Gents
I am interested in buying a .475 Linebaugh revolver for both sporting and hunting purposes.
The downside is that where I live (Sweden) handguns are not legal for hunting, and thus the only way to obtain a licence for a revolver is by assigning it to target practice/competition, and then renew the licence every five years when it expires.

So, what international shooting competitions can one participate in with a 6" five shooter in .475 Linebaugh?
Nationally the 454 casull is the largest & strongest allowed in the magnum field shooting class. Why, I dont know, but it is probable that some old guy thought it was bad to shoot larger things than that. Many shooters think it is bad to shoot pistols stronger than .22lr too....


There are so many rules here that it is insane.
Big handguns range from 9mm-.455" but nothing is mentioned about larger calibers than that.

I would like to go abroad and hunt with the gun, but the only way for me to get the gun is to register it as a competition weapon and participate in international and national competitions...
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely
Daniel

IHMSA (handgun metallic silhouette) is a possible avenue for competitive purposes for the .475. You would definitely need to reload as relays are 40, 60, or 80 rounds.

It's true that matches can be 40, 60, and 80 rounds. Each bank of targets is shot in 5 round strings, however, with 30 seconds to load upon command and 2 minutes to fire the 5 shot string. A .475 would not be prohibited from IHMSA competition in the U.S., but rules vary somewhat from continent to continent, and I don't know what rules might govern competition in the EU, or in individual European countries.
I suggest you make inquiries about IHMSA competitions in Europe, or contact the IHMSA in the USA for contact information for Europe.
There is also a "Freedom Arms Shoot" in Germany which I believe is held annually. There is some information on this on the FA website.

I should mention that no sensible person would attempt to use a full strength .475 Linebaugh load in IHMSA competition, so your loads would have to be significantly downloaded.

i sure wish you luck finding a sporting shoot for the 475 as for hunting it is great it would be a shame for you not to be allowed such a handgun based on the rules of your country

Ken,

That was what I was eluding to when I made the reloading comment. It should have been more to the point.

Gents!
Thanks for replies so far!
I reload and intend to reload for the revolver as well, I have also thought that it might be needed to use some reduced loads for it. 80 rounds with full house loads might be a bit stiff I suppose...
As of today, the only opportunity for me to hunt with such a gun is to go abroad where it is legal to use it. There´s a retailer for FA somewhere in Sweden though and they had a .475 Linebaugh in their online catalogue, but it beeing online does not imply that they do have it in stock or could sell it...
I have also looked at the BFR guns and the price tag is more appealing than a $ 4,500 FA, atleast for my present economic situation.

Besides, I can also need the gun for self defence against those hairy things with claws and teeth that like to eat salmon, ants, berries and then go hibernating. That population have increased over the last years to the point that forces the young cubs to find new territory since all other places are taken by adults. They now start to eat garbage in the middle of villages.
Again, it is not a legal application for a licence to use it for self defence. Only sporting/target practice is legal....

I will look into the IHMSA through the shooting club & see if I can get some national regulations.

Sincerely
Daniel

i once shot a round of ppc with a moon clipped 454 ruger alaskan so i guess if you want to find a way to use it you probably could but thats not what there all about. there first and formost hunting guns. Bit of an overkill for any competitive shooting other then for a stunt.

Gents,
thanks for further replies!

As I have stated earlier, the only legal way to have a revolver in this country is to have it on a 5 year target/competition licence.

I do not live in a country where it is as easy to get hold of guns as it is in North America, and therefore I must choose wisely for the few guns that I might be allowed to have.

For handguns, I can probably motivate/convince the licence lady at the police office to give me a competition licence for 4 different handguns, but more might be very hard (almost impossible to get 2 guns in same calibre).
A possible collection might be, .22lr for precision, .32acp for field & snubby, 9mm for field, and one big revolver for magnum field shooting, that is that these calibres are different enough to allow for a licence for each one.

As the vast majority of gun owners, I am a law abiding citizen and do my best to follow all laws during my life span.
It is legal for me to go abroad to hunt with a revolver, but to do so I must first own that revolver, as it is hard to hunt with something you do not posess in the first place. As bow hunting is now beeing tested here(has been illegal for ages), perhaps handgun hunting might be allowed in 10-15 years too?

Since the only way to own that revolver is to compete with it, I need some sporting shoot in which I can participate with that gun. No one says that I have to win each competition either.
This is not a STUNT or anything like that, it is probably the only way to get a licence on a fine gun.

Since there ARE restrictions on gun ownership here, I would like to have as good quality as I can afford in the few guns I am allowed to own, and at the same time have those guns tailored to suit as many different needs as possible at the same time.

That is, use the revolver both for competition according to the licence on it, as well as taking it abroad to hunt with it on occations.

If needed, I can download it, or shoot 480 rugers in it, or even download them.

The 475 linebaugh makes too much sense for what I intend to use it for to just let it go.

Sincerely
Daniel

Huglu,
Believe me, owning a FA .475 Linebaugh will make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Do everything you can to get one.

then i would guess that silhouette would be your best bet and if they let you shoot that cannon in bullseye you could probably do it there too. Silhoutte shooting will take a fairly stout load to give you any kind of tajectory and no doubt will beat you up a tad. For bullseye id run something like 8 grains of 231 and a 300-350 grain bullet. This load will no doubt not be accurate at long range but should do well out to a 100 yards. For long range you will probably want to push a 380-400 lfn to at least 1100 fps.

Gents,
once again thanks for replies!
I am also grateful for the reduced load advice.
It seems it MIGHT be possible to obtain one in that caliber, IF the shooting club takes a descision in the board to shoot silhouette apart from black powder, magnum field, precision & snubby. We are some that are interested in it and also some of them have 454 casull, 45 long colt etc. So, my next task is to convince the board in the shooting club to formally take on silhouette as another branch of shooting.
There are people here shooting with more powerful cartridges than the linebaughs from pistols, and the local dealer had a 10" BFR 444 marlin for sale a while ago, so it is not impossible to get licence on a powerful gun, it is only hard if it has a caliber designation above .454" for some reason.
Still, some manage to get licence on .50AE, while others are denied a .454 casull but can buy a 44 magnum. Others are denied a .44 magnum because it is a MAGNUM round, while they are granted to buy a .454 Casull since it is not a magnum....
It´s a lot like a lottery when you hand in a licence application...

It might even be easier to get a black powder licence on that gun than to have it as a smokeless round...
I dont even know if it would be possible to shoot pyrodex or BP from a .475 linebaugh.

I am trying to keep all options open to be able to buy one of these fine revolvers as long as I am within the law. I am not interested in anything outside those borders.

Sincerely
Daniel