480 Ruger vs 475/480 BFR

[blue360cuda]

So go figure, I've wanted to get a Ruger SBH hunter in 44 for a veeeery long time and finally was able to pick on up 4 months ago. Before actually buying it I was doing a bunch of research and really fell inlove with the 480 Ruger. Sadly, only options were a Super Redhawk , BFR or custom. At the time I didn't know much about the BFR but have been reading more and more about em. Now, a few months after buying my SRH Hunter go figure, Ruger releases the 480 and 454 Blackhawk. Grrrr

I'm starting to warm up to the Hunter and do like it, its a really sweet rig and now starting to figure out some loads she likes. I know, I know a 44 mag will most likely do anything a 480 will do, and there's for sure a better selection of boolits available for 44. I'm not a caster as of yet, just reloading.

The bug is biting me though, and I have to ask . . . for those of you who own BFRs what do you think? The most obvious is the bisley vs plow handle grip, which I prefer the latter simply from how the bisley felt when I handled a few but have not shot any personally. What about shooting 480 in the 475 BFR cylinder? Any issues to speak of? Would be pretty cool to have the option of 475 atleast. . . They're within $100 or so of eachother. Hows quality for the BFR vs Ruger? Cylinder / barrel choke? Cyl gap? If I recall the BFR had a little faster twist rifling but not positive.

So who would you rather have Ruger 480 or BFR 480/475 and why?

[44man]

I have the .475 BFR and you will never make me part with it. No, it does not like .480 brass. I hate the Bisley. I prefer the BFR grips.
No revolver ever made has been as accurate as the BFR with proper twist rates and perfect dimensions.
I would want a Ruger Hunter in .480 with a hog leg, never a Bisley. Good caliber in the right gun. The .44 Hunter is prime. Ruger should speed the twist in the .480. The BFR is 1 in 15". I think the .480 should be faster.

[ole 5 hole group]

As for your question - 475 Linebaugh in the BFR, as it's just a better platform in my opinion between the two you mentioned but both are excellent revolvers.

My advice for you would be to settle in with the 44 magnum and become very efficient with it. You appear to me anyway, of possessing early signs of that dreaded disease called "big bore syndrome" where you're on the lookout for something a little bigger & better. The only known cure for that disease is either running out of money or winding up with something you can't handle or would prefer not to shoot on a regular basis.

I wish you the very best in your pursuit of that handgun that might provide a cure to that BBS disorder/aliment or whatever that itch is called.;)

[blue360cuda]

44 man - thanks as always, much appreciate your insight and experience

5-hole - haha this is true, when I saw that you can order a BFR in 50 beowulf it got me thinking of a companion pistol for my ARES defense lower / DMPS upper 50 Beo, eh hem, 12.7X42mm, i built using the Midway ar-stoner 18" barrel. Now that is a fun rifle! Accurate to boot, solid 1 hole groups at 50 and no problem keeping 1-1 1/2 at 100 yds. Only thing not a fan of for BFR in 50 beo is that long cylinder, don't know, just looks goofy to me, not a fan. I think a black "murdered out" BFR in 475 would be killer. How about a 480 cylinder for the BFR? Do they make such a thing?

[Ramjet-SS]

just get the 475 you can load down to the 480 levels but when you need lotsa power you got it.

BFR are fine handguns well made and tight.

I am loading for my 475 tonight a 400 Grain cast HP over 14.0 grains of unique should be dandy load. A easy on me killer on deer........

[44man]

No need for a .480 in the BFR. Most amazing gun ever made as is.

[dubber123]

BFR's are very well made, and will almost assuredly be a good shooter. Not the best finished,but not bad. They have cheesy sights/grips, but both are easily changed. Will likely need trigger work, but so will the Ruger. If I got the .475, I wouldn't bother with the .480, just download to suit you. I've worked a good bit with 2 different .475's, and they do just fine with reduced loads.

[nockhunter]

I wouldn't mind a BFR in 30-30 win.

Mike

[Whiterabbit]

Only thing not a fan of for BFR in 50 beo is that long cylinder, don't know, just looks goofy to me, not a fan.

It does look goofy. Very, very goofy. The problem is the gripframe is too small for the revolver frame. However, that is rectifiable by using the pao ferro oversized grips.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=146929&d=1439911874

If you still think it lacks visual balance, then there's not likely anything you can do to fix the goofiness. I find it to be quite proportional (not to mention very comfortable) with these grips.


I think a black "murdered out" BFR in 475 would be killer. Do they make such a thing?

They did for hollywood....

http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/d/d1/Looper-oldjoebfr.jpg/800px-Looper-oldjoebfr.jpg

[Lloyd Smale]

ruger is making 480 blackhawks now. You might want to take a look at them.

[44man]

The BFR is just a big Ruger but a better barrel and fit up better.
My favorite Rugers are the SRH and Hunter. I will never part with my SBH though.
I found accuracy of the .475 BFR is better with the longer case so it would be best to stay with that and reduce loads to the .480, HS-6 proved very accurate.
Full power loads can be a beast with a lot of torque from the bench but once you see deer belly up before out of recoil, you will not understand. I expect the .480 to work as well and meat loss is nothing.
I would suggest if you want a .480, just get a pure .480 but you might have trouble getting your hands on the new Ruger and those I seen are Bisley. I have an aversion to that because of my huge knuckle. I shot 82# bows so my knuckle might be 3X larger then most. I would love to see the SRH with a 5 shot cylinder.
I know some hate the rubber BFR grips but they work the best for me.

[DougGuy]

Blue, hold your horses (and your $$) wait until Gary Reeder puts this in a handcannon and buy one:

"Now the biggest of them all, our 610 GNR. This monster killer is based on the 577 Snider case, which is readily available, necked up straight to .620 caliber. It shoots a 550 grain bullet at 1900 fps. More power than the 460 Weatherby cartridge but the recoil of a 12 gauge magnum shotgun. This one is chambered in the Ruger #1 rifle. Dies and data are available"

[44man]

Doug, you make me laugh.

[Lloyd Smale]

anything over 50 cal is considered a destructive device and cant be chambered in a handgun

[44man]

anything over 50 cal is considered a destructive device and cant be chambered in a handgun
Another stupid law Did you see the .600 Nitro Express revolver?
I guess the libtards think recoil will destroy buildings
Watch Russian videos, they can do more then we can. Drones to destroy cars.

[blue360cuda]

haha i don't know if I'll be lining up to buy a 610 anytime soon. . . I was attracted to the 480 since it's a low pressure round and can sling a bigger boolit than the 44 without abusive recoil. Biggest pistols I have fired so far are a 454 Taurus and 45-70 TC encore. They didn't bother me but I'm not interested in 500 S&W or 460. Think the long cyl BFRs look kind of goofy so eventually when I get one it will be either 454 or 480/475, maybe a custom short cyl 45LC. When I finally finish school i may have to save up and treat myself to a freedom arms one of these days. . . one of these days

so far my favorite rounds are 44mag, 45 LC and the 480. I think anything bigger should have a buttstock and i'm not interested, personally.

[DougGuy]

IF and I say IF I get another big bore, it will be a 5 shot in .50 Special on a Vaquero of some sort.

What I really want to do is a fully antiqued 5 1/2" medium framed Vaquero in .45 Schofield, I have some very early Ruger factory ivories and would build the gun just to have something to mount those on.

[Whiterabbit]

Exactly why I bought a pair of vaquero. Hopefully mine can be a 510 flavor above the special though.

I have to say though, after I got the vaquero it is hard for me to feel like the BFR is a ruger with better barrel and better fitup. The trigger, yes. But even that, my BFR does with irons at 25 offhand what hte vaquero does at 10 yards offhand. And half that at 50 yards rested, and same group at 100 yards scoped rested.

not exactly apples to oranges I know, but the apples to apples, I get 2.5 times the distance out of the BFR, and I think that can be increased even more. If the BFR is just a ruger with better barrel and better fitup, then the barrel and fitup account for ALOT.

ALOT alot.

Which is why I would strongly consider a BFR 475 over a ruger 480, even given the ruger comes with the bisley grip (which I prefer as a grip, hate the hammer.)

[shorty500M]

Fitment has much more to do with getting great accuracy! Linebaugh tried a large selection of barrels on a single gun ranging in his words from crudely made home-rifled tubes to the best match grades available once-- the better barrels fouled less but on a properly fitted revolver they all shot good

[Whiterabbit]

Maybe I should try to thread my own barrel then for fun. Find a 45 cal rifle barrel, make a joker-from-batman-1 length revolver out of the BFR...

[Lloyd Smale]

I agree with you and certainly wont argue with John but ive seen it both ways. Ive owned linebored guns with match barrels that shot fantastic and ive had them that shot average. Ive had out of the box rugers that have shot great and ones that shot average and even a couple that did poor. One 45 vaquero I had that was so loose after shooting BIG loads for years that it sounded like a rattle when you shook it. That gun shot fantastic but it bothered me that it was getting so loose so I sent it to a very reputable gunsmith to put a new match barrel on and fit it up tighter. It wasn't linebored it was fitted up like John does them. He doesn't linebore (at least didn't use to) The gun came back and went from an exceptional shooter to just an average shooter. So there can be more at work here then just fitting. John himself said that he can build 5 guns with the same barrels and same fitting and 4 will be exceptional and one might not be and he himself doesn't even have the answers to why. Point of this is that just because a sixgun is fit up tight and precise its no real guarantee its going to be a one hole gun at 50 yards. Chances are it will at least be a decent shooting gun but theres no guarantees.

I had two guns built at the same time by a reputable gunsmith. Both on old model rugers. One a 41 mag that was just punched out to 41 and had a new 41 cal barrel on put on it. The other a 44 special that was a full custom linebored guns. The 41 hands down outshoots the 44 special. Ill also add that the two most accurate handguns ive ever shot (neither mine) were a super redhawk 44 mag and a 44 mag Blackhawk hunter. Both owned by different people and both would shoot groups at a 100 yards that a guy with a bolt rifle would be proud of. Ive got right now 8 custom sixguns and five guns in the safe and wouldn't put a single one up against those two sixguns.
Fitment has much more to do with getting great accuracy! Linebaugh tried a large selection of barrels on a single gun ranging in his words from crudely made home-rifled tubes to the best match grades available once-- the better barrels fouled less but on a properly fitted revolver they all shot good

[Ed K]

I was attracted to the 480 since it's a low pressure round and can sling a bigger boolit than the 44 without abusive recoil.

I'd suggest you look into this further. This is not really true. What is true is that just about any 45 and on up cartridge can be loaded for lower recoil than a SAAMI pressure loaded 44 magnum. However the 480 loaded to proper spec is in reality considerably more powerful ( and accordingly abusive) than a 44. In fact, loaded to spec there is precious little difference between it and the 475L.

[44man]

The very hardest guns I have worked with were those fit so tight nothing moved. Pins and cylinders dead tight.
BFR's still have a small amount of play but what I found by measuring many, mine and friends guns, are that bore and groove plus throats have all been on the money. Barrels are Badger and hand lapped. Castings and internal parts are all made by Ruger's Pine Tree foundry. Triggers need the same treatment as Ruger but the precision shop ones need nothing. Mine has never been apart except to put the Wolfe hammer spring in.
My friend bought a Ruger Hunter in .44, I did the trigger and put his Ultra Dot on it. HE shot 1/2" groups at 50 as he sighted it. I can't complain about Rugers at all. My SRH would do 1/2" out of box. Never had to do a thing to it. With a scope I could shoot beer cans at 200.

[ole 5 hole group]

My SRH would do 1/2" out of box. Never had to do a thing to it. With a scope I could shoot beer cans at 200.

Ya know Jim, I was doing that last week in fact - I fired 30 rounds of 500 JRH at those small 12 ounce beer cans with the lupy set at 8X. I killed a couple, knocked a couple over from the boolit kicking sand but I missed most - the youngsters didn't give me any credit for coming close. Took me 10 rounds to sight in at 200, so I felt comfortable with the X-hair. I then tried off-hand and all cans were safe. I fired a total of 50 rounds that day at 200 yards and the kids fired 100 rounds total, cans were pretty safe but when we went for paper targets at 50 yards - those targets caught hell from all.

My wrist barked at me for a couple days afterward.

Next time out with the heavies, I'll have to take the 500 Linebaugh Maximum for a spin, but we'll be sending 440's downrange at 1,000fps so I can enjoy myself without complaining and whining to much. It's just an iron sighted beast, so any 200 yard shooting will basically be wasting powder & shot to see who can come closest to a small but visible target. To my eyes, even wearing prescription shooting glasses, a beer can blends into the berm pretty well. On a sunny day - florescent green shows up well - takes about a 10" square for me.;)

[44man]

I have not shot the JRH at 200 yet, range needs mowed. I have the Ultra Dot on and am curious about drop out there. A target that I can see is tough to find since my backstop is in the shade.
I never adjust the red dots once sighted for deer, I hate those funny adjustments, they never follow what they are supposed to do. I just aim high or put a target above what I am shooting at.
Have you figured from scope clicks about how much drop there is between 50 and 200?

[chuckbuster]

I just can't decide
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/CBMJake/IMG_0355.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/CBMJake/media/IMG_0355.jpg.html)

Waiting for the SBH Bisley .480 to come in (unlike 44man I like the bisley grip especially with "Bearpaw" grip upgrade). Keep in mind that it is 6.5" Five Shot, no scope mount provision. The BFR comes Drilled and Tapped with a base so all set up to mount optics if you want or need.

Kevin

[Whiterabbit]

I gotta go with the bottom one there, Chuck.

[ole 5 hole group]

I have not shot the JRH at 200 yet, range needs mowed. I have the Ultra Dot on and am curious about drop out there.
Have you figured from scope clicks about how much drop there is between 50 and 200?

Not really, but I have a WAG. The revolver normally is not scoped but when we took it out I put on the 2.5X8X32 Leupold intending to shoot 100 yard groups but one thing lead to another and we decided to shoot at beer/pop cans at 200. Fired one shot at 25 yards to get the X-hair aligned vertically and then fired a couple shots at 200 looking for dirt strikes - I was high at 25 by about 4/5 inches or so but I was around 3 feet or so low at 200, so I just held at my aiming point and adjusted the X-hair to my strike point and then fired several more to get it where I thought I could hit those cans. I don't remember what revolver I had that scope on last and don't recall if the last shots fired were at 50 or 100 yards the last time I used it. That scope normally gets used on the 454 and 500 JRH BFR's, 500 S&W and the FA 45 Colt. CRS is a normal condition for me most of the time.

If my memory is correct it took a full revolution and then a little to get there and when we backed down to 50 I held at the bottom of the target and repeated aligning the scope. This leupy has 15 moa per revolution at 100 yards with quarter minute clicks, so a good guess would be 75 or a few more or less clicks? The bullet strike from 200 to 50 looked like 24 to 30 inches - somewhere in there. Our velocity from that 6" barrel was chronographed several years ago at 1,253 fps that's a 440 grain in front of 28.0 grains of IMR-4227.

Next time out we'll bring the 500 JRH and count the clicks but I think we'll use a "softer" load - maybe 14 grains of HS-6 as that gets right at 976 fps with a 6" barrel, while the 15 grain load does 1,033 fps - 976 is very enjoyable compared to 1,253 fps.

[44man]

I will test mine, it should not be that much. I sight at 50 and am only an inch or less low at 100.
Shooting water bottles at 100, I aimed at the upper half and darned if I didn't hit right there.
That big boolit will carry. I would expect about 18" at 200. Same as my .475.
The 45-70 BFR drops 16" and my big .44 boolit drops 35" with 50 yard settings. But the 330 gr .44 is kind of large for the caliber.
Had trouble with the old mower when I cut the 100 yards, deck is low so I need to check air in tires before I do the rest. I cut sticks and stones with the deck raised. I had to check the hook up and it is fine. The weeds to 200 are 2' high!
I need a new seat for 200 too, the old one rotted away.
Now you know why I did not shoot there.

[ole 5 hole group]

A lot could depend on your weight, meplate and velocity. I think you shoot a 400 grain. My 440 grain is moving out pretty good buts it's got a 90% meplate - it's the ole Range Rick bullet but shoots well to 100. Grouping at 200 is hit or miss, as I'm no longer able to get my timing down for much over 50 yards to shoot those tiny bug holes with a great handgun & heavy load. I know what I use to do but what I can do today is a bit different unless Lady Luck is with me for a group or two at those ranges. She leaves pretty quick after a great group at 100 or 200. Calling fliers just doesn't cut it.


I'm pretty sure I could hit more cans at that range if they would just put them closer to each other.;)

[44man]

Mine is 440 gr with an 80% meplat. Meplat does not mean a whole lot with a revolver. Spin is where it is.

[americano]

anything over 50 cal is considered a destructive device and cant be chambered in a handgun
testing first post anthor x lineman Infantry for God and needed a big Gun 45 70 bfr back ordered bought 2 others a 50 sw and a bfr 50sw hodgdon has tight group listed for 8 bullets but mine are 330 gr lead ply coated any feed back my plan was to load start at 15% under the 11 gr of tight group and work up 2 gr at a time, any feed back appreciated. There is one guy saying another guy blew up his sw 50 with 17 grains but he didn't say what bullet , they staring load was 11 grains with a metal jacket 275gr and 350 same but another kinda bullet. gonna try after hodgdons get back to be hope next week seems to me I can start with 8.5 gr powder with no problems any feed back sure be welcome on real experience not bs, thanks for any real experiences

[Whiterabbit]

real world. I prefer slow powders like H110 for the S&W cartridges. I did not like AA#9 but H110 is spectacular.