I joined the 500 club!!

[bigtubby]

Picked up a LNIB 4" S&W 500 man this thing is a beast won't have a chance to shoot it until Saturday. Came with a set of Lee carbide reloading dies never used, 33 rounds factory ammo, 26 rounds once fired brass and a Galco leather holster.
Does anyone have a bullet and powder combo that they really like?

 

[Revolver218]

The only issue for me would be the cost of ammo. I have no idea what savings you'll have by reloading, but I do know that I could reload a box of 50 .38 WC for the (retail) cost of two 500 rounds.

 

[atlanticfire]

Reload is pretty cheap. Get some good lead from http://www.mattsbullets.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=66
a big tub of H110 or the like and some good brass and you should be good for a while. 500s are alot of fun! Enjoy!

 

[Fred in Wisc]

Double up your ear protection. You are about to enter a whole new world of loud.

Totally recommend shooting that at an indoor range if you have a chance. About 2 rounds and most of the people in the place will come over to see what happened. Great fun.

 

[BCRider]

Revolver, with reloading it's no more expensive than moderate price rifle reloads. My supplies up this way cost more than in the US but I'm still able to reload .500's for around a $1.10 a round. And that's only because of the bullet cost. If I can set up and cast some gas check boolits I'll be down to about 15 to 20 cents for powder and primer.

Bigtubby, so far all I've found to reload with is Speer 350gn JHP. I've stuck them in front of 42gns of H110. That's near the max load from the Hogdon reloading data of their website. Primers for me are large Magnum pistol. But for revolvers apparently the recomendation is for large rifle to avoid overpressure issues at the primer. For me it doesn't matter as I'm shooting one at a time from a TC Encore action. And there's no doubt that the primers are mashed when they come out. They're sharply square edged at the corner of the primer's cup and the tool marks of the breech are impressed... Haven't had any issues yet with blowing out a primer. But the point is that such overpressure effect on the primer would likely cause them to back out and jam the cylinder. So you'll likely want to go with large rifle primers to avoid this.

If you load to softer than near max then you could easily use large pistol or large Magnum pistol depending on the pressures. Large pistol for powder pull loads and the Magnum large for stout mid range loads.

Enjoy your new arm shortener...

 

[captain awesome]

I have had good luck with H110 and Alliants 300MP for the serious hard hitting loads. I also use Trailboss for easy going loads. you can shoot those all day long, yet they still have quite a thump.

I like my cast bullets from a custom mold I have, but I have used Hornady FTX; I do not recommend them for anything but paper, fruit or water jugs, they come apart. Berry's plated bullets; I had accuracy problems with those, though I didn't know what cause to attribute that to, they were the first bullets I ever loaded. I tried the Speer GDHP's; liked those a lot but never recovered any bullets to find anything out about weight retention. I also like the Hornady XTP's they seemed to perform well, but also never recovered any of them.

 

[firesky101]

I went to the range today, and found 2 S&W .500 Mag casings sitting on the ground. Apparently either the guys pocketbook or wrist prevented him from firing any more.

 

[Scipio Africanus]

Congratulations!!
For a light game load, I second the Sierra 350. Driven at max velocity, I have observed expansion over an inch. This bullet is a dramtic stopper of deer and similar sized game. I would use it on anything save, Moose, Bison, and Brown bears.
Use a cast 350-370 with light "plinking" loads for all day fun.
I have had good luck using Titegroup for reduced loads. It is not positionally sensitive.
For bigger stuff a 440 WFNGC is my choice.
I have tried the Hornady 500 gr and it is a penetrator but not as much as a hard cast bullet of similar weight.

Good luck and happy hunting and shooting!

 

[pazz]

I still want to shoot this gun. My local range has one to rent.

The largest I have shot in a handgun is still .44 Magnum.

Let us know how it shoots

 

[BCRider]

Pazz, indoors they'll definetly rock your universe. And do try not to blink. If they are shooting rounds with a good flame powder you'll miss the basketball sized fireball out the muzzle and bright flame angel wings out the sides of the cylinder gap...

 

[Scuba_Steve]

I've been thinking about getting one of these and it is likely the only thing that would get me into reloading.

 

[ClemY]

If you want a really soft shooting load to get used to the new gun, consider Trail Boss with a lead bullet from 320 to 380 gr. You can load a full case of this very bulky powder and get on the order of 800 to 900 fps. It makes the .500 a real pussy cat. As you get used to the gun, if you wish you can work your way up the power scale.

The 4" gun is a good way to clear the line at the range. It can be so loud that no one wants to be anywhere near it.

 

[mo841]

Your going to love it. That is cool that you got about $150 worth of extras with it. The 500 is like drag racing, expensive, loud and the most fun you can possibly have. Reloading takes alot of the cost away and is the way to go if you want to shoot alot. I suggest shooting a water mellon when they come back in season.

 

[bigtubby]

Just hoping the weather holds tell Saturday getting real anxious to touch this gun off a few times!! I guess I will order some more brass and some gas checked lead.

 

[Rollis R. Karvellis]

Do a search for Snuffy, and 500 S&W, you will enjoy some of the pictures.

 

[freedom475]

I really like my 4". It is a little too much with full house factory DoubleTaps loaded with 440cast at 1805fps.(these are still doing 1500fps out of the 4")

I have been loading the 450Kieth over 14.5gr of Unique and it is Awsome to shoot.. I have tried a lot of powder bullet combinations and this one really works well in the 4" 500. It is still dense enough that a double charge fills the case. Unique gives me a little more power than TrailBoss, (without going "overboard"). The heavy cast penitrates nicely at 1000fps. I have shot this load to around 600 yards, it is still stable and it hits very hard. I was shooting at some frozen cow carcasses last weekend at about 500yards and it was very cool cause you could really see the crap fly off the carcasses and you could here the "Thuump" when you hit them

I have added a comp with no holes, (PM me if you want one) a nice set of Badger rosewood grips and a 7X Leather chest holster completes the package

PLEASE DON'T use Titegroup in the 500:banghead: (or any other magnum handgun for that matter) I have used lots of it, but the stuff is scarey. It is so easy to double charge, it will erode your forcing cone, and the pressures run too damn high with it for the velocity it returns.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

I too joined the club today. I have been toying with the idea of one of these for a couple of months in a 4" and saw two of them for sale locally used. Local used prices were more than Buds, though Buds has been out of stock.

Oddly enough, I sold two SIG 9mm's today and was browsing Buds for my next purchase and they had one (that wasn't there yesterday) for $1051. They no longer have it, I do