460 Smith and Wesson With 5 Inch Barrel Review

Smith & Wesson's 460XVR (X-treme Velocity Revolver) is a Operation Center hand cannon aimed squarely at the handgun hunting market. As if to evince the seriousness of its purpose, the snub-nosed 460XVR comes packaged in a plain white corrugated box, non the usual cardboard container gaily decorated with the vivid bluish and white S&W colors. The box is highly commonsensical and can be used for many other purposes, such as shipping heavy car parts or an improvised midnight burial of the neighbor's Labrador . . .

Inside the big white box is the usual paperwork, a big blackness soft example gaily decorated with the golden Performance Center logo, and an expended cartridge that, with just a piddling stone salt on the case mouth, would be suitable for dainty shots of Tequila.

Open the soft case and there information technology is – a BFG. Yup, a Large Gun. A moving-picture show of the 460XVR next to an S&W 642 Airweight is included for a sense of scale. The moving picture is kinda reminiscent of a male parent-and-son range photo, although it seems that young Mister 642, with his fluted cylinder and fancy wood grips, must take later on his mom fifty-fifty though he does accept his dad's snubby little nose.

The 460XVR is robustly built to handle the very powerful .460 Smith & Wesson Magnum cartridge, which is based on the .454 Casull, which in turn is based on the familiar .45 (Long) Colt. The little Airweight son-of-a-gun in the moving picture is chambered for the ancient (vintage 1898) and familiar .38Spl. The photograph beneath illustrates the size difference between the .38Spl, .45LC and .460S&W cartridges.

The pictured .460S&W round is a 2 1/8" long, 300 gr. JHP that escapes an XVR's muzzle at an astonishing 1750 fps, although that speed might require a longer butt. We don't know for certain considering, when ShootingtheBull410 previewed this very XVR revolver, his chrony had a nervous breakdown.

For serious handgun hunting of large game at distance, the XVR is available with barrel lengths upward to fourteen" and a fitted bipod. With a long barrel, a lighter 200 gr. bullet tin reach 2250 fps at the muzzle and yet be zooming along at 1715 fps when it'south 100 yards downrange. That's most twice the speed of sound at the muzzle, which is approaching Ludicrous Speed from a handgun.

The XVR can as well burn down the .45 Colt, the All-American standard that was showtime used past Roy Rogers to tame the west fashion back in 1872. The XVR is every bit at home with the .454 Casull, which for all I know was used past Dale Evans to tame erstwhile Roy if he stepped out of line. While neither the traditional .45 nor the Casull are lightweights, they do not compare to the power of the.460S&W circular that when used every bit directed in the XVR, co-ordinate to Smith & Wesson, "has the highest cage velocity of any production revolver on world." On Mars, non so much.

Both the .460 and the .454 are first and foremost hunting cartridges. Commercially loaded .460 cartridges are bachelor with bullet weights upwards to 395 grains, which should be more than adequate to vaporize most North American big game curt of the infrequently-encountered escaped circus rhinoceros. The insufficiently weak .45LC remains a very capable man-stopper even now, more than 140 years after information technology was first adopted past the US Army. So, although the XVR has a hunting focus, it is a versatile revolver that can be used effectively for self-defense without evaporating the bad guy, taking out a couple of walls of the garage and exploding an electrical power substation in the side by side zip code.

XVR Fly-By
The XVR is a Performance Eye piece, and right from the become-become information technology looks like quality. I'm not a fan of the appearance of the unfluted cylinder, simply based on that unfortunate Titanic incident it seems that removing metal correct where it is needed about might be a bad thought. The whole piece is glass dewdrop-finished stainless steel, and it appears expensive.

The butt sports a neatly tapered full nether-lug and an attractive polygonal sculptural contour. The teardrop hammer and the trigger are both chromed. While the 460XVR is a serious hunting machine, information technology's very clear that some folks at S&W wanted it to look good, likewise. They succeeded.

The well-contoured jumpsuit synthetic grip completely covers the back strap to promote shooting comfort. The grip, with its pebbly texture and pleasing colour, looks better than the same old nondescript black prophylactic grip pictured on Southward&Westward's web site.

The sighting organization consists of a fixed HI-VIZ green fiox front end and a fully adjustable square notch rear. The front end sight is bright under incandescent lighting and in natural sunlight can be used to point ships at body of water. The rear sight'southward elevation and windage can exist set by turning two screws, one on the right side of sight for windage and one on the top treatment elevation. Both crave a simple, flat head screwdriver. One warning virtually such screwdrivers – they will non do the task unless they are actually in your range bag when you take the XVR out to play. More on that later.

There is the obligatory and much-hated internal lock on the left side of the frame. If I endemic this revolver, the lock would be the outset thing to go. In fact, it would be the only matter to go. Everything else seems pretty damn squared away.

Handling and Shooting the XVR
When it'southward loaded, the XVR weighs almost a pound less than a Ruger 10/22. Yeah, it's on the heavy side, but because the XVR is so well balanced, it doesn't feel awkward. Dissimilar a big bore semi-automatic handgun similar the Desert Hawkeye .50AE that I reviewed a while back, the XVR's stock isn't oversized or indigestible and provides a reassuring grip. Normally, I'm suspicious of grips with deep finger grooves. They never seem to fit me, and my fingers usually stop up riding the loftier points instead of snuggling comfortably into the grooves. Not so with the XVR. The stock fit me merely fine, and too fit several other experienced shooters with disparate manus sizes. Ane size rarely fits all, just this ane size volition fit most.

I started out firing .45 Colt LRN (pb round nose) target ammo and so that I could go a feel for the XVR before embarrassing myself with magnum ammo. At that place was an immediate problem – at 25 yards offhand, I wasn't even on paper. It took a couple of shots until I figured out that the XVR was shooting high and left. No big bargain, thought I. The rear sight could be easily adjusted — with the screwdriver that I left at dwelling.

Once once more, no large deal. I simply adapted my betoken of aim until I was on paper, so walked them in. Once I figured out the proper point of aim, I concluded up with a overnice group solidly in the 10 band. This is an accurate revolver despite its short sight radius.

Then information technology was time for something a trivial more challenging, so I loaded five 200 grain Hornady hollowpoints. In ShootingtheBull410'due south XVR preview, he noted the prodigious recoil inherent in 460 South&W loadings, so I was pleasantly surprised. There was plenty of recoil to be sure, but it certainly wasn't punishing. In fact, it was exhilarating, similar riding a Brahma bull for the full 8 seconds and dismounting without catching a gigantic horn correct up the coolie. Because I believe in spreading joy wherever I am, I asked a couple of well-qualified doods to shoot the XVR with the Hornady ammo, and they both reported a similar awareness, albeit in less colorful language.

With my confidence now higher than a Colorado pot salesman, I loaded the XVR with some 300 grain JHP and allow loose. And that's when the XVR revealed both its mighty roar and even mightier kick. Every caput in the indoor range swiveled effectually just to encounter what I was shooting. I fifty-fifty got a couple of "what the hell was thats" from my fellow range denizens. Although the range was far from full, past now everybody was watching the XVR, which put a lot of pressure on me. It was like taking a whiz with people watching. I really wanted to be authentic.

I loosed another round and a guy a few lanes to port wandered over to let me know that he could really see a donut-shaped pressure wave bravado out of the muzzle. I couldn't run across that from my vantage point behind the revolver, simply I did see the muzzle flash that reminded me of firing my Mosin M44 carbine. Oh, how I wanted to shoot the XVR in the dark!

My wrist gave out earlier my ammo did, so I decided that discretion was the meliorate part of tendonitis and saved the residual of the ammo for my side by side range session.

The following week, I headed to an outdoor range, loaded up with plenty of ammo and multiple screwdrivers. I joined TTAG commenter Greg in Allston and our pal Dave (the primary of the Alexander Arms .50 Beowulf that I reported on last year) for a little fun in the bitter, biting New England cold. I think that the temperature was -346°F when we started shooting and dropped from there to well-nigh accented aero. Anyway, it was cold.

I was on target pretty quickly later tweaking the XVR's windage and cranking downwards the height spiral. There was a light frosting of snow on the ground and the roof of the shed when Greg started getting jiggy wit' it.

What Greg is looking effectually for in the side by side viddy is the snow which has been knocked off the roof by the concussive blast of the XVR.

There was a guy a few lanes downward who was shooting a prissy SMLE in .303 British. He couldn't go far snowfall, only the XVR did. And that was with the "footling" 200 grain Hornadys. The heftier 300 grain time-bombs cleared the snow off of nearby trees, so I recommend them for Alpine barrage control. Nevertheless, Greg maintained complete control of the XVR and no wrists were harmed during the making of these videos.

All in all, shooting the XVR, particularly with the Hornady ammo, was infectious. The more nosotros shot, the better nosotros got and the more fun we had, which is almost axiomatic. The only difficulty we had was maintaining a secure grip with gloves on later our fingers were virtually amputation because of frostbite.

Likes and Dislikes
What didn't I like? Not much. I didn't intendance for shooting the XVR with .45 Colt ammo because it felt like I had dumped a 1.viii liter Honda Civic engine into a Ferrari 458 Italia. Now, that Honda is a prissy little mill, simply c'mon man. It would hardly be satisfying to drive a Ferrari body that was made for greasy fast speed but hampered with a mild street motor. So also, the XVR was meant for bigger and improve (and badder) things.

As for price and availability of ammo for the XVR, well, information technology'south readily available now and was fifty-fifty during the recent Great Ammunition Extinction. Toll of ammo is ever an issue, although not as critical a problem for the XVR as might be expected. Figure on two bucks a circular for 460 S&W Magazine ammo and y'all're in the ballpark. .454 Casull will exist about half a buck less, and .45 Colt is out in that location for s of 75 cents a pop. It sounds similar a lot for the Casull and 460 S&W, merely most shooters won't be sending hundreds of rounds of heavy, shop-bought magnum stuff downwardly range. They volition reload.

I wasn't thrilled with the heavy, but silky shine, double activity trigger pull. The pull was long, likewise. How long? Bring a book, that's how long. Single action, the XVR'southward trigger is more like a button, with (I'm being generous hither) possibly 1/xvi^th of an inch of travel before information technology goes boom.

Fit and finish from the Performance Eye product are perfect. I expected cipher less, and I got aught less. Firing dingy lead ammo will get out sooty marks on the cylinder, which I believe can be removed with an eraser, crocus cloth or similar lightly abrasive polishing thingamabob. Unfortunately, while I finally remembered to bring screwdrivers to the range, I forgot to bring my eraser back home from the range.

Everything else about this big revolver was serious fun.

Terminal Shots
Because the XVR snubby has such a brusque (three.5") butt and a correspondingly brusque-ish half dozen" sight radius, information technology's not a long-range hunter unless your name is Miculek. Long-barrel models (up to 14") will exercise the business on deer, elk and other large critters at rifle and shotgun distances, but it seems that the snubby version has "feral hog" written all over information technology.

Is information technology the definitive acquit country sidearm? I'll exit that up to shooters who are more experienced at hiking in definitive bear land. But if I were camping in said country, the XVR snubby would be the kind of revolver that would permit me sleep well at night. It's powerful, easy to pack, won't accept up as much room as a long gun and would be very useful at distances of, say, fifty yards or in tight spaces. And information technology should knock down a grizzly.

And so it comes downward to this compound question: if I don't hunt with information technology, or protect myself from bears with it, is the pure fun of shooting the XVR worth the cost?

Information technology is for me.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Model: Smith & Wesson 460XVR Performance Eye
Quotient: .460 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .454 Casull and .45 Colt
Cylinder chapters: 5 rounds
Materials: Steel, baby. Steel! With a composite grip.
Weight: 59.5 oz., unloaded
Barrel length: 3.5″
Activeness: Double and single action revolver
Cost: $1609 MSRP

RATINGS (out of five stars):

Manner * * * *
With its unfluted cylinder, yous will like the looks or y'all won't. At that place doesn't seem to exist much heart footing. It grew on me. Everything else virtually this big revolver is pure, unadulterated form.

Ergonomics * * *
Information technology's a adequately heavy gun, which it needs to exist given its task. Only despite its recoil-arresting mass, the XVR isn't clumsy to handle. For comport, S&Due west offers some cute leather (or nylon, for those and so inclined) retention holsters for belt or shoulder, in left and right hand models. For hip carry, get a good belt. A actually adept belt.

Ergonomics (firing) * * * *
There'due south balmy recoil with .45 Filly ammo, and exciting simply manageable recoil with light 460s. The heavier the bullet, the more likely this revolver will leave an impression on your psyche if not your shooting hand. Simply the grip is admittedly fantastic. An Airweight shooting plain-Jane .38Spls will sting more.

Reliability * * * * *
C'mon, human being. It's a Smith & Wesson revolver. And a damn well made one at that. V for certain.

Customize This 0
Admittedly non.

OVERALL * * * *
Sus scrofa hunters will probably award the XVR five stars. Hikers besides. As a range toy, information technology's worth – well, what price practise y'all identify on fun?

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Source: https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/gun-review-smith-wesson-460xvr-3-5/