New to reloading, gonna buy a press and start with .500 S&W, have some questions.

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It appears to be something sold separately. Are there any die sets that come with a roll crimp die for heavy loads using cast bullets?
 
I looked around and did not find a set of rcbs cowboy dies. Lyman makes a set that may intrest you. There definitely not redding cost but they have a good expander die. With magnums in revolvers they should all have roll crimp. The 50ae will have a taper crimp
 
I actually have some factory loaded .500 S&W that does not appear to have a crimp of any sort on it. Its a very very light load though, 300gr @1200 fps.
 
Right now Midway has free shipping over $49. RCBS has a rebate, spend at least $100 and get $50 back. So you could buy $104 worth of RCBS stuff and only pay $54 plus tax (after rebate of course),

Here are the dies...

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1011338768?pid=888214

Unfortunately they don't have a shell holder for the 500, but others do. Reloading supplies can be hard to find in the current environment, but they are out there, just have to look around.

chris
 
One other thing, be sure to get a carbide or nitride die set. If you get the plain steel die set you will save a few dollars, but you will have to lube your cases. Lubing is optional with the carbide dies, but it does make the press run much smoother.

chris
 
Do you have brass to reload?

Do you have some projos to load?

If you need some brass, let me know and I can send you 50-100 to get you going. If you want to try out some different projos, let me know and I can send you a few of each to get you started.

I'm currently using Hornady's 500 S&W dies, you can adjust the die to put a crimp on the brass. I recommend at least a light crimp, heavy projos and recoil can cause others to creep in the cylinder.

Let me know about the brass and projos, where to send them. The next noob to 500 that you see, pass along the favor.:thumbup:
 
As far as Quickloads goes, I agree that it is software written by someone to attempt to predict performance. My use of it so far, on straight wall pistol calibers, has not correlated that well with my measured results. I will take real world empirical data over theoretical any day. Regardless, always start low and work up.

I load for the 460, and I can tell you that I reached difficult extraction before I reached max published loads. That was my gauge, as I have absolutely no desire to hammer out cases. I assume the 500 will be similar.

I will also second the suggestion on using the Lee collet crimping die. That is all I use on magnum revolver cartridges.

For powder, I use H110. If you want less muzzle flash and noise, use VV N-110.
 
https://www.amazon.com/RCBS-23812-3-Die-Carbide-Crimp/dp/B000GU72KK

Welcome to THR!

RCBS has a carbide die set with a roll crimp. I don’t load the 500, just the 460 but have the carbide RCBS dies for that and they work fine. I put a very heavy roll crimp on mine just because. You’ve gotten a lot of good advice here. I’ll just say use published data to start with, stay within the lines at first, and you should be fine. Since you’re going to roll crimp, insure all the cases are the same length, as that affects the roll crimp once you have your dies properly set up. The press you’re getting should serve you well. Good luck!
 
watermonger said:
Do I need a seperate crimp die for the .500 S&W or will RCBS/Lee/Hornady/etc come with one? I do plan to shoot cast bullets and I would prefer not having to deal with bullets jumping crimp and locking my gun up.
Click to expand...

I use RCBS and their roll crimp die works well with either jacketed or cast bullets. They also come with directions for crimping the heavy "boomers" like .460 and .500. I will recommend seating and crimping in separate steps for your .500 and the RCBS's "extra heavy" crimp is a two step process in itself(I've found this is not necessary, but I have a heavy gun). Flare only enough to get a bullet started because neck tension is more crucial than the crimp. To much flare cannot be fixed with more crimp. One can actually crimp to much and reduce the amount of tension from both the neck and the crimp. You will find that shooting max loads will "use up" the life expectancy of your brass much faster than even those loads just under max. The .460 and .500 work brass more like a rifle than like a handgun and thus, you'll never see those number of reloadings in a piece of brass like you see with .357 and .44 mag.
 
Thanks for all the info guys, I have a big old bag of brass I've collected from all the factory ammo I've shot so I've got quite a bit brass, some of it is Starline with the large rifle primer pocket, but some of it is AUSA and doesn't have an R marking on it. Does AUSA brass use large pistol primers for the .500 S&W brass, or is it large rifle but just not marked as such? Also can I use the RCBS shell holder on my LnL or should I get the Hornady shell holder? Another question, I was measuring the OAL of some randomly selected brass, most of it measured at 1.615" but some of them were large or smaller by about .002" is this enough to warrant trimming or is it nothing to worry about?
 
I'm also thinking of picking up a Lee Production Pot, Lee .501 440gr Mold, and Lee .501 Size & Lube die kit from the place I am buying some RCBS dies and shell holder from. Is there like a casting 101 resource I could read/watch to give me a run down on the basics of casting, and where do you guys who cast usually get your lead from?
 
If your casting for a magnum for the very first time I would start with a foundry blend from rotometals. The lyman cast handbook is a great resource and check out the YouTube sites, loads of bacon. Fortunecookie45lc, and a few others.
The cast boolit website has a ton of information as well.
 
AJC1 said:
If your casting for a magnum for the very first time I would start with a foundry blend from rotometals.
Click to expand...
Isn't that a bit too hard? Most of the cast lead bullets I find for sale in .501 diameter are cast to like 16 - 18 bnh.
 
AJC1 said:
A foundry blend is something of known quality and mixture. Making your own mixes is popular and I do it all the time but my first bullets were not magnum. The 500 sw creates a huge amount of pressure
Click to expand...
Would Lyman #2 be a good alloy? Does the Lee mold have a specific alloy it was designed for?
 
I will be attempting to powder coat these, so that should prevent leading from what I've read.
 
I use the ford blue from eastwood. It had amazing reviews from across the net and of all the batches I've made never let me down. The red from harbor freight also gets good reviews if red is a color you enjoy. 20200621_115904.jpg
 
Now I just need to find out what kinda gas check that 440gr bullet needs and I'm all set.
 
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