.500 S&W Meets Texas Whitetail

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I have the .500 in a TC Katahdin. Most inaccurate rifle I own. Always asking myself "Did I shoot at the wrong target by mistake?" Was hoping to use it for deer, but with the accuracy it delivers, that's impossible.

Probably need to throttle it back and play with handloads. Load data for the .500 is rather sparse. Have only tried full-house H110 loads so far.
 
OrangePwrx9 said:
I have the .500 in a TC Katahdin. Most inaccurate rifle I own. Always asking myself "Did I shoot at the wrong target by mistake?" Was hoping to use it for deer, but with the accuracy it delivers, that's impossible.

Probably need to throttle it back and play with handloads. Load data for the .500 is rather sparse. Have only tried full-house H110 loads so far.
Click to expand...

And that is where it shines as far as I’m concerned. Give it another try!
 
Waste of good food. At that distance a head shot would have saved a lot of good venison . So a 500 S&W can kill a small white tail doe at about 10 yards. Why didn't he pick on something closer to his size . Geeezzze kids now days !!
 
mnrivrat said:
Waste of good food. At that distance a head shot would have saved a lot of good venison . So a 500 S&W can kill a small white tail doe at about 10 yards. Why didn't he pick on something closer to his size . Geeezzze kids now days !!
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Not a hunter I’m guessing.

Seriously? Ten yards? Pray tell how you determined it was a ten yard shot? I suppose “he” didn’t head shoot it because he didn’t want to.... geez, armchair critics nowadays.

Or did I miss the humor here somewhere??!!
 
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OrangePwrx9 said:
I have the .500 in a TC Katahdin. Most inaccurate rifle I own. Always asking myself "Did I shoot at the wrong target by mistake?" Was hoping to use it for deer, but with the accuracy it delivers, that's impossible.

Probably need to throttle it back and play with handloads. Load data for the .500 is rather sparse. Have only tried full-house H110 loads so far.
Click to expand...

That is a complaint I keep hearing with the 500 rifles. Both the TC and Handi. I can’t say why the handgun delivers such good accuracy and these rifles do not. I will say that the Big Horn Armory 500s shoot very well.
 
earlthegoat2 said:
That is a complaint I keep hearing with the 500 rifles. Both the TC and Handi. I can’t say why the handgun delivers such good accuracy and these rifles do not. I will say that the Big Horn Armory 500s shoot very well.
Click to expand...

Yes they do! Shot a friend’s and I was very impressed!
 
earlthegoat2 said:
That is a complaint I keep hearing with the 500 rifles. Both the TC and Handi. I can’t say why the handgun delivers such good accuracy and these rifles do not. I will say that the Big Horn Armory 500s shoot very well.
Click to expand...
For the price they better!
 
mnrivrat said:
Waste of good food. At that distance a head shot would have saved a lot of good venison . So a 500 S&W can kill a small white tail doe at about 10 yards. Why didn't he pick on something closer to his size . Geeezzze kids now days !!
Click to expand...

That may have been as much as 25 yds. but not much (if any) more. The way that doe was hurled back and flipped over leads me to think that the shoulder was hit, peppering the meat in that area with bone fragments. So, yes, as you put it, a waste of good food. I suspect that, at that distance, my .357 mag could have done as well with less destruction. After all, I'm reloading 158 gr. JHPs and JSPs with a near max charge of W296. It might not be as fast but, with good placement, more of the meat can be harvested.
 
JTHunter said:
That may have been as much as 25 yds. but not much (if any) more. The way that doe was hurled back and flipped over leads me to think that the shoulder was hit, peppering the meat in that area with bone fragments. So, yes, as you put it, a waste of good food. I suspect that, at that distance, my .357 mag could have done as well with less destruction. After all, I'm reloading 158 gr. JHPs and JSPs with a near max charge of W296. It might not be as fast but, with good placement, more of the meat can be harvested.
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Where do you guys come up with this stuff? I know the range as I’m the one who shot it. No bone fragmentation played any role. No .357s for me. My concern wasn’t “harvesting” as much meat as possible, it was putting the animal down as quickly as possible. I don’t like when they run off. It was a cull and I took two deer that morning. It’s a hunting show, not a subsistence hunt (and yes, we did process the meat).
 
Yup, way too much gun on that scrawny deer and under gunned on the buffalo.

A lot of the animals the op shoots are at point blank range/close range in the videos take 2 and 3 shots to kill. Don't know if it's poor shot placement, poor bullet selection or a poor caliber/firearm combo. The op does tend to go for a shoulder shot for some odd reason for a kill shot. The 3rd/final shot on the buffalo in the video the op even says I'm doing a shoulder shot to put the animal down.
 
forrest r said:
Yup, way too much gun on that scrawny deer and under gunned on the buffalo.

A lot of the animals the op shoots are at point blank range/close range in the videos take 2 and 3 shots to kill. Don't know if it's poor shot placement, poor bullet selection or a poor caliber/firearm combo. The op does tend to go for a shoulder shot for some odd reason for a kill shot. The 3rd/final shot on the buffalo in the video the op even says I'm doing a shoulder shot to put the animal down.
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Oh Forrest, please regale us with your deep handgun hunting experience. “Too much gun” is a fallacy as there are no degrees of dead. It was a typical Texas doe and not “scrawny.”

What buffalo video are you taking about? I like heart shooting animals and am a stickler for placement. Please explain. I will always put multiple shots in big animals - it’s prudent. Multiple shots whether they need it or not. Oh and how many buffalo have you killed with a handgun (or even with a rifle for that matter)? I suspect you haven’t, yet you weigh in... BTW, I got seven feet of penetration on my chest shot on my Cape buffalo. Undergunned? I think not, but you know better.

Point blank range? Rarely, but if YOU are skilled and lucky enough to get close, why wouldn’t you? After all, it is handgun hunting.
 
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OrangePwrx9 said:
I have the .500 in a TC Katahdin. Most inaccurate rifle I own. Always asking myself "Did I shoot at the wrong target by mistake?" Was hoping to use it for deer, but with the accuracy it delivers, that's impossible.

Probably need to throttle it back and play with handloads. Load data for the .500 is rather sparse. Have only tried full-house H110 loads so far.
Click to expand...

My son had a TC with the Katahdin barrel in .460 and even tho I have a ton of very accurate loads for my X-Frame revolver in the same caliber, we never could get the TC to shoot even half as well as the revolver....even at revolver ranges. That plus the fact that shooting the gun was just brutal, he traded it for a 1911.


forrest r said:
Yup, way too much gun on that scrawny deer .
Click to expand...

I was wonderin' when someone was going to comment as such. I get it all the time myself when folks respond to me using a .460 on deer. This generally from folks who think that a ought-six is "just perfect". Ain't none of us in the lower 48 that hunt deer for food, especially someone with the monies for a computer and internet. Same goes for folks that can hunt private ranches with an expensive to feed .500 revolver. We do it for the sport. A pound or two of meat loss is moot compared to a quick and humane kill. The suggestion of a head shot with a revolver(or even a rifle) is arguably unethical because of the small target and the high chance of just maiming/wounding the deer. A DRT on the shoulder makes way more sense than watching a deer run off with her lower jaw hangin'. Gettin within ten yards of a deer shows a degree of hunter skill that many folks will never attain, just like having the skill to hunt with a handgun as one's primary weapon. So easy to criticize, hard to do.
 
buck460XVR said:
My son had a TC with the Katahdin barrel in .460 and even tho I have a ton of very accurate loads for my X-Frame revolver in the same caliber, we never could get the TC to shoot even half as well as the revolver....even at revolver ranges. That plus the fact that shooting the gun was just brutal, he traded it for a 1911.




I was wonderin' when someone was going to comment as such. I get it all the time myself when folks respond to me using a .460 on deer. This generally from folks who think that a ought-six is "just perfect". Ain't none of us in the lower 48 that hunt deer for food, especially someone with the monies for a computer and internet. Same goes for folks that can hunt private ranches with an expensive to feed .500 revolver. We do it for the sport. A pound or two of meat loss is moot compared to a quick and humane kill. The suggestion of a head shot with a revolver(or even a rifle) is arguably unethical because of the small target and the high chance of just maiming/wounding the deer. A DRT on the shoulder makes way more sense than watching a deer run off with her lower jaw hangin'. Gettin within ten yards of a deer shows a degree of hunter skill that many folks will never attain, just like having the skill to hunt with a handgun as one's primary weapon. So easy to criticize, hard to do.
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You are so right on all points. The rifle set often criticize handgun hunters for the inadequacy (on paper) of our firearms choices and then the occasional and non- handgun hunters criticize us for using “too much” gun. What both opinions have in common is a lack of experience and the knowledge gained from experience, and the internet has provided a platform for them to vocalize their misinformed opinions behind the anonymity of the keyboard. Strange times we live in...

I’ve never gotten that close to a deer and Texas whitetail are really switched into and skittish beyond belief. But getting close is the challenge.
 
Oh now this is too funny! The deer was "too close"??? Too much gun??? How many people go afield in the fall and shoot 100lb does with .30-06's and 7mmMag's??? Some people are critics because this is the internet and the internet brings out the worst in rude people.

There is no such thing as too close and last I checked, closer was harder to achieve than further. Any idiot can take 200yd shots at deer. Anyone with any sense can see that the footage is zoomed. In this case by a professional cameraman. So yeah, it's gonna look closer than it actually is, that's kinda the point. How it matters is beyond me.

So we're being too rough on the animals we KILL now? Virtually any high velocity rifle cartridge is going to ruin meat. When you're culling deer and not feeding your family on a shoestring budget (using a rifle) you're probably gonna be more worried about it. That doesn't happen too often in the US any more. When I shoot deer with a handgun, I often take the shoulder shot because it anchors them more quickly. There's hardly any meat on a doe's shoulder anyway. When I shoot them, I usually take the backstraps and hams and leave the shoulders.

As far as the buffalo, another good chuckle. People that hunt deer with rifles somehow get the idea that every hunting situation calls for one shot and a critter that instantly falls over. That doesn't happen with 2000lb bovines. It doesn't happen with water buffalo. It doesn't happen with Cape buffalo. It doesn't happen with handguns firing heavy solids. It doesn't happen with rifles firing heavy solids either. To say that a big bore revolver shooting the Grizzly Punch bullet, Barnes Buster, Lehigh solid copper WFN, etc., is "under gunned" can only be made out of pure ignorance. When you're pulverizing heavy shoulder bones, destroying the heart and lungs and making it to the hide on the far side, if not exiting or completely penetrating the animal lengthwise, there's no deficiency whatsoever. In performance or placement. Some critters are bigger than others, obviously. Some critters are tougher than others. A few are not only bigger than others but also exponentially harder to kill than your average ungulate. With dangerous game, you shoot until the animal is down None of this "one shot, one kill" nonsense. It is unwise and simply does not apply.

Lastly, Max can shoot! You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who does as much shooting with these guns as he does. He shoots them all the time and he's good at it. He doesn't even maintain his skill with rimfires like many of us do. All he shoots is the big stuff.
 
And taking head shots on deer is probably one of the most unethical things a hunter can do. Sure, it works great when you hit the brain but a deer's head is the part of its body that moves the most. Screw up the shot and now you have a wounded deer that can't eat and will likely starve to death. Not cool.
 
CraigC said:
And taking head shots on deer is probably one of the most unethical things a hunter can do.
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100% correct.
I'll never forget getting a knock on my door one November about 9:00 am. It was a guy in camo asking if he could have permission to go onto our property to look for a deer he had shot that had ran off.
Well of course I didn't mind and even went and helped him.
We didn't find it on our small plot of land but he said he had head shot it with a .243 Win and blew it's jaw nearly off. They claim it was hanging by a piece of meat the last time they saw it.

The poor deer probably starved or died of infection several days later. I love shooting game animals, but we owe it to them the provide as quick and humane a kill as we can.

The shoulder shot with the .500 in the video is about as quick as it can be.
 
Exactly! At least wounding one in the leg or guts will usually slow them down. A deer with its jaw blown off will be in the next county before you can reload. I wonder how many do this and never speak of their foul-ups?
 
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