Ruger's 475 Linebaugh No.1 Part II

03/16/20

Not a bad winter in Maine, at least from the standpoint of snow, with significant clearing efforts limited to five or six days. There were a good number of days with temps at or approaching 0°F that inflated heating bills, but none of those negative double digit temperatures that seemed to happen all to frequently during the prior year. It is just nice not having to worry about getting through the snow drifts when setting up targets with the Donner Party story in mind.

The struggle between man, machine and nature will continue on for months as removing the snow blower and weights from the tractor typically triggers a late spring snow fall. Nothing serious. Just enough snow to make me open the garage door early in the early morning, shake my fist at the sky like Charlton Heston and demand to know why God has forsaken me in this frigid hell on earth…. while my wife powers around me with the walk behind snow blower yelling supportive statements like “suck it up”, “Are you serving cheese with that wine?” and my favorite, “Stop being such a girl”. That woman has a mean streak. Where was I? Oh yeah, the Ruger No.1 and the 475 Linebaugh.

The subject Ruger No.1 is approved for use with both 475 Linebaugh and 480 Ruger ammunition. I noted performance of 475 Linebaugh ammunition in Part I, but omitted results with 480 Ruger factory ammunition, so it seemed a good idea to take care of that information now, before moving on to handloading the 475 Linebaugh.

The 480 Ruger is no slouch in any configuration. In this case, the 6 1/2″ numbers came from a Ruger Super Blackhawk five shot revolver, the 20″ data came from the subject No.1. An easy shooting personality, big bullet channel and decent knock down kinetic energy suggests an excellent choice for medium to heavy thin skinned game in a woodland setting.

I thought accuracy would suffer because of the case and loaded ammo length differences in comparison to the 475 Linebaugh chamber, but not at all the case. As an example, the Federal Premium put up a 3/4″ 3 shot group @100 yards which, in my experience, is excellent accuracy for a No.1.

Why waste that extra space?

The combination of 475 Linebaugh and rifle length barrel created some interesting handloading opportunities. Generally, a heavy hitter big bore pistol gets an overdose of bullet weight at the expense of velocity. The thought is that a big bore with a 5 1/2″ or so barrel length will not yield significantly high velocity with lighter bullets, so why not go for a heavy bullet and a deeper wound channel. Don’t see this as an axiom, dictum or even an Internet truism? That’s too bad, because then the rest of this article will make no sense at all.

L-R 454 Casull, 480 Ruger, 475 Linebaugh. Pictures posted for context, however, if you don’t work with any of them, it would not be much help in establishing a frame of reference. My only point is that large powder capacity handgun cartridges, when loaded with optimal slow powder for highest average pressure, tend to leave a lot of green smokeless ahead of the firing line.

As an approximation, a 5..5″ barrel will leave 12% of a charge unburned. Extending the barrel length to 20″ reduces the unburned amount to less than 3%. The increase in burn/pressure persistence results in higher velocity with the same same maximum pressure. Support for those comments? Sure. The 20″ Ruger No.1 recorded velocity levels 171 fps higher than the same 325 grain factory ammunition when fired from a 5 1/2″ revolver barrel.

I selected four bullets, mostly for the weight breaks and the effects of case obtrusion rather than construction..There are not a substantial number of bullets available for the 475 Linebaugh, however, probably a larger number is not necessary.

The 275 grain is intended for the 480 Ruger and is a plated, shallow hollow point product, which puts it on the fragile side for the 475 Linebaugh, particularly as a rifle cartridge.

The Lehigh Defense Xtreme Penetrator was selected because… I had them on the bench, so… why not? They do meet the criteria of a bullet being marketed to the new generation of snowflake shooters; the name is nifty, they are way over priced and they are effective when killing gel blocks under 4 layers of denim from 10′ – 20′ away. They are lead free for people living in states with socialists/communists as a majority of the voting population.

The Lehigh Xtreme Penetrator penetrates deeply primarily because a lack of expansion maintains a low frontal area. The same effect is attainable with a traditional full metal jacket round nose bullet. The low sectional density resulting from their copper monolith construction makes them excessively long at any given weight. In this case, the 300 grain Lehigh takes about as much room in the case as a traditional lead jacketed 400 grain bullet. They do have a fluted tip which does, in fact, generate a measurable lateral force greater than round nose solids.

The two conventionally jacketed, lead core bullets work for large game with the 400 grain possibly a good choice for large, dangerous North American game. As a handgun hunter, my skill set takes me to to, but not beyond deer hunting.In rifle form, large, dangerous game is in play for anyone who could get beyond a single shot within that application.

The only problem I have with these Speer selections is that they seems to go in and out of production and availability. It is difficult to make a major investment in handload development for bullets that may or may be available when I need them. So these will do for my current purposes, but I would look to Hawk Bullets for a more consistent supply, more appropriate quality and better construction for this combination. Hawk offers eight bullets for the 475 Linebaugh in five weight increments, soft point or hollow point, 0.025″ or 0.035″ jacket thickness. Presence of a cannelure or location are optional. Additionally, Cast Performance makes a 410 grain hard cast, gas checked bullet for the 475 Linebaugh which is also available in loaded ammo form from Buffalo Bore.

 

I could not get to goal with the Lehigh Extreme Penetrator bullet; harder monolith copper construction or wide driving bands adding up to significantly increased bore friction? Maybe long low sectional density bullets taking up excessive case capacity? My conclusion was that I did not have a powder with the right profile to match Underwood ammunition loaded with this bullet.

A good number of fast and moderate burn powders were tried in an effort to match the performance of the 23 grains of unidentified powder loaded by Underwood, but I was not successful, at least not if keeping maximum and average pressure in line. Ultimately, I ran out of time and personal interest and decided to shelve the effort.

Reloading was accomplished with a set of Lee Precision 480 Ruger dies. The sizer die was installed normally, as was the seater die. When setting up the expander, a 0.115″ pin gauge was place between the shell holder and nose of the die to compensate for the 475 Linebaugh’s longer case length. Lots of compressed loads were anticipated, however there were only two.

Conclusions

For folks who appreciate classic rifle, good walnut and nicely finished steel pieces, the Ruger No.1 is a special rifle to enjoy at the range or out hunting. The 475 Linebaugh can deliver 45-70 Gov’t standard pressure performance and then some. Used with 480 Ruger ammunition, the Ruger No.1 is a well behaved deer and hog rifle with good accuracy.

If I had one grip, the trigger pull grew heavy over time. However, I did a considerable amount of shooting without cleaning so it could have been an accumulation of powder residue. I also did not take the time to check trigger adjustment, which is a minor exercise. So terrific rifle and cartridge combination and further appreciation that Ruger has kept this firearm in production.