Ruger 480 or 454 Casull

[Lloyd Smale]

heck pal ruger sells the #1 in 475 with a 22 inch barrel it too would be easier to shoot my take on recoil in these big gun goes like this. Ill take 500s for an example as ive shot them in about every barrel lengh. With loads in the 1100-1200 fps range i think my 4 inch guns have less felt recoil then the longer ones. I allways wondered if it had something to do with how long the bullet is in the barrel. When it gets into pushing 440s or heavier to 1300-1400 the little guns do snap. But bottom line is with loads like those any barrel lenght can be a handfull and the differnces seem minor to me. I cant say one is hard on a guy and the other is a piece of cake. I allways chuckled at guys that claim a 475 or 454 kicks harder then a 500. Its just physics that a gun shooting a 440 at 1300 is going to recoil more then a gun shooting a 400 at the same speed. In my opinion when you get a 500 up to 1300 plus its in a differnt league then a 475. The 454 may be snappy but its not in the same league as the other two. I think most of what guys shooting 454 percieve as recoil is the very heavy muzzle blast a 454 produces. It will wake up the dead with full power loads.

Only with starting loads of H110 or 296. Must use full charges with these powders.
Dubber, shoot a .500 with that barrel length!

[Whitworth]

dubber -- that .500 is a horse. I've got the bruised and busted knuckles as a reminder! All of the 425 grain loads were sailing along well over 1,400 fps......

[dubber123]

dubber -- that .500 is a horse. I've got the bruised and busted knuckles as a reminder! All of the 425 grain loads were sailing along well over 1,400 fps......

A horse no doubt, but about 20 grs. less lead, 75 fps. faster... Shouldn't be a tremendous difference. They DO shoot just as well, but when you KNOW they are gonna cut you, thats where the concentration part I mentioned to Jim comes in. It's really hard to do when your body knows it's about to be hurt.

When I shot mine daily, I had a roll of cloth tape I used on my trigger finger, (gets cut on the inside of the trigger guard), my middle knuckle, (cut on the back of the trigger guard), and my top thumb knuckle (cut by the back of the hammer).

On top of all of this, the only way I could get tiny groups was with a VERY light grip off the bench, (I know Jim, that doesn't work.... ). If I applied anything resembling a tight grip to try and tame recoil, I would get vertical stringing, every time. I just can't hold it down consistantly. The short barrel does seem to make this trait worse. I have a pic I found the other day I will try and post showing how mine recoils. The front sight digs chunks out of my left earmuff.

You boys obviously know how to shoot, so you can master that .500. It's not gonna be fun though...

[44man]

It is the vertical stringing but also the comfort level for the reason I like the longer barrels.
Marko has shot up the top of my boolit catcher and he is a lot stronger then I am.
The .500's are the worst offenders, guns are lighter of course but I wonder if the fat slugs have a tad more barrel time then the .475.
Now we shot some BB 440 gr loads at around 950 fps and they were very pleasant, not much recoil at all. I think once we start loading for them, we can tame them better.
There is no need to run them full bore, you could drop those boolits on a deer's head from the tree and knock them out!

[Whitworth]

The .500 JRH busted me up, but it still hurts the body less than my .500 Linebaugh which is a much lighter revolver. It is a lot easier to control than my .50 Alaskan as well!

We were still able to get a group that went a bit over an inch at 50 yards, but will scope it to see just what kind of accuracy it is capable of with factory loads -- standby!

[ole 5 hole group]

dubber -- that .500 is a horse. I've got the bruised and busted knuckles as a reminder! All of the 425 grain loads were sailing along well over 1,400 fps......

I take it you're shooting Buffalo Bore ammo purchased from Jack. When I got my 500JRH I ordered a couple boxes of each weight. I chronographed the 425 right at 1350fps and the 440 grain a little over 950fps from a 6" barrel. The 425 grain is a snappy little thing and it bit me with the 1st shot fired from the revolver. I immediately changed my grip and squeezed a little on those Micarta's but my trigger finger would still get a greeting every now and then - I fired 20 rounds of that 425 grain before I put the gun down and attended to my trigger finger and hand webbing (1st shot) and then went to the 440 grain rounds and they were a joy to shoot and shot just as well as the 425. You can get the 440 grain almost to 1500fps in the JRH if you have a mind to. Also, the only 500 grain bullet that I have found that will consistently work with the JRH case is the Hornady jacketed XTP.

[44man]

Why do we keep looking for more pain?
They all kill, from the .41 up. What the heck do we need a .50 caliber for?

[Duckiller]

What ever you think you are going to get,SHOOT IT FIRST! And shoot a fair amount. #2 son really needed a Raging Bull in .454. Shot factory loads and some of my full power reloads. After several sessions we both decided that 15-20 shots of full power loads per session was all we needed to shoot. We both shoot various 44Mags with no problem. Daughter thinks that light 160 gr. loads in the Raging Bull with the compensated barrel a delight to shoot. It is accurate. I admit to being recoil sensitive unless I am after ducks or geese with a gas auto.
Your .44 Mag will kill most animals and all paper in the lower 48. The one claim to fame that the cannons do have is they do produce LARGE balls of fire when fired at dusk.

[Whitworth]

The one claim to fame that the cannons do have is they do produce LARGE balls of fire when fired at dusk.

You forgot to add that they not only produce large fireballs, but they also produce large holes in game -- oh, and that's not a bad thing........

[dubber123]

Why do we keep looking for more pain?
They all kill, from the .41 up. What the heck do we need a .50 caliber for?

Because you can't buy a .60 caliber....

[Whitworth]

Because you can't buy a .60 caliber....

At least not yet........

[use enough gun]

You guys can play with the 50's, I'll stick with my 45/70, it's almost as much fun as you can legally have and keep your cloths on. If I can't kill it with my 45/70 it ain't of this world. Dave

[dubber123]

At least not yet........

Someone will (of course) correct me if I'm worng, but I believe there is some goofy Federal law prohibiting anything over .50 cal. It's classified as a "destructive device" or some such foolishness. I believe Hamilton Bowen did a .577 cal Redhawk, and needed a specially issued permit for it's construction.

[ole 5 hole group]

Someone will (of course) correct me if I'm worng, but I believe there is some goofy Federal law prohibiting anything over .50 cal. It's classified as a "destructive device" or some such foolishness. I believe Hamilton Bowen did a .577 cal Redhawk, and needed a specially issued permit for it's construction.

Haaa, but a bore can be measured two ways. Ever wonder why the 50BMG is legal? The big 50's measure .510" from the grooves but only .500" from the lands.

[Whitworth]

Haaa, but a bore can be measured two ways. Ever wonder why the 50BMG is legal? The big 50's measure .510" from the grooves but only .500" from the lands.

Save for the .500 Linebaugh and the .500 Maximum (and .50 Alaskan as it is actually a rifle round), which are both .510 diameter........

[dubber123]

I believe all those listed are still considered a "50 caliber". I am quite sure about that goofy law. I believe I read something about S&W saying their X-frame was big enough for a larger cal, but they couldn't legally make it, so they stuck with the .50. I wish someone had a link to the law.

[warf73]

To my understanding it's illegal for us common people to own anything larger than a rifled .729” dai. When I was tring to buy a rifled barrel for my 10ga.(.775”) I was told it was illegal. Anything larger than an a rifled 12 ga(.729”) is considered a destructive device per BATF, unless the law has changed.

[warf73]

I like the idea of the 480 Ruger and shooting a 400gr boolit running around 1000 fps.I'm guessing that a 400gr slug running 850~900fps could be shot all day long (pure guessing on my part) at paper, cans or the odd cotton tail rabbit. So the 454 is out of the running.

[warf73]

OK here is what I’ve found in 480 Ruger.

Ruger SRH NIB $639
Ruger SRH used $595
Tauras used $500 this one is an aprox price as the auction is still going.
BFR NIB $855
BFR used $795


I’m leaning to the Ruger SRH NIB seems the most sencable buy to me.

[Whitworth]

Get the .480 and never look back.......