Hi All,

I have a friend who wants a big bore handgun without shrap recoil. Not consider the .454 Casull and .475 Linebaugh.

He hesitates between 2 Ruger handguns : one SRH in .480 Ruger and one Bisley SA in .45 Colt.

What is the best choice for great bullet selection, fun to shoot and most versatile caliber.

Many thanks in advance.

I'm not very familiar with the .480,,But think that the .45 colt would serve him well in all the criteria you mentioned.I have two .45 colts in my collection,A ruger valquero,and a contender.My house load for them both is 8.5 gr. of clays,under a 250 gr rnfp hardcast bullet,ignited by a wlr primer.Played around with some speer 300 gr jacketed bullets and win.296,,,,but the deer dropped flat the same way,,,so I've been sticking with the cheaper route.Whatever your buddy picks,,I hope he enjoys it!!!!Clay.

I agree with Paul that both are good rounds. I have both infact. I personally like the feel of the SRH 480 better than the Bisley. The Bisley pinches my middle finger knuckle. I have been thinking about taking the taper off the grip to see if that helps. If anyone else has this problem? If so how did you fix it? Because of this difference in grips he should handle both to see which is more comfortable. The bisley has more muzzle flip with the thinner barrel.

As for the cartridges if you check our Paul H post in the "You favorite Loads" It gives quite the insight on the 480. I have used these and they are great. The 480 has less choices in bullets. The 45 Colt has the more bullet choices. My 45 loads vary from light plinking one to the supercharged one for hunting. If he is going to use it as a Sunday shooter the 45 will win hands down. I am like Paul H and love the 480 power. Its bullet weight start at where the 45 stops.

The other thing is that if he doesn't reload the 480 has limited choices. The 45 has so much more factory choices. I think both are honeys. The 480 is more of a specialist round.

Hcliff

45 Colt is my favorite handgun round.Unuff said!

I'll agree with Paul H. As much as I love my 480, you'd better be a bullet caster and reloader to shoot it much . I have both 45 Colt Bisley and Blackhawk. The 480 being a Super Redhawk. It really is nice to shoot. As soon as I can get a "lightweight" 310-335gr mould for my 480 I'll be shooting lots of these @1000fps. These will work on 90% of North American game.

Mark

BER007,

As you know I love both these rounds but if I had to pick one on the criteria you listed, I would agree with the majority of the posts and pick the 45 Colt, but I would choose the standard Blackhawk over the Bisley, just personal prefference as both are great guns.

As far as which is most versatile, if your a handloader its a toss-up. One can shoot the light loads in the 45 Colt but one can also load a 325 gr pill in the 480 down to 800 fps and have an extremely mild recoiling load, especially in the massive SRH.

In the middle ground, the 45 Colt in a Ruger 6 shot can be loaded with a 255-300 gr bullets at 1300-1500 fps for big game hunting but the 480 can be loaded with a 325 gr bullet anywhere from factory spec 1350 fps to full tilt 1475 fps. Again both are equally well matched for medium to big game.

If heavy game is your thing, the 45 Colt can be loaded with a 325-360 gr hard cast to 1150-1300 fps and will handle anything on the planet. Likewise the 480 can be loaded with a 400-425 gr hard cast at 1200-1250 fps and will easily handle the big critters.

So if your friend is a handloader, there really isn't a wrong choice, and if he isn;t a handloader then he will not get the top performance out of either of these rounds unless he spends big bucks on custom ammo from the likes of Buffalo Bore or CorBon.

Just my 2 cents, in my opinion, tell him to get one of each just to support the gun industry.

Good Shooting!!!

50

I have a friend that has a SRH in 480 Ruger and I have to say that I'm not very impressed with the round. I would suggest that your friend by a SRH in 454 Casull then he can also shoot 45's in it. That way if he get's used to the recoil he can kick it up a notch with the 454. Myself I shoot a SRH in 44 mag and have had great luck with it in the field. I would like a SRH in 454 myself but I'm involved with my new Encore 308 Win at this writing.