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

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.