Flyboy_451
New member
I have been thinking about this particular cartridge a lot lately, and the thread on the .327 Federal provoked me to get others views on this seemingly failed cartridge.
It seems that the .480 is destined to slip silently into history with only a small number even really noticing it? It is sad to see that Ruger no longer lists any gun chambered specifically for this cartridge, but they do show the No. 1 being available in .475 Linebaugh/.480 Ruger. Little is heard about this cartridge at all, and a check of two local gun shops found exactly ZERO ammunition on hand. Probably not surprising, but nothing to celebrate either.
Before delving into why the .480 has faded from sight, please permit me to offer my view on why this cartridge could have been a great one. I have been a fan of big bore revolvers for as long as I can remember. There is just something very comforting and satisfying about having a gun of solid design and respected history on your hip. Add a large bore and it only gets better. There are few tasks that a big bore sixgun cannot handle, and not just the hand cannons such as the .500 Smith. Even a .45 Colt loaded with black powder equivalent loads is no slouch.
The .480 is really nothing more than a a .475 Linebaugh Special, but why should this relegate it to the list of cartridges left behind? For any of you that have not shot a full power .475 Linebaugh, make no mistake, we are talking about RECOIL! MY 5 1/4" BFR will launch .420 grain bullets at 1400fps. But, this is not the type of load that it sees most frequently. Full loads are fine when you are in pursuit of, or defending yourself from, large dangerous critters, but how often do we really need that level of performance? My general use load is that same 420 grain bullet at a sedate 950-1000fps. This load is not unpleasant to shoot and is capable of taking pretty much any critter on the continent with proper bullet placement, and is well within the performance envelope of the .480.
So, the .480 certainly has enough performance for nearly any chore we could ask of a handgun. It can be put into a gun that is of packable size. It can be downloaded to ridiculously mild velocities and recoil levels. It's easy to load for, whether you are wanting mild or wild. Cast and jacketed bullets are easily had in a wide array of weights and styles? So, what went wrong?
For what it is worth, here is my opinion. The .480 was a pretty well conceived cartridge that was poorly packaged and then marketed to the wrong crowd. It is also possible that it suffered from poor quality control on the part of Ruger in that I have heard, but not verified, that there were several issues of stuck cases in the Ruger revolvers.
First, the packaging; someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the only gun factory chambered by Ruger for the .480 was the Super Redhawk, with barrels of either 7 1/2 or 9 1/2 inches. The strength of the Super Redhawk is unquestioned, but the damned thing is as big as a Chevy Suburban, and weighs almost as much! I think a much more popular choice would have been to chamber the Blackhawk series as a five shooter. After all, it was the .475 Linebaugh, frequently built on the Blackhawk frames, that gave birth to the idea of the .480. John Linebaugh, Hamilton Bowen, Dave Clements, and many others have been making a good living for a lot of years doing these conversions, and I would venture a guess that they get very few requests for 9 1/2" barrels on their custom guns. So, why would Ruger think that there was some untapped market that was going to snatch up the .480, chambered in a gun that is nearly as large and heavy as a carbine length rifle?
Marketed to the wrong crowd? Absolutely! This fits into the previous discussion about packaging. It seems that there are three basic groups that buy the truly BIG BORE handguns. The first are those who actually use these guns in the field. Avid hunters and outdoorsmen that require a truly powerful handgun that can be easily carried afield. This is the group that Ruger, in my opinion, ignored. We had no desire to lug an anchor into the field with us. We wanted a practical, powerful handgun that carried easily on the trail, usually as a back-up rather than a primary gun. This is not what they offered us.
The second group, are those who want to have the biggest baddest hand cannon out there, but will probably only use it at the range or to laugh at their non-shooter friends when they unwittingly touch off one of these big boomers. This group is not primarily made up of serious shooters, but it appears that this is who Ruger was targeting with the .480/Redhawk.
The third group is also, by my estimation, the smallest group. This group are the ones who will actually carry a large, long barreled handgun into the field as a primary haunting gun. This group is closely related to the first, but has a different preference in handguns. There is nothing wrong with this group, I just don't think that they make up a large enough contingent (even when combined with group 2) to support the manufacturing of a gun available in such limited configurations.
I also mentioned possible quality control problems with the Ruger Guns. Bear in mind, that I have no first hand knowledge of this, and am only seaking about the possibility because of reports that I have seen circulated on the net regarding difficult extraction of spent cases. One of the leading causes of difficulty ejecting cases in the high power/pressure revolvers is chambers that are cut too large. This requires the case to stretch a great deal to seal the chamber. This expansion often overworks the brass to the point that it cannot rebound enough to allow for easy extraction. Ruger is pretty notorious for large chambers. With typical revolver cartridges, this is not much of an issue, but when the power level goes up, so do the instances of stuck cases. If this is the case with the reports of stuck cases, Ruger is fully at fault for either not understanding the nature of the problem, or not producing guns of proper dimension for reliable use.
The final nail in the coffin, so to speak, was that no other company that I am aware of, chambered any guns for the .480. Magnum Research and Freedom Arms both chambered guns in the .475 Linebaugh, which can shoot the .480 also, but it is only for the shooter that does not handload that this is an advantage. The .475 can easily be loaded down to .480 specs, and the cost of brass makes it undesirable to use both .475 an d.480 brass.
The .480 was a perfect solution for those who wanted the advantages of a big, heavy bullet, but did not need or want the full performance of the .475, if it would have been handled a little differently. Sadly, I think it may suffer a fate less glamorous than the .41 Remington Magnum. Both are fine cartridges that maybe just didn't get the chance the deserved for a variety of reasons.
What say you, big bore fans?
JW
It seems that the .480 is destined to slip silently into history with only a small number even really noticing it? It is sad to see that Ruger no longer lists any gun chambered specifically for this cartridge, but they do show the No. 1 being available in .475 Linebaugh/.480 Ruger. Little is heard about this cartridge at all, and a check of two local gun shops found exactly ZERO ammunition on hand. Probably not surprising, but nothing to celebrate either.
Before delving into why the .480 has faded from sight, please permit me to offer my view on why this cartridge could have been a great one. I have been a fan of big bore revolvers for as long as I can remember. There is just something very comforting and satisfying about having a gun of solid design and respected history on your hip. Add a large bore and it only gets better. There are few tasks that a big bore sixgun cannot handle, and not just the hand cannons such as the .500 Smith. Even a .45 Colt loaded with black powder equivalent loads is no slouch.
The .480 is really nothing more than a a .475 Linebaugh Special, but why should this relegate it to the list of cartridges left behind? For any of you that have not shot a full power .475 Linebaugh, make no mistake, we are talking about RECOIL! MY 5 1/4" BFR will launch .420 grain bullets at 1400fps. But, this is not the type of load that it sees most frequently. Full loads are fine when you are in pursuit of, or defending yourself from, large dangerous critters, but how often do we really need that level of performance? My general use load is that same 420 grain bullet at a sedate 950-1000fps. This load is not unpleasant to shoot and is capable of taking pretty much any critter on the continent with proper bullet placement, and is well within the performance envelope of the .480.
So, the .480 certainly has enough performance for nearly any chore we could ask of a handgun. It can be put into a gun that is of packable size. It can be downloaded to ridiculously mild velocities and recoil levels. It's easy to load for, whether you are wanting mild or wild. Cast and jacketed bullets are easily had in a wide array of weights and styles? So, what went wrong?
For what it is worth, here is my opinion. The .480 was a pretty well conceived cartridge that was poorly packaged and then marketed to the wrong crowd. It is also possible that it suffered from poor quality control on the part of Ruger in that I have heard, but not verified, that there were several issues of stuck cases in the Ruger revolvers.
First, the packaging; someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the only gun factory chambered by Ruger for the .480 was the Super Redhawk, with barrels of either 7 1/2 or 9 1/2 inches. The strength of the Super Redhawk is unquestioned, but the damned thing is as big as a Chevy Suburban, and weighs almost as much! I think a much more popular choice would have been to chamber the Blackhawk series as a five shooter. After all, it was the .475 Linebaugh, frequently built on the Blackhawk frames, that gave birth to the idea of the .480. John Linebaugh, Hamilton Bowen, Dave Clements, and many others have been making a good living for a lot of years doing these conversions, and I would venture a guess that they get very few requests for 9 1/2" barrels on their custom guns. So, why would Ruger think that there was some untapped market that was going to snatch up the .480, chambered in a gun that is nearly as large and heavy as a carbine length rifle?
Marketed to the wrong crowd? Absolutely! This fits into the previous discussion about packaging. It seems that there are three basic groups that buy the truly BIG BORE handguns. The first are those who actually use these guns in the field. Avid hunters and outdoorsmen that require a truly powerful handgun that can be easily carried afield. This is the group that Ruger, in my opinion, ignored. We had no desire to lug an anchor into the field with us. We wanted a practical, powerful handgun that carried easily on the trail, usually as a back-up rather than a primary gun. This is not what they offered us.
The second group, are those who want to have the biggest baddest hand cannon out there, but will probably only use it at the range or to laugh at their non-shooter friends when they unwittingly touch off one of these big boomers. This group is not primarily made up of serious shooters, but it appears that this is who Ruger was targeting with the .480/Redhawk.
The third group is also, by my estimation, the smallest group. This group are the ones who will actually carry a large, long barreled handgun into the field as a primary haunting gun. This group is closely related to the first, but has a different preference in handguns. There is nothing wrong with this group, I just don't think that they make up a large enough contingent (even when combined with group 2) to support the manufacturing of a gun available in such limited configurations.
I also mentioned possible quality control problems with the Ruger Guns. Bear in mind, that I have no first hand knowledge of this, and am only seaking about the possibility because of reports that I have seen circulated on the net regarding difficult extraction of spent cases. One of the leading causes of difficulty ejecting cases in the high power/pressure revolvers is chambers that are cut too large. This requires the case to stretch a great deal to seal the chamber. This expansion often overworks the brass to the point that it cannot rebound enough to allow for easy extraction. Ruger is pretty notorious for large chambers. With typical revolver cartridges, this is not much of an issue, but when the power level goes up, so do the instances of stuck cases. If this is the case with the reports of stuck cases, Ruger is fully at fault for either not understanding the nature of the problem, or not producing guns of proper dimension for reliable use.
The final nail in the coffin, so to speak, was that no other company that I am aware of, chambered any guns for the .480. Magnum Research and Freedom Arms both chambered guns in the .475 Linebaugh, which can shoot the .480 also, but it is only for the shooter that does not handload that this is an advantage. The .475 can easily be loaded down to .480 specs, and the cost of brass makes it undesirable to use both .475 an d.480 brass.
The .480 was a perfect solution for those who wanted the advantages of a big, heavy bullet, but did not need or want the full performance of the .475, if it would have been handled a little differently. Sadly, I think it may suffer a fate less glamorous than the .41 Remington Magnum. Both are fine cartridges that maybe just didn't get the chance the deserved for a variety of reasons.
What say you, big bore fans?
JW