500 magnum shot shell

[destroyer85golf]

After kicking around the idea for a bit, I finally loaded some up tonight. I started with a box of 28 ga shot shells that I found at Walmart go figure. I had hoped to be able to use the wad out of them. But the wad was to big at .510 . So I went to work the other day , and happened by a guy making a gasket out of Garlock with a punch set. I looked in the punch set and he had a half inch punch so I hammered out about 100 discs and came home. Tonight I looked around and couldn't find anyone loading them, or if they did they didn't give any data. So I put 200 grains of shot and the two shot cards in the shell and measured how much room I had left over with unique powder. I had planned on trying trail boss, but I could only get 4.5 grains in the case. I didn't think that would be enough and o was worried about crushing it. So I went with unique and Then went from there. Shot them at 10 yards and they gave me about a 24" group. Plenty good for killing snakes on the upcoming prairie dog hunt!

 

[Cheesemaker]

Interesting.
What barrel do you have on your 500? How many grains of Unique? Any pics of the shots?

Edit: What brake do you have?

The mighty 500 is is now a snake gun...

 

[destroyer85golf]

I have the 8 3/8" ported barrel. It is the first generation they came out with. I have been playing around with every conceivable bullet I can try up to and including the 700 grain bullet from matts bullets. Not near as bad as everyone says even with a stout load of H110. The load I ended up with is 7.3 grains of unique . But I made sure that I wasn't compressing it when I used the seating die to put a roll crimp on to hold the top shot card. The garlock that I'm using is about 3/32" thick, I will get a picture of the pattern and upload it tomorrow morning .

 

[destroyer85golf]

Here is a picture of the pattern. Again this is at 10 yards.

 

[Cheesemaker]

Thanks.
Any issue with shot and the porting of the barrel? Would some shot occasionally enter the ports?

 

[destroyer85golf]

I've only shot a few of them, the other people that I talked to said they never had an issue. I haven't seen anything yet to make me strop shooting them. If you decide to try it let me know maybe I can ship you some of the shot cards I am using to try out.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

One thing to try is sealing the load with white glue. I use it when making blanks. Don't know what it will do to your pattern, but it seals out the moisture and makes the boom louder.