The Taurus Raging Hunter in .460 delivers what the old adage describes as: “The rich man’s demand for quality and economy — and the poor man’s need of economy and quality.” This beefy magnum sums that up nicely. At about $1,081, depending upon the exact model, you get a well-designed hunting revolver chock full of compelling features often only available on custom guns. Cue the grin, please.
The Raging Hunter allows you to take the biggest game the world has to offer. Let me say that again — The .460 S&W Magnum Raging Hunter can take the largest game in the world. If medium-sized dinosaurs still strolled the earth, you’d be ready. Yet it can still do double duty taking “smaller” game like elk, moose, bear and pigs. It can even do a sort of “triple duty” targeting, plinking or just having fun at the range as a .45 Colt or a range of other cartridges, including the .454 Casull. Versatile? Uh … yeah.
You get all that, my friends, for what’s essentially the price of a basic 1911.
Yet, this isn’t an amateur’s gun, not at any level, even though it’s affordable. It’s on the opposite end of the revolver spectrum from a pocket Model 856 .38 from the same company. It’s a sort of really big versus really little situation. Yet they’re the same in the sense they’re both expert’s guns.
As occurs with small frame revolvers, I think too many shooters tend to just believe, “Oh, that’s cool, I could shoot one of those.” But exactly like a 2″ .38, the Raging Hunter has its challenges. The small guns can recoil fairly heavily for what they are, can be tough to handle due to their size and they all take a high degree of skill to manipulate the trigger effectively and accurately.
The funny thing is, the 54 oz. Raging Hunter also recoils fairly heavily, can be tough to manage due to their bulk and weight, and the SA and DA action takes real practice and skill to manage well enough to take advantage of the accuracy potential of the cartridge and gun. They’re the same — only different.
The key here is, if you’re set on starting your handgun hunting adventure with a big bore Raging Hunter, take the time to get some help from people who’ve been there. Learn about recoil management, reloading, putting sub-calibers (like the .45 Colt, which the gun also handles) to work helping you to train, and get the manual of arms down pat on how to manipulate the Raging Hunter — well before you go into the field.
Time spent on the range learning will make you competent, and just makes plain good sense when it comes to owning a very special revolver like this. It’s also more responsible if you’re gearing up to hunt. You owe the animal your proficiency, don’t you?
Read the full article here