They must have started them up again!
I emailed Ruger this past winter and they said they had no plans at this time to resume .454 Alaskan production.......you never know I guess, or the employee who answers emails doesn't know what's going on.....
The .480 pretty much died on the vine, from what I hear it's a great round that never found a wide following, and was overshadowed by the .460 and .500 S&W for the ridiculously powerful revolver market.
I use my 9.5" .44 SRH for long range target shooting, but I'm getting bit by the "hand cannon" bug and some of the stuff out there makes .44 Mag seem like a "intermediate" round :shock: , recently got an AMT AutoMag IV .50 AE and that thing is more of a hand held rifle than a pistol......
With stuff like .454 and .480 SRH's, who needs a rifle! :lol: Some of the .454 loads are touching the 2,000 ft. lb mark, at the muzzle. That's 500 more than a 7.62x39 and 800 less than a .308. Makes the 1,000 ft. lbs. of the .44 Mag seem weaker, and the 550 of .357 seem like a pop gun.
I'm waiting for the next .480 SRH 9.5" I see at a gun show for $400, there are a few people around here who bought them for handgun deer and bear season, and either gave up on handgun hunting, it was too much gun, or they got something else and want to unload the .480's because there's no "cheap" ammo for them, unlike the .454 which can shoot .45 LC.