480 Bisley, expecting too much?

[Rug480]

Maybe I just feel burned because grabagun decided to drop their prices on the 6.5” bisley by $55 a day after ordering mine at a price which was steady for two weeks but I just picked up her up today and some of the finish seems too poor imo.

Apr 2018 mfg per Ruger
After a little scrubbing and bit of oil she feels nice and tight, trigger has a little creep but nothing awful. She is much more lively in hand than my super redhawk by a long stretch. Picking up the bisley right after handling the SRH helps make it clear why everyone wanted 480 in a bisley. Grips are a little off but nothing that warrants immediate replacement. Throats seem a little bigger than the SRH, 476 sized cast go in without resistance, 477 give some.

All of the above is not a big deal to me, what irks me is the grinding marks on the grip frame and front sight base. I just don’t see this asymmetry or rough marks on the SRH which is a 2003 model, shoot maybe that was a good year. Any other SBH owners notice this level of craftsmanship on theirs? I’ll shoot mine some before I send in to Ruger. Still like the gun, just wanted to love it.

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[Lloyd Smale]

its a ruger. If you want perfect machining buck up 2k for a FA gun. A ruger for 600 bucks is a lot of gun for the money when compared to 2k plus for perfection

[Hickory]

This is a product that comes off an assembly line.
Workers are under a lot of pressure to turn out so many "pieces" every hour. Yes, enjoy your Ruger and be like the parent who sees no fault in their kids.

[osteodoc08]

The machining marks I could forgive. Seems to be status quo for ruger. The screw heads on the other hand.....id call Ruger for a few free replacements. Ham handed assembly.

I also have a 2003 SRH in the Target Gray finish. Love it. I have a slightly older SBH like yours. Machining is the same but screw heads are as they should be.

[Rug480]

Thanks for the input, wish I paid only $600 for mine..

[Loudenboomer]

I can over look a lot of the slight out side imperfections. My Bisley .480 came with the timing a bit off. Pulling back the hammer was kind of like kicking over my old shovel head Harley. I sent it back. Very happy with it now. Smoothest of all my Black Hawks, rivals the high end guns. They even installed the taller front site I asked for.

[5.7 MAN]

My 6.5" gun had a few finish issues but nowhere near as bad as those, the worst of which was inside the frame window. I sold it when the shorter barreled guns were released.

my 4 5/8" gun is much better in every way.

[DougGuy]

My Q with the 480, why the sharp and abrupt 45 degree chamfer into the throats instead of the longer typical 6 degree chamfer like every other revolver has? Did they think there would never be a cast boolit put through these guns? Yes they do ring the chambers with lead and true to form with Ruger, they need reaming to 6 degrees to cure the problem..

[nicholst55]

The OP should hope that his gun isn't glued together with red Loctite, like at least one other example that I'm aware of was. Literally, whoever assembled that gun applied red Loctite (in excessive quantities) to nearly every mating surface and all screw threads.

My 6.5" .480 had some relatively minor finish problems, similar to the OP's. I immediately sent mine off to Hamilton Bowen for his Perfected Bisley treatment, and he corrected the poor contouring and polishing while he had it. Once I return to the States, I will be sending my cylinder to Doug for his attention.

[Rug480]

Well dang, after looking at another 480 and a 454 in person, canted front sights, grip panels waay off the frame, rough machining on the cylinder latches; I'll have to eat my words and recant my thoughts on mine. You gents were right and I do not want to discourage others from getting one of these, just may need to examine in person. I called Ruger for grip frame screws, and true to form, no questions asked. I still have yet to shoot her, have some 440's loaded, itching for a test drive. She's much classier than I gave her credit for and a keeper.

[lefty o]

ruger's quality has dropped severely over the last many years. fan of ruger , and i used to be one , dont like to hear it, but its true. ruger's goal in life is to shove as many guns out the door as possible, in as short of time as possible. i bought my last new ruger 5 or 6 yrs ago, and ill never buy another.

[megasupermagnum]

ruger's quality has dropped severely over the last many years. fan of ruger , and i used to be one , dont like to hear it, but its true. ruger's goal in life is to shove as many guns out the door as possible, in as short of time as possible. i bought my last new ruger 5 or 6 yrs ago, and ill never buy another.

5 or 6 years ago, all companies were struggling bad to keep up with demand. Ruger quality in the past 2 years is as good as it has been in 20 years. I must be blind, because I don't see anything wrong in those pictures besides a mucked up screw head. Maybe my standards are not that high, but that Bisely is a great looking gun! I agree, the price is a little steep just because of the caliber.

[Ramjet-SS]

I stopped loading this caliber to top end years ago. I purchased a Mihec mould 370 grain deep HP GC and load it to right around 1000 FPS. Easy on me tough on the deer and other game. I shoot my two lever guns in 480 more than the handguns. It's a great caliber and when loaded down is hoot to shoot and still is very very effective. The above load will penetrate deep into wet news print after a good disruption after 2" the base wad cutter continues to 22" in most cases.

[Tripplebeards]

That's the way they come. If you send it back it will probably come back worse. I sent a vaquero in Because it wasn't polished around the front sight and the grips didn't fit correctly...twice. It came back with scratches and swirl marks and the grips are worse than when they started.

I had two others I sent into them for fit and finish issues and neither were resolved. I accepted that ruger makes cheap mass production firearms and it is what it is. I have to give them an A plus on trying to address the problems there but I think who ever they have doing the repairs dose not either care. Their fit and finish quality had gone down the tubes in the last decade.

I've learned not to buy internet Rugers and to get them somewhere I can put my hands on them to inspect the firearm. Don't get me wrong, I like their products, I've just learned over the last couple of years not to expect a quality fit and finish firearm out of them anymore.

[Tripplebeards]

Between the time of my last post and now I just polished up a bolt and trigger of a brand new ruger American 06'. It was a friends he dropped off to me that he purchased a week ago. When I disassembled the barrel assembly from the action bluing was missing and rust was all over the action where it touched the pressure points. It was swimming in oil and it still didn't help. All in all its a nice rifle for the money.

[Markbo]

The only complaint I has about mine was the grips. One call and a new set was sent out. New ones fit MUCH better and the old ones fit another Bisley in tne stable with ill fitting grips. Win - win! ;)

[Bigslug]

That does look like they stopped about two levels of grit shy of where they should have, which is odd, considering that it's a CAST gun. Kinda reminds one of early WWII get-it-out-the-door-and-on-the-line weapons. This would be cool if it was a "WAR FINISH" Webley, but for peacetime commercial, not so much.

All I can say is we've probably brought it on ourselves. If you produce art, people will complain about the price. If you produce for a price point, people will complain about the quality.

[Beagle333]

Well I can't say that mine was really economical, but it showed up with several blems on it that looked like it had been sand cast. I got it when they were first released and had to wait for them to be available. I think mine was somewhere around $900.
Here's a couple of pics of why I sent it back. I think there were a total of 6 bad places on the finish.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt214/shutupandjump/480%20ruger/480-1_zpscag1y9eg.jpg

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt214/shutupandjump/480%20ruger/480-3_zpsf6xjdq8q.jpg

They didn't argue. They promptly sent me a new one that had no flaws that I can find. I was disappointed that I got a lemon after paying that price, but can't complain about the service after they were made aware that it passed QC looking like that.

[GL49]

Well...... it wouldn't bother me. But that's just me. The last one I was watching on Gunbroker went for $550, if I could get one that looks like yours for that price, it makes me think my pretty FA 454 casull wasn't worth it. (Now I feel burned). My pretty revolver only goes to the range, gets cleaned every time it's shot, lives in a padded case, only is set down on the shooting bench on a soft cloth, never is packed in a holster when I'm hunting rocky ground. I've only packed my FA one time out in the hills, and every brushy, rocky, nasty hillside I was on I worried about the dang revolver.
I'll pick up one like yours someday, that's a revolver I can USE. It's not perfect, but then after a few years in the woods, mine is gonna look worse, I just know it's going to happen.
Let us know how it shoots, that's 85% of everthing anyway. If it shoots, I'll make it a point to get one sooner, rather than later.

[Walks]

FREEDOM ARMS makes a BEAUTIFUL Gun. It's so wonderfully tight I have to carry cotton swabs to clean out the rim recesses in the cylinder.
One tiny piece of unburned powder and the round won't chamber and the cylinder will tie up. I rarely get to fire a half of a box without cleaning out those rim recesses. Perfection can be a pain. But then it throws those 45 cal 300gr slugs into less then 2 inches at 50yds if I do my part. 30yrs without a single problem.