Dan Wesson 500 S&W?

They didn't as far as I know.

The .357 Supermag was popular many years ago for silhouette shooting competation.
The .500 S&W only came out in 2004.

Sounds like somebody maybe tried to rechamber it to something else.
Could be .500 S&W, .500 Wyoming Express, .500 Maximum, etc.

rc

No .500 revolvers.

DW went bankrupt and pretty much stopped producing revolvers in 1995. The .500 was introduced in 2003.

Sounds like a "Frankenwesson".

There were some made in .460 Rowland, definitely none in .500 S&W.

Possibly a one off that someone had customized. It's possible that a custom barrel was made to fit into the shroud and the cylinder was reamed.

What caliber was it sold to you as?

How many rounds in the cylinder?

Do you have pictures? How much metal is between the chambers and between the chambers and the outside of the cylinder?

If you can't trace the gunsmithing work that (apparantly) rechambered and rebarrelled this gun, you may have to take a chamber cast to determine what it is chambered for.

Lost Sheep

Dan Wesson was bought buy CZ in 2005 and they did produce revolvers. Stopped again. price and qc went to poop land. They have retooled for the 715 model and produced only a small run. Who knows today. No 500.

Yes, I'd be curious to know what you THOUGHT you were getting, and if it isn't what you thought, take it back and demand your money back. If that gun's been tinkered with much, it may or may not even be close to safe to shoot. If you think about the difference between a .357 caliber gun and a .500 caliber gun -- especially when you're talking about drilling 5-6 holes of that size in a cylinder! -- it's almost hard to imagine how you'd modify one to be the other.

A .500 S&W revolver is enormous, and only holds 5 rounds. How many holes in your cylinder?

A .357 Supermag cartridge has a max OAL of 1.990". A .500 S&W Mag has a max OAL of 2.250". So yeah, I'd think they'd be a "little tight" at the forcing cone. Like over a 1/4" too tight!

Please post pics and any other info you can put together.

Sounds like a handgrenade with the pin pulled & the spoon flown to me.

Is it a five or six shot? I'd be very curious to find out exactly what's going on here. No .500's were ever produced and I don't believe I've ever heard of one converted to a custom five-shot. Although I suppose it is possible.

I do not believe the SuperMag cylinder would be long enough for the .500S&W but it is possible that it's been converted to one of several other ~.500" cartridges. Might be a .500Linebaugh or Linebaugh Long.

Maybe , possibly someone had it worked over to fit the 500 special cartidge. Very close to working pressures of the 480 ruger and that is with in the working pressure range of the revolver. Is it a 5 shot or 6 shot cylinder. You need to have it sent to a top end revolver smith like Bowen classics to look at what happend to see if its safe , can be saved , or junked.

The large frame Dan Wessons were chambered in 45 Colt & 460 Rowland.
The SuperMag frames were chambered for 357 SuperMag, NOT to be confused with the 357 Maximum. Early production DWs were marked 357 SuperMag on one side of the barrel shroud and 357 Maximum on the other. Later production were marked 357 Maximum only even though they were still chambered for the SuperMag. The 357 Maximum has a maximum OAL of 1.900 while the 357 SuperMag has a maximum OAL of 2.125.
The problem is that DW marked the chambering on the barrel shroud which is interchangeable. Hence a 357 SuperMag shroud will fit a 45 Colt with no problem other than being mismarked. The SuperMag has a longer ejector shroud so the large frame shrouds will not work on the SuperMag frames. I’ve suggested to DW that the caliber should be marked on the frame, not the shroud since the shrouds are interchangeable.
My guess is that someone has put a 357 SuperMag shroud on a large frame 45 Colt. If this is the case, there is absolutely no problem shooting 45 Colt in it. The barrels have differing threads making it impossible to install the wrong barrel without cutting and rethreading the barrel.
How about some barrel measurements on the revolver in question? And cylinder length?

My guess is that someone has put a 357 SuperMag shroud on a large frame 45 Colt.

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Not if it chambers .500's!

500 s&w fits the cylinder, but seems a little too tight at the forcing cone.

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Mea culpa! I did not pay enough attention to the 500 S&W allegedly going part way into the chamber. That does make it a question. I know of no DW factory issue that would allow a 500 S&W to chamber part way.

There is a cartidge called a 500 SPECIAL . Just like the difference in a 38sp and 357 mag. Your revolver my have been modified into that caliber. If the 500S&W fits but bottoms early that could be cartidge its ment to shoot. Don't take your pistol to some comunity collage gunsmith. Not many in this country are even skilled to do this kind of work . Atleast contact Bowen Classics and run it by them . They may want to see it or can better derect you to someone with the skill to deside if it was first done right or corect any issues it my have . If it was done by a certfied smith there should be some marks or name some where on it. Go to ammo-one and look at the soo sw mag and special differences.

Might want to check with Gary Reeder Custom as well. They offer various wildcats on the DW Super Mag guns.

I have been around the "Dan Wesson World" long enough to know that there are some pretty unusual variations out there. Manufacturing moved from Monson, MA to Palmer, MA in 1992, and it seems unlikely that a five shot Large/SuperMag gun was ever made in Monson, fact a five shot Large/SuperMag is pretty much unknown. I believe this is a "one off" gun with a custom cylinder and custom barrels that are housed in the SuperMag shrouds, the 4" shrouds looks to be customized pretty heavily.

Send that revolver to one of smiths that does this type work for a liveing to see it its save with any load. not a local run of the mill smithy. That is some seriously thin cylider walls.

CraigC said:

Might be a .500Linebaugh

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That's my guess, a tad shorter than a .500 S&W and a rimmed case.

Didn't DW make a .445 Super Mag? Could it be a gun originally chambered for that, and then reamed out to make it work for 500 specials? I sure wouldn't shoot a 500 mag out of that. The walls look a little thin for that don't they? I'm just guessing and bringing it up because noone seems to have mentioned the 445. I thought those were 6 shot revolvers though........ Anyone know?

460 its a 5 shot now. DW did not make a 5 shot revlvers and the 44mag falls through the cyclinder. and a 500sw does fit for size but not lenght

buck He said he had also a 1/4 of brass sticking out of the cylinder with the 500sw bottoms. Thast about right for the 500 special that is made as a down loaded cartidge like the 38sp fpr a 357mag.

460 its a 5 shot now. DW did not make a 5 shot revlvers and the 44mag falls through the cyclinder. and a 500sw does fit for size but not lenght

buck He said he had also a 1/4 of brass sticking out of the cylinder with the 500sw bottoms. Thast about right for the 500 special that is made as a down loaded cartidge like the 38sp fpr a 357mag.

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Except that in the 38/357 instance it was the other way around, the 357 was made as a hotter version of 38special.

A lot of the wildcat work was done on early supermag frames. And the shrouds are interchangeable. So that it has a .357SuperMag shroud doesn't mean much. I have a .44Rhino (one of the wildcats) that looks a lot like yours - Monson frame, mismatched shroud, etc. Might have been an early .460 Rowland (custom built), but not sure that is large enough bore to have the smaller ctgs behave as the OP says. The bore diameter for a .460R would be 0.452". The .445SuperMag's bore would be 0.429". I've never read anything about any .500 wildcats on a DW frame. Doesn't mean they didn't exist, but if that's one it's likely one of a kind and might have some value.