be:
I had a similar experience but it was with an old 16ga shotgun. I grew up on a ranch in south texas. (I'm still living on the ranch too).
Anyway, I had been shooting since I was 4 years old. I was allowed to shoot an single shot .22. It was considered necessary to know how to properly use a firearm. I could only shoot it when my father or my grandfather was present.
Like any kid, I wanted to shoot the "big guns" the older people used. I kept pestering my dad. Finally he let me shoot his 16ga when I was about 6 years. I could hardy hold the thing up to take aim. He told me to rest it on an old stump and fire it. I did. It knocked me back about 10 feet.
Then he told me, "The next time I say a gun is too big for you maybe you'll listen to me. I'll let you use it when you are old enough to handle it".
A few years later I was allowed to shoot that gun and It made me very proud that he finally deemed me old enough to be trusted with it.
As you said. Good Lesson.
A .454 isn't a gun I'd let an average 12-year old shoot. This isn't one of those "Hold muh beer and..." accidents, but Ramsay should have stuck with his first instinct and not let the boy shoot such a high-powered handgun.
When we were kids our first guns (after.22's) were muzzle loaders. I had a cut down .69 caliber Harper's Ferry 1842 musket that I used as a shotgun. My brother had a big honking English percussion cap double barrel shotgun that he got cheaply, billed as a "duck gun" by the seller.
We had them because they were cheap to shoot. Percussion caps were cheap, Black powder or DuPont bulk smokeless powder, toilet paper wadding, and a dipperful of mixed shot from a drum of shot a reloader gave us.
We only loaded my brother's shotgun once or twice to its purported proper load as the kick was tremendous-- as was the expense since we were putting in a lot of powder and shot. He normally used a slight;ly bigger load than I put into the musket -- more than enough for pheasant.
We once got on our hands on a shotgun gage, a little brass triangle that you put in the muzzle and read the gage and choke off of marks on the triangle. That sucker just fell right to the bottom of my brother's double barrel, so all we knew was that it was more than 10gauge.
But...we did learn follow through. You have to with a muzzle loader as there is so much delay between trigger pull and actual firing.
The Taurus .454 Casull has a ported barrel to reduce muzzle flip. Does the Ruger? Gun Week just did a feature on it recently.
I thought the same thing. But I shot a .44 mag S&W and compared it to my Ruger 454 and the FELT recoil was worse on the .44. The 454's have weight to lower the felt recoil.
Personally I wear a baseball glove as I've seen the MAJORITY of shooters get bitten by the hammer or split the webbing in their hands when they shoot it.
With the glove on and plugs AND Headphone ear protection it is literally a blast to shoot. I use a custom load, 405gr at about 1100 fps, when we cranked it to 1350fps it was too much for the pistol and the rounds jumped crimp with almost every shot.
Now since it is very very close to a 45/70 load off an old buffalo rifle I just call them my buffalo pistols. And they will shoot well. Handling on the other hand ? Like moving a semi tractor on the road. Speed and the followup shot are slow.
mass(lead ~0.046 lbs) * 1650 ft/sec +
0.0093(lbs powder) * ~4000 ft/sec(gas v) = 113 slugs * ft/sec * g(32ft/sec^2)
113/3.3(lb gun)= 34ft/sec gun
Energy of gun recoil = 3.3/32 * 34 * 34 = 120 ft-lbs
That's significant! Prayers for the kid.
Nope, the 7.5 inch or the 9.5 inch barrel use the gun weight to hold down the recoil.
The picture above in post #20 is not accurate. That is the Super Redhawk .44 magnum. The 454 uses a target grey teflon finish.
Not that I would turn down one of the Smith .50's if someone offered me one for free.
Nice, but only 5 shots ... of course if I need all 6 shots from a 454 to kill smth I'm in DEEP TROUBLE. :)
No!
The S&W 500 has been known to break some of the bones in an experienced shooters hand.
But the only gun I ever heard of flying into a shooters head with enough force to cause injury before this was a 45/70 derringer.
I will not fire the 500S&W magnum. I work in a range, and have seen some of my peers hands after firing this thing. None for me thanks!!! I am not a recoil junkie, I like to enjoy my shooting. I have fired the .454 and the .480 in Raging Bulls, and didn't like them (although the .480 was dead on accurate for the "hand slap" I recieved).
I have one .44 mag handgun for hunting larger game, thats enough for me!
This is very odd. I went to school with both of these two at Giddings High School in the late 60s. Justice of the Peace Paul Fischer was actually two grades ahead of me and Sheriff’s Deputy Rodney Meyer was one or two grades behind me. Seeing some of my old bud's names on FR is freaky.
Well, I want a .454 Casull. Truly an amazing gun.
I've shot one at the range a couple times.
I'm a fairly big guy - 6'3", 230 lbs - and I found the recoil to be just unbelievable. Like being kicked by a horse, I guess.
Once I convinced my wife to shoot it...but only once.
The recoil literally knocked her backward; I have over 100 lbs and 7" in height over her.
No one else seems to be addressing whether or not the recoil could have caused the pistol to rotate fast enough to cause a fatal blunt force trauma (without medical negligence).
Sounds like a poster child for banning high-powered handguns like the S&W .50 to me. (are the Brady Bunch behind this?)
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