ruger’s 480 - initial thoughts

after getting the scope on the new super redhawk, and satisfied that she was as tight as she could go, and lined up, i grabbed a couple boxes of factory loads (hornady 325 xtp's, at $16.99/box of 20... guess i'll be reloading these plenty soon!), and hit the indoor range...

well, i have heard so much about the ferocious recoil from these newer handgun loads (480, 454, etc), how they'll just beat the hell out of the shooter, etc, that i admit, i was a little concerned how things would go once i hit the ignition switch... so, i cocked the big srh... lined up the x-hairs on the nikon... and wobbled all over the paper in anticipation of being knocked backwards by this new gun (btw, i was told by a gunsmith that he would never shoot anything bigger than a 44 mag because he values his wrists, and that these other cartridges were entirely uncalled for).

finally talked myself into a steady hold, and touched off the srh. a huge whoom belched out of my handgun, then there was total silence... 10 lanes (15 lane cap.) had suddenly ceased fire... maybe i had been knocked out? the gun kicked so hard, so fast that it broke both of my wrists, and i was in shock? i slowly felt the smile crease my lips, as i thumbed back the hammer again... whoom! i could hear a little mumbling from some of the other guys on the line... whoom! that's what i'm talking about! brought the target in to have a look at it... shooting about an inch low, so i adjusted the scope, and sent the target back out... i sent the next shot thru the center of the bull... i was no longer the center of attention, as i could hear the cracks of the various 9's, 40's and 45's that were scattered about the line... i brought the gun up to shoot again, and something felt really wrong... oh... the scope mounts had been shot loose (already!!!)... tightened up the mounts again, and didn't have them shoot loose for the remainder of the session... think i'm gonna pull 'em off and loc-tite 'em in place, anyway, though.

so, initial impressions... overall, i am pleased w/ the gun... not real thrilled about the target gray finish. the issued sights suck. bad. the front sight barely is visible in fair light. sure it would disappear in low-light hunting conditions. the gun is un-fireable in double action. i kid you not, by the third da pull, my forearms started cramping. in single action, the trigger behaves like a very heavy 2-stage military trigger. i find this to be extremely distractiong, and i am very disappointed. the grips... overall, i think the grips are too small... a little more on the frontstrap would be fine w/ me. the backstrap and sides felt really good, though.

i didn't have a chance to stick a feeler gauge into the cylinder gap, yet, but it doesn't appear to be excessive. in full lock up endshake is minimal. the cylinder feels to lock up pretty tight overall.

accuracy... well, initial impressions on accuracy are good, but i was shooting at an indoor range, where i was maxed out at 27 yards... i just wanted to get a feel for the gun, and get the scope on paper so i could do some bench work on my range a little more efficiently.

recoil... ahh, the recoil... it was definitely manageable. there is nothing to be afraid of when shooting this gun. it kicks, believe that, but the kick is not ferocious, and it is not painful. if you have a weak grip on the gun, expect it to rise considerably, but, it will be nowhere near your head. if you are holding the gun firm, expect recoil to be a non-issue. when i didn't have a firm grip on the gun, i felt a little thumping on the web of my strong hand. but as long as i had a good grip, recoil was tolerable.

right after i got mine - like the very next day, ruger srh's in 480 and 454 went on sale. don't recall what the 454 was going for, but the 480 bottomed out at around $535... i was this close to putting another on layaway just to lock in that price...

shooting the 480 really is fun... not at all abusive like i had been led to believe. i'm glad i finally broke down and got a handgun w/ a big hole in the end...

"not at all abusive like i had been led to believe."

Are ya still shooting factory ammo?

lol... yeah, i am... weather hasn't been friendly enough to get into the garage where all my loading gear is...

i'm itching to get to load development, though... will turn in a full report once i get loads worked up.

hornady usually does a pretty good job of putting stiff loads together. they aren't real hot, but provide a lot more thump than any other factory ammo i've had occasion to chrony. the proof will be in the chrony in a couple of weeks!

i'll let ya know what i find when i find it! i am 2, maybe 3 weeks out from work-ups, so don't hold your breath.

dunno how hot the hornady factory loads are... i get sticky extraction w/ them, though that could be something other than pressure.

the 454 is a hotter cartridge than the 480... so, i would expect hot 454 loads to be more abusive than hot 480 loads... i have no doubt that proper handloads in the 480 will produce significant recoil, though i doubt it will cross the line into abusive. of course, when talking recoil, so much is subjective. what might be intolerable to me, may be just right for you...

i plan on taking the gun to its max...if the max turns out to be too much, i'll note that, then work back down to something more comfortable. after all, a 44 mag will punch 2 sides of a deer. the 480 ought to do that easily enough, and cut a wider path in doing it... so i shouldn't need too much. if i was working towards a handgun elk, bear, etc hunt, i would put much more emphasis on seeing how hot i can go... but, for deer hunting, well, you know...

on the 500... i stumbled across one recently that was lightly used for $700... it got snatched up within a week. local shop got one in that sold promptly for $850-ish. the 500's are a commodity right now, that's for sure. good luck on getting yours. local dealer here had to buy 10 (20? i don't know) s&w's just so he could order one 500... maybe in another month or so the used market for these monsters will open up a bit for ya.

50- first, let me welcome you aboard!

thanks for the input. between klallen, and now you, i'm sold on the cast performance bullets. i'll be sending in an order in the a.m. i was having the biggest debate on which weight to go w/.

425 at 1180 is close to what i was hoping to get... i was actually hoping to make 1200 f/s, but i could live w/ 1180!

i am pretty new at revolver loading, so i'm not quite sure what you mean by a 2nd crimp groove?

i got a pound of h-110 that i haven't broken the seal on yet... in my rifles, i make it a general rule to try at least 2 different powders before writing off/signing on to a bullet... so, keeping w/ that theme, i'll be picking up some lil-gun this weekend, too. thanks for the tip.

i got a chance to chrony the hornady 325 xtp factory loads... they were clocking an average of 1335 f/s thru my gun, sd of 21. hornady had claimed 1350 f/s on the box. it's been my experience that hornady is usually pretty close on their velocity claims.

my daughter's b-day this weekend, so i don't think i'll have much to report on any time soon, w/ the in-laws and such coming in... seems i just can't get things going this spring! at any rate, by the time the in-laws clear out, i should have everything i need to start loading the beastie. trimmer pilot order went out today, bullets will be on order tomorrow, i'll pick up some lil-gun on thursday...think i have everything else...

appreciate it if you could elaborate on the 2nd crimping groove...

Dakotasin;

Have you taken the grip off your new revolver & examined the innards?  If not, I'd do so real soon now.  I'm not advocating getting in there & modifying anything, but don't be surprised if there are some 'leftovers' in there.  A disassembly & thorough cleaning may very well be in order.  If you do have a lot of machining scrap in there, it may have scratched polished parts already.  In that case, depending on your own assessment of your abilities to polish without getting carried away with things, either smooth the rough spots down or take it to a smith.  In any case, you may find that a cleaning & a LITTLE snake oil may make a noticable difference in your trigger pull, both single & double.

900F

Dakotasin,

With wither H-LilGun, H-110 or Win 296, the 325 gr XTP-MAG and the 325 gr Speer bullets can pretty easily be driven to near 1500 fps.  The new Speer 275 will get a little more but it always is easier to drive a heavy bullet to good speeds compared to light bullets to very high speeds in a revolver.

My personal SRH will not shoot the lighter bullets well at all, in fact I nearly traded the gun off.  I tried one box of Cast Performance bullets that I had on the shelf in my shop and was sold.

You may full well get 1200 fps out of your SRH.  Mine has the 7 1/2" pipe and with full tilt max loads I did top 1200 fps but I was starting to get bullet creep under recoil and was getting a little problem common with heavy recoiling revolvers.

When I would fire the SRH, if you looked at the handgun from the hammers location, the gun would recoil very hard back and down.  What this did was set the hammer in motion just as if it were being cocked.  It would not travel far, but far enough to free up the cylinder and when the hammer returned after the intital recoil, it would hit the transfer bar, which hits the firing pin, and the pin would leave a small indention on the case head.

I backed off to 20.5 gr of H-LilGun and the problem went away.  One can also install heavier action spring kits to prevent this but then the smoothness of the action can be effected.

You will find that if you start a 425 gr hard cast off going at least 1000 fps, there really isn't much that it won't fully penetrate.  Anything faster then that is just frosting on the cake as long as you can handle the increased recoil.

With a 425 gr bullet, you will noticably feel the level of recoil increase with every 50 fps. 1100 fps is noticably harder kicking then 1050 fps, just as 1150 if very different then 1100.  At +1150 fps with this weight of bullet, it gets to be a good challange to master the big revolver.

Do not get to worried about fps, as I said, anything over 1000 fps will give all the on game performance one will ever need unless African came on on the slate, then one would want the 1400 fps of the 475 Line. with the +400 gr pills.

Good Shooting!!!

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