Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 480 Ruger....is it worth it?

Have the opportunity to buy a very good condition 7.5" Ruger Super Redhawk in 480 for what i feel is a decent price. Already have 7.5" SRHs in 44 mag and 454 Casull. Really like the 44 and can tolerate the 454 using downloaded handloads and warm 45 colts. Was told that the 480 falls in between recoil wise. If i bought it I would need to get dies, brass and bullets. Would be used primarily for whitetail and maybe some black bear hunting. Is the 480 worth the time and expense to tool up for being that i already have the 44 and 454? Normally wouldnt care about just buying another gun, but safe room is getting to be tight. Benefits/bad things about the round?

It's really a personal choice, the 480 recoil doesn't come at you nearly as fast as the 454. You can shoot a big, heavy bullet in the 480 at a more modest velocity & still kill anything in North America & also shoot it quite often without the punishment. But, again, you have to make that choice if you want to gear up for another caliber. I've had both & the 454 didn't stay around very long, I've taken moose & elk with the 480 & friends have borrowed it to take their moose elk & bison, all one shot kills with big, heavy bullets in the 1000-1100 fps range, and it's pretty easy to handle at those speeds. But, again you'll have to decide if you want to gear up for another caliber. Good luck, either way you go.

Dick

The 454 will shoot big heavy bullets at 1000-1100fps too.

Idaho1945 tells it like it IS on the .480! I've had one since they first appeared on the scene, and like shooting it a lot. I like big, heavy bullets at moderate velocities, and the .480 is like a "bigger", "better" .44 mag in this respect.

Mike Holmes

I have owned a .480 in one form or another since 2001. It is a great cartridge that even when loaded hot isn't very abusive. Mine have accounted for black bear, wild hogs, water buffalo (I used a .480 in Argentina a number of years ago), and a host of other animals, and have never failed to do their part as long as I do mine. Hard to go wrong with the .480.

Thanks for the great replies guys!! Just called the shop where its at and told him to put it aside for me and i'll be picking it up later this week. He's gonna throw a couple of boxes of factory ammo on his next order so I'll have some factory ammo to play with initially. If this goes how im hoping the Casull probably will get lonely in the safe! As you can see not alot of arm twisting required for me to buy a new gun lol!

I had a .480 for a short while. We didn't get along. I have a 6-1/2" barreled Bisley in .454 and had a 4-5/8" barreled Bisley in the .480. Probably the difference, or un-difference, came from barrel length 'cause to me, the .480 with 325 grain factory XTP ammo was worse than the .454 with factory 300 grain XTP ammo.

PM me if you're interested in a set of RCBS carbide dies, starline brass, and some speer 325 grain JFP bullets. I haven't gotten around to putting them up in the classifieds.

Tom

I have the 6.5 inch Bisley Blackhawk in 480. I love it. Recoil is very manageable with heavy loads and mine is exceptionally accurate. I never really planned on a 480 but Max sold me a bunch of 480 brass a few years ago that I thought I'd resell at a gun show. A couple weeks later Cabelas had my 480 on sale because of a cosmetic flaw. It went home with me. I've not had an opportunity to use it on game but I carry it frequently when moose and caribou hunting, looking for an chance to use it. I've only ever used cast bullets in mine and have molds from 350 to 420 grains. It really likes 400 grain bullets.

My favorite revolvers. Great choice of bullets from copper solids to cast.

I have two 480 Ruger Bisleys. Had custom Elk horn grips hand fitted to them. Good looking irons.

I have revolvers in 44 Spl, 45 Colt, 454 Casull and also have the 480 Bisley in both 4-5/8" and 6" barrel lengths. The 4-5/8" 480 is probably my favorite...

I own a 6.5" Bisley and love it. I shoot 375 or 400 gr hard cast out of it with healthy charges. Recoil is stout but not abusive. I had a 454 Casull and a 475 Linebaugh. Sold all of them and kept the 480. I think its about the perfect big bore for most people.

I think one is in my future, too.

You'll love it(them)!

Both of mine are too. I can hardly wait to get them up & running.

My load development back log:
454 Casull in all bullet weights
460 S&W in two bullet weights, 2 guns
480 Ruger in two bullet weights, 2 guns
7 BR XP-100, 3 guns

Plan to hit it after Thanksgiving.

I also have Bisley 4-5/8's in 454 and 480.
I prefer the 480 when shooting full house loads in these revolvers, 410's in the 480 and 360's in the 454.

The 454 is definitely a quick recoil in these lighter revolvers. I have experienced the bullet jump crimp, with DoubleTap's 360 grain loads after firing 3 shots with one box. Like clockwork, fire 3 shots and the cyclinder was tied up.

I like both cartridges and the 475 Linebaugh. At this time, the 480 is my favorite bigger bore cartridge.

Just noticed I fat fingered the above - that's 6.5" on the Bisley 480...

My first .480 was a Taurus Raging Bull that I got at a great price. It was accurate but just didn’t do it for me so I sold it when Ruger came out with the 5 shot Bisley. Got the 6 1/2” version since that was all they had with the intention of cutting the barrel to 4 5/8” and then low and behold Ruger came out with the shorter barrel so I sold mine and bought a new 4 5/8” version. It is the perfect packing gun and works extremely well in deer and pigs. I have settled on a 400 gr hard cast Bullet from a Lee mould. I have not recovered a bullet yet from a deer or hog no matter what angle. I don’t like to track and prefer to break shoulders, both when possible and this combo does it

I have a 6 1/2-inch .480 and a shorty. No flies on either.

Man those are some beautiful stocks on your pistols.
Wow!

I really like the short barrel guns. I may need one of them.

Nice.

Wearing American Holly on my 4.62" and couple of different sets of flame/quilts on the 6.50" for show or field use.

Hankerin' to convert the 6 1/2 to a .475 Linebaugh...maybe should just buy one...don't need it...oh yes I do...don't need it...oh yes I do...aw sheesh!

Sent downrange 80 rounds of copper solids and hardcast .480 Ruger, today.

I have a pair of 7.5" SRHs; one in .454 and one in .480. I've had the .480 for several years longer than the .454.
To my hand, the Hornady 325 grain .480 load kicks harder than the 300 grain Hornady .454 load. My handload consisting of the 400 grain Lee cast bullet over a full charge of 2400, also lets you know when you have pulled the trigger.

Those loads weren't exactly what I was looking for, so I bought a 290 grain plainbase SWC mold from Mountain Molds and load it to 900-1000 fps over a fast powder. Kinda like a larger version of .45 Colt. I like it. That load is a sweet shooter. And if the pesky pachyderms start raiding my garden, I still have the 400 grain mold.

I had an early SRH in 480 and the cases would stick in the chambers. I traded it on a 454.
I then purchased another SRH in 480, this time the 9.5” barrel and had sticking cases again. I had the chambers polished which helped but soon traded it on another 454
I was told the 5 shot cylinders are better than 6 for 480 when shooting a Ruger

From what I can gather from pretty reliable sources, only 23 5-shot cylinder .480s made it down the assembly line and all of them were Alaskans. I don’t think there is enough testing that has been done, if any, to substantiate that claim. I know the machining of those cylinders was often on the shoddy side and I also believe that some of the early production ammo was a bit too high in the pressure department all contributing to sticky extraction. A number of years ago I got the first production 6-shot SRH after the .480 hiatus, and it had no issues. Ruger claimed they changed the chamber dimensions...

I've had both and preferred the shorty. No longer have either but I'll never get rid of my 480 Alaskan. They are just plain handy.