S&W 500-shooting experience

Using UltraMax ammo for the 500 will be cheaper. HSM ammo as well. Sells for about $1 a round. That's the reduced loads, 325 gr. JHP, 330 gr. lead, in UltraMax. The UltraMax is cheaper, not as clean, as the Winchester, CorBon, that I tried. Still. The UltraMax, HSM, is good for shooting at paper. Federal is coming out with a reduce load for the 500. Its been advertised for a while, but hard to get. A 275 gr. Barnes, all cooper. Good for deer, hogs. Even CorBon has a reduce load (500 special) 275 gr. (I think), both companies sell for $2 a round. Yes, just shooting a paper, even for $1 a round can get up their in cost, if one is trigger happy.
That gun was intended for hunting purposes, really. So when comparing it to some other hunting cartridges, two, even as high as three (premium loads) dollars is not bad.

Well, FWIW, here's my experience with the 500. My father bought one last fall, to replace a Smith .44 Mag that met an untimely demise at his hands. (You don't want to know!) When he visited in the spring, he brought along his new acquisition, and we promptly made a mad dash to the range so that I could try it, which I did. Here are my thoughts......(and the results of that tryout!)

1. Nicely made!
2. Boy, are there a lot of holes and slots cut into that barrel for porting! (I wonder how well they work?)
3. Gad, this thing's big and heavy!
4. I sat down at the bench and loaded up some of the thumb sized reloads that he had put together. (385 grain jacketed bullets) I usually try new guns out at the bench in order to get a reasonable idea on how well they will group. I figured that this wouldn't be anything which would need a different routine.
5. Line up the sights at the customary 25 yards and light one off!
6. Hmmmm......boy does this porting work well! Almost no muzzle rise. Hmmmm....BOY does this porting force every bit of the recoil energy directly back into my palms!! BOY does this porting also translate into lateral movement on the elbows that were sitting on the surface of the bench!

Well, it was an attention getter. I like my Model 29-2 with four inch barrel. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to fire his 500. But, one full cylinder full from the bench was enough. The porting worked incredibly well. Too well, actually. I figure that it caused the large amount of recoil energy directly back into the palm of the hand, and with sitting at the bench, there was virtually no way for the upper body to move with the recoil. Talking to my father afterwards, he said that he never fired it from the bench. He always fired it offhand. Did he mention this BEFORE I sat down at the bench? Noooooooooooooooo.........

Anyhow, I'm glad that I did it. It is a nice firearm, with some potential good use as a stout hunting round, but not something that I would want to buy and add to my holdings. However, I did suggest that he load up some very low velocity lead bullets in order to use this at the next bowling pin match at his gun club. I'd pay good money to see the facial expressions on his fellow shooters as he steps up to the line and gets ready to use it on some poor unsuspecting pin!

FWIW,

emc