I joined this forum because I was interested in finding out more information about the raging bull in 480 ruger. Although ruger and taurus are no longer producing firearms in this caliber, its still around with a small loyal following.
In my opinion, ruger made a couple of mistakes when rolling out the new round. First, they should have gone with a five round cylinder (like the raging bull) to minimize sticky extraction due to the cylinder walls swelling and the brass expanding too much.
Second, they should have come out with a cartridge with a 400 grain flat nose cast solid at a modest muzzle velocity (1050 fps). A heavier bullet would even have been better. There isn't much on this continent that could stand up to that round.
Bill Fryxell did a nice article which made the arguement that this is the sweet spot for the round. Although the energy figures don't match the 454 casull, the knock out factor is comparable and there is much less pressure, recoil and muzzle blast. Further, you get better performance out of a shorter barrel.
Ammo is still available from Hornady, Speer, Corbon, Buffalo Bore and Grizzly Cartridge. I like the round and hope to pick up Raging Bull in the caliber in the near future.