Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 480 Ruger Redhawk?

Anyone shot this beast? How does the recoil compare to the 44 mag and 454 ? How will it stack up in a hunters hands compared to the 44mag and 454?

Taurus, I have been wondering the same thing. A friend of mine who happens to be a gun dealer loaned me his Ruger Super Redhawk in 454 a week ago, that thing shoots recoil is not bad, I like large handguns with lots of recoil. My Contender 45/70 has the most recoil of any hand gun I have shot it is also the most accurate. I did not get the oppertunity to fire the 454 at the same ranges i shoot my T/C so there is no real compareison(sp). I am quite interested in the 480 and as of this time I have not seen any ballistics, I have not looked very hard.<P>How was the squirrel season? I had four bears in my sights but just didn't seem to find the one I wanted. I was hunting with my Contender so my range was limited to 100 yards or less. Two bears were well under 50 yards but they were too big for eating one at around 350 yards was what I was looking for but I couldnt get close enough to take a good clean shot. The last one was just a blur crossing a road up ahead of us. The second growth timber was so thick that I had to belly crawl to get through it, that is no way to hunt a bear.<BR>Take care.<P>Bullwnkl.

Howdy Bullwnkl! Crawling in the brush looking for bear! WoW! Good way to end up as bear food! Sounds exciting though! Squirrel season was a good one as usual. I wish other varmints were as plentiful[groundhogs,rabbits quail]. I think the coyotes have thinned them down. I just recently bought a Tikka 25-06 so I will attempt to find some groundhogs /coyotes to zero in on! I envy you with bear to hunt though! I would like to have the Ruger 480 but I have been reading not too favorable reports on it in the Shooters board. Take care! Taurus

458 Lott has one of those beasts and let me shoot it a couple weeks ago. From the bench he was clover-leafing 3-shot groups at 50 yds with his heavy cast bullets, I forget the exact weight. At 100 yds I shot 3 shots touching with 2 others within 1 1/2", and both "fliers" called bad before looking.<P>Impressive hand cannon with modest recoil for the oomph. Did knock my hat off with one shot... so there is some recoil, but tolerable.<BR>art

I have the 9.5" barreled version of the 480 Ruger. This cartridge will do anything the 44 mag will do, but in my opinion, will do it better than the 454 Casull with less recoil. 458Lott made me some of his cast bullets and they are very accurate. Consistantly hitting pepsi cans at 100 yards. Paul has made me several different bullet weights fro 310 grains all the way up to 460 grains. I have only been working with the 390 grain bullets, so cannot give an opinion on anything lighter or heavier. Did load some of the 325 Hornady's, but was not impressed with the velocity when using the same load data that Hodgdon used. They were getting over 1500 FPS with max loads and I was only able to get 1345 FPS with the same loads. Other than that, I don't think I will be in the market for a bigger caliber handgun cartridge. The 480 should have come along years ago. [img]images/icons/cool.gif" border="0[/img] [img]images/icons/cool.gif" border="0[/img]

Most of my loads can be found here <A HREF="http://www.serveroptions.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000068.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.serveroptions.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000068.html</A> All precautions apply if you use this data, it was developed by me in my gun, and I found it to be safe. Your mileage may vary, be careful! I would not exceed any of the loads I've posted there either!<P>I am in full agreement with Allen that in the real world, the 480 is more gun than the 454. The caveat is, you must handload to realize the 480's potential, and best yet, cast for it. <P>As far as 480 vs 44, where the 44 stops is where the 480 starts. The 44 maxes out with 300-320 at 1200-1300 fps, the 480 does that with 400 gr bullets!<P>I've had the opportunity to shoot 454's, both FA and Ruger, 475's, FA and Bisley, and 500's in a bisley and a super redhawk. IMHO, the 480 is the easiest one to shoot well with, the recoil isn't nearly as sharp as the 454's, and isn't as vicous as the 475's and 500's. One thing to consider, the 454 loads typically use 30 gr or more of H 110, my top 480 loads use between 19 and 22 gr. IMHO, that extra powder is working on you, and not on the bullet.<P>The accuracy of my gun, previously Allen's has been nothing short of amazing, it has shot better for me than any revovler I've fired, and both with mild loads and max loads. I haven't done anything to the gun, in fact the only cleaning I've done is with a 28 gr bore brush and Ed's red. It will easily shoot 1" at 50 yds for 5 shots, and not just from one chamber, load 5, hold and squeze steady, and they cluster right in there. I cast from straight wheelweights, and my gun has done 50 yd 1" groups with 310 LFN's, 390 LFN's, 400 Leee's, 435 NEI's and 460 WFN's. I've shot well over 1000 rounds out of mine, it's as tight as when I got it, and its fired many max loads, and a few loads that were too hot.<P>I don't know any 480 shooter that isn't very enthusiastic about the gun. You can pay $2000 for a FA or custom bisley, but it won't be any more accurate. If you want a packer, contact Jack Huntington, for $100 he'll shorten it to 5", bead blast barrel and cylinder, and re-fit front sight. The 7 1/2" 480 SRH is identicle in weight to a 5 1/2" FA 454, so don't believe the BS about SRH's being boat anchors!<P>Allen,<P>Let me know if you want anymore of the 390's, I've sold the mold and have 250 of them left. If I were to shoot just one bullet, the 390 would be it, but I seem to shoot either the 310's or the 460's. Try 8gr unique with the 390's, they do 800 fps, and have very little recoil, yet shoot 2" or better at 50 yds.

The reason you are not getting the same velocities as Hodgdon is because they are using a test barrel with no cylinder gap, you are shooting a revolver that is venting some pressure out of the barrel/cylinder gap. I have shot the 480, and found it to be very nice, but I will stick with my 454 SRHK. I can pop homemade steel targets at 200 yards and my midrange trajectory is still good for me at 3.5" ,it is only 10" low at 200, and that is with 335gr WFNGC bullets that are still moving 1100fps at 200 yards.