I've shot the S&W and it was the first(and thus far only) 500 mag I've ever shot. I'm an experienced shooter with an affinity for the .44 mag so I felt the gun would be manageable. I carefully planted my feet, gripped the gun firmly and squeezed the trigger through a good sight picture. The net result was that I wasn't really able to hit what I was aiming at. The blast from the shot totally concussed me, making the second shot even less accurate. Further the resulting smack into my hand was violent enough that I'm not too sure that the porting made much positive difference. I see that Taurus went with their tracker porting pattern which I've found superior to the more vertical porting they put on everything else. It would seem from inspection that the taurus system wouldn't have so much rearward jetting as the S&W port system does. If that's the case I'd think that the Taurus would be superior on that point alone. Really and truly I think the .460 is a superior cartridge but getting the biggest of the big is always a selling point. For what it's worth Taurus does fulfill their warranty obligations however they aren't perfect. Both of my revolver tauri have had to have return trips to the warranty shop because Taurus didn't get it right the first time. I'm not thrilled with that however both are more accurate and inexpensive compared to S&W's, Colts, and Rugers.
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