480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

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357cyrus
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480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by 357cyrus »

So Ive been toying with the idea of getting a suppressed rifle since they've been made legal for hunting in Ohio. In reading up on the subject I stumbled on claims that a 45-70 loaded subsonic isnt much louder than a 22LR, but still carries thump similar to a heavy loaded 45LC revolver. With further reading I found that fast burning pistol powders, big bore rifle barrels, and heavier bullets create lower muzzle pressures. Low muzzle pressure, combined with lack of a supersonic crack can lower the noise level quite a bit.

One of the outputs of QuickLoad is muzzle pressure. So i set out to find what i could use as a standard for muzzle pressure. I looked around and found that a rifle in 22WMR puts off about 2500psi or 172 bar. My .223 load when put into QuickLoad generates about 560 bar. A 375gr 480Ruger bullet, propelled by 7.5 Grains of Unique in a 20" Rifle barrel should be around 40 bar. FORTY! It should leave the barrel at about 1000 FPS & 832 ft/lbs of energy... and at 100 yards still be over 900fps & 700 ft/lbs... Sign me up!

Lastly, i wanted to make sure that small of a Unique charge in a 480 ruger would be OK. Long story short, I found plenty of reports of people loading Unique in the bigger 45-70 case, less load density, and varying bullet weights.

So today I tried it. And I was impressed. I set up my chronograph about 10 yards outside of my walkout basement. I told my wife what I was up to, and asked her to let me know what she heard. She was one floor up and about 30ft behind me in the kitchen, frying meat for a pot of chili, (just to give you an idea of the noise in the house). I closed the door behind me, and fired my first shot. To me it sounded about like a 22 revolver. I shot them all, (8 shots)and recorded my velocities, then fired a 22 magnum, and went back in to ask her what she thought. "I only heard two shots, and they didnt sound like gun shots, it sounded like you dropped something."

I fired the highest charge weight first, 2 shots each and this is what they averaged over the chrono: (8.5gr - 1021fps) (8.0gr - 975fps) (7.5gr - 920fps) (7.0gr - 902fps)

I think I found myself a whole new level of fun! Hopefully soon I can load some up and test for accuracy.
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Re: 480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by 62chevy »

Crony, Quick Loads and a back yard to test in now that is living. Oh and the wife making chili Life is good, lol.
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Re: 480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by Ranch Dog »

Here is what the terminal ballistics would look like for your setup. So, are you just going to shoot this or suppress it?
subsonic_terminal.jpg
As a comparison, this is what the terminal ballistics would look like for the bullet with a "standard" pressure load.
standard_terminal.jpg
There has been a lot of interest in suppressed hunting here in Texas but it was only made legal for game animals last year. Of course, the main interest here is in applying it to night time, very close range hog hunting. The big surprise for many when using a true suppressed round (subsonic) load is the lack of killing authority, especially with the 300 Black Out or 308 Win so the larger diameter, heavier bullet would be a real plus.

I've thought about it for my Mini-30 as it is threaded. I killed a lot of close range hogs at night, inside, of 25 yards. To make it worth the investment, I would need it quiet enough not to spook a sounder while amongst them in a light wind (background noise). Pretty much kill them all. Killing authority is the thing though and different with hogs as compared to a whitetail. With hogs, I don't care where they did or if they are recovered. I just want to put a slug in them. I would really worry about a subsonic round killing a whitetail.
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Re: 480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by Ranch Dog »

Oh, for my suppressed "hog hunting" I was considering the Econo Can as true 7.62x39 (.310" ~.311") suppressors are expensive. This is the bullet I'm considering.

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Re: 480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by Ranch Dog »

357cyrus wrote:I told my wife what I was up to…
Definitely, a super cool lady! Mine is the same and would expect something like this from me!
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Re: 480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by 357cyrus »

No I dont plan on suppressing the 480. Just wanted to see what I could do with what I already had. I found this to be people's experiences as well, which kept me from getting a 300aac:
Ranch Dog wrote:The big surprise for many when using a true suppressed round (subsonic) load is the lack of killing authority, especially with the 300 Black Out or 308 Win so the larger diameter, heavier bullet would be a real plus.
It seems, people were pretty happy with standard 45lc & 44mag killing authority and penetration as long as impact happened at 700 FPS or better from a revolver. I'd say your 480 bullet with that big honkin meplat at just under mach 1 trumps them easily. I've seen a couple different ballistic coefficients listed for that bullet, I'm using .2357. Which one do you use?

That full power load you mentioned can be heard by my wife from about 500 yards away through the woods.
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Re: 480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by 357cyrus »

Ranch Dog wrote:Oh, for my suppressed "hog hunting" I was considering the Econo Can as true 7.62x39 (.310" ~.311") suppressors are expensive. This is the bullet I'm considering.

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I've never seen that econo can before. But $85 sounds wonderful!
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Re: 480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by Ranch Dog »

357cyrus wrote:
Ranch Dog wrote:Oh, for my suppressed "hog hunting" I was considering the Econo Can as true 7.62x39 (.310" ~.311") suppressors are expensive. This is the bullet I'm considering.
I've never seen that econo can before. But $85 sounds wonderful!
The can an fram filter and is good for about 500 shots. You just cannot replace it as the adapter and filter have matching serial numbers. You return the shot out filter and get a matching serial number replacement for $25 plus shipping.
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Re: 480 Ruger Rifle... SUBSONIC

Post by RBHarter »

For what it's worth I just chorny'd the hog load I killed 3 hogs with last spring 2 clean drop in a heap kills and a full run hit went about 200 yds .
It is a nominal 45 Colts load that is about 875 fps in the RBH 7.5 inch and clocks 1275 in a 16 1/2 inch 92' Winchester. At 50 yds the hog staggered about 5 steps and collapsed. All 3 were with a 262 gr SWC. The accuracy of the SWC between the pistol and rifle using the peaked out load in the pistol just wasn't happy so I will try an RNFP this year.

With the 480 at nearly 400 gr if it will group well in both guns I think with it carrying standard Colts muzzle energy to 150 yd you should be good to go.
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