Best bullet weight for 480 Ruger?

[cmonti77]

Hello,

First time posting here. I'm interested in getting into casting my own 480 Ruger bullets, and am in search of some advice on what the most ideal weight for the caliber. I'm taking a good look at the different size molds that Accurate Molds offers, and am leaning towards a 385 grain plain base mold. I recall
reading somewhere that many reloaders felt 385 grains was the most efficient all around bullet weight for the 480 Ruger. What do you guys think? If you were going to cast that particular caliber in only one weight, how many grains would it be and why? Thanks in advance for any replies.

- Chris

[Mica_Hiebert]

I like my 400 grain... I have a mould that is supposed to cast 385 but its just a hair under 400 with gas check and lube i don't see 15 grains making that big of a difference. I like heavy cast bullets with a flat nose if i want smoking fast ill go with a lighter jacketed bullet but most of my cast are heavies for all calibers 400 isnt the heaviest you can go with the 480 I think some mold makers go clear up to 460gn but the 400s suit me just fine.

[scottfire1957]

Well, what weights do the ammo companies load? Seems like a good place to start. They have already done most of the figuring.

[Mica_Hiebert]

not really, they load 275-325gn for 90% of the 480 loads which makes for some impressive velocity numbers with jacketed bullets but totally different animal with cast. I found the 400 grain jacketed bullets at 480 velocity dont expand reliably I believe they where designed for linebaugh velocities.

[scottfire1957]

not really, they load 275-325gn for 90% of the 480 loads which makes for some impressive velocity numbers with jacketed bullets but totally different animal with cast.

That's great. But your ideal bullet with your gun might be different than his.

The bullet, powder, pistol manufacturers really have worked at this. I don't have a .480, but I presume reloading data is available. He is, according to his post, looking for the "ideal" weight. Is your 400gr "ideal?"

[nicholst55]

A lot depends upon your intended use of the gun. Are you hunting large animals, or punching paper? I no longer hunt, so a 400 grain bullet is probably overkill for my purposes. However, I can easily launch 325 grain bullets with either a .44 Mag or a .45 Colt. I think a 375-410 grain bullet is probably a very useful weight for the .480. Maybe not necessary, but I think its about optimum.

[Mica_Hiebert]

To the O.P. I guess what I meant to say was In my gun (7.5 inch super red hawk) a 395 grain (air cooled Wheel Weight) WFNGC over 21g of H110 with CCI Mag primer traveling 1250 FPS is ideal for my purposes such as shooting every thing from ground squirrel to Sasquatches and the occasional steel plate when they go on the attack! It usually rings them dead right there! also does double duty for splitting fire wood rounds at camp! Your results with your particular gun and target choice may vary.

[Viper225]

I started with a 325 grain Lee Mold. Next came the 400 grain Lee. I have killed a few deer with this bullet, and it works just fine. Mold #3 I designed on the Mountain Mold site to be my ideal all round 480 Ruger bullet. It is a 375 Grain with 70% Meplat, set up for Hornady Gas Checks, with a large single grease groove. It also takes some lube above the gas check.
After going through my first 1000 Hornady Gas Checks, I got a Pat Marlin 480 Gas Check Maker.
I am now using .014 aluminum gas checks.
For deer and hogs any weight that shoots well and has at least a 70% Meplat will work fine. The 325 Lee has a mixed reputation. Some swear by it, and some say it is inaccurate at range due to the short length and huge Meplat. It is a good looking bullet. Lee apparently sells plenty of them, or they would have quit making them. So that get you to the point of trying them. The new designed 2 cavity Lee is Waaaaay Better than the old molds. And they are cheap. Get one, Soap & Water wash it, pre heat it a few cycles on a hot plate, Smoke the Cavities with a Bic, Cast a couple fills till you have 2 well filled cavities, then put the 2 Cycle Husky lube on the Sprue plate and alignment pins lightly and cast a few hot ones to try.
I would recommend checking out Mountain Molds site before ordering. If you have a handle on what you want. It is no problem to design a bullet you will really like. One thing I think you will really like is the sprue plate on a Mountain Mold. They are extra thick, and have a really nice fill hole reservoirs. My advice is to request separate fill holes, and not the design with the trough between the holes.

Bob

[white eagle]

When I had a 480 Rug I settled on around 400 gr.
for the case it seemed the best all around weight
for my intended purposes

[Lloyd Smale]

385-400 seems to be a sweet spot. Any less and penetration suffers any more and my hand suffers.

[DiamondD]

A lot depends upon your intended use of the gun. Are you hunting large animals, or punching paper? I no longer hunt, so a 400 grain bullet is probably overkill for my purposes. However, I can easily launch 325 grain bullets with either a .44 Mag or a .45 Colt. I think a 375-410 grain bullet is probably a very useful weight for the .480. Maybe not necessary, but I think its about optimum.

I agree with that. You can buy 325 @ 1300fps but why do that with the .480 when I can do the same thing with my .45 Colt. I too don't see much use for a .480 that weighs less than 375-400.

Dean

[paul h]

Best weight for what? I lost track but figure I have ~5000 rounds through my 480. For my working load I settled on 21.0 gr of H-110 lit off by a CCI 350 under a 390-410 gr cast bullet. I've tried that load with nearly a dozen different bullet designs in that weight range and every one of them would clock ~1200 fps from my 7 1/2" SRH and shoot one ragged hole groups at 25 yds. To me that's an honest 30% increase in bullet weight and frontal area over the 44 mag, yet recoil is in the same ballpark albeit just a bigger push. I've throttled appropriately designed 400's to ~1350 fps, but recoil increases exponentially so I happily throttled back my load.

My practice load was a 300-320 gr cast over ~10 gr of Unique for ~1000 fps and the same accuracy. Not a powder puff load by any means but much milder in recoil.

In the 480 I've cast and worked up loads for bullets from 170-460 gr, velocities of 700-1450 fps. But that's when I was in my experimental days and when there was almost no published data. Then I whittled things down to what works.

[Three44s]

I have two molds:

The RCBS 400 gr. SWC and the Mihec 476 and I believe it's around 420 in flat nose form ......... got the pins with it.

If I want a coyote gun I'll run something smaller.

Three 44s

[Tatume]

In my experience a 325 grain bullet at 1450 fps is comfortable to shoot in the Ruger SRH and Freedom Arms M83. Hodgdon lists its max 480 Ruger loads of H110/W296 with a 355 grain cast bullet at about this speed, for an increase in recoil of about 15%. For extended practice, this would be my choice.

[Tom W.]

Before I foolishly sold my SRH I settled on the RCBS 400 gr cast on boolit . I had a 2x Leupold and could easily break clay pigeons offhand at a measured 100 yards offhand. Recoil was not any more than my .44...

[tigweldit]

What a bunch of good advice from what is obviously a bunch of intelligent people. This is what this site is about. Now I want a .480. Darn you!

[DougGuy]

You fellas should be checking fitment in the cylinder throats as well, take your sized boolit and see if it will go into the throats from the front with finger pressure. If it won't, two things are happening.

First off, the throats are now sizing down your boolits to whatever their diameter is, and secondly pressure is rising because of this resistance. I would not consider the rise in pressure an issue unless you are using extremely hard alloys, and are pushing the envelope pretty hard.

The 480 is not much different than other production guns Ruger makes, it seems to be hit or miss whether a .476" or .477" boolit will go into the throats with finger pressure or has to be beat through. No rhyme or reason to it.

There is also the growth during age hardening, the longer boolits of the 480 and 500 calibers will grow further in diameter than 44 mag and 45 Colt heavyweights. It's not unusual to see these big bore heavies grow .0015" as they sit on a shelf after casting and sizing. If you experience this after processing a run of boolits, I could suggest a smaller sizer, and allowing the boolits time to grow to achieve best fitment. With the high pressures these big bores operate with, I would ream cylinder throats only if necessary, i.e. throats too close to groove diameter or throat diameters that are uneven, but I would caution against reaming them much further than .002" over groove diameter, .0025" at the very most.

[warf73]

The 480 is not much different than other production guns Ruger makes, it seems to be hit or miss whether a .476" or .477" boolit will go into the throats with finger pressure or has to be beat through. No rhyme or reason to it.

Yup my SRH in 480 has .477 cylinder, good thing is all 6 holes mic at .4768.

As for the OP I had to drop the Lee 400gr mold since it dropped .476ish (both molds). Had Tom make me a 385gr mold that drops nice boolits right at .478 and size back down to .4774.
All my shooting has been done at 100 yards with iron sights off the bench, best I can do is 5" groups. Did get a red dot just haven't sighted it in to see if that helps me out. I running near max load for a 400gr boolit using the 385gr boolit and H110.

[mtnman31]

I'm a big fan of the Lee 400gr RF bullet. It works very well and is inexpensive to buy. I've tried other weights/designs, but not enough to have a strong opinion one way or the other. If you are just starting out with the 480, get the Lee. If by some slim chance it can't do what you need/want, you are out a whole 25 bucks.

[daloper]

I agree with mtnman31. I use the Lee 476-400-RF for my Ruger SRH. It is cheep to get started with and easy to cast. I just tumble lube them as I have not ordered a lube sizer for my star yet. It shoots very good with IMR 4227 behind it.