Why no .50 cal short for revolvers?

[Fletchette]

I know that there is a caliber for virtually niche, and many calibers are so similar to another that I wonder why they exist, but it occurred to me that there is no .50 cal short for revolvers. Perhaps I am just not aware of it?

I would think that a .50 cartridge, loaded so as to not create ridiculous recoil (like .50 S&W) could make a five shot K-frame look pretty credible as a carry piece. Think of a large snubby. It would have the large, gaping hole at the end of the muzzle but not rip your hand off when you fire it. Should be as effective as a .357, perhaps better for heavily clothed targets. Hollowpoints would expand to over 1 inch.

Why not?

 

[Eleven Mike]

could make a five shot K-frame look pretty credible as a carry piece.

A five-shot .38 Special is "credible," if by that you mean useful for waxing bad guys. Perhaps not optimal, yet effective.

What about the .50 GI? I don't know what the recoil is like, but it could be a handy gun with some moon-clips.

 

[Dr.Rob]

A Bulldog by any other name...

I can see a use for it in the CCW market, the trick is a purpose built revolver, not one re-tooled from another caliber.

 

[hotntot]

50 cal.

I believe there is more then one size 50cal. handgun ammo out there.See you local gun dealer.

 

[Croyance]

The K-frame was made in a short-barreld .357 Magnum. Credible enough.
.45 ACPs seem to expand to about .70 inches, some less, maybe a little more on the top end. I don't know that a .50 calibler that can be contained within a K-frame would get up to 1".
There are .44 Special snubbies out there. I can't see that a large bore that won't destroy a K-frame would be much more energetic.

I wouldn't mind a .45 ACP snubby five shot using moonclips in a k-frame sized package though.

 

[Warren]

Bring back the .577! 400 gr. ball going about 800 fps. That is a thumper.

There is the .500 Wyoming Express from Freedom Arms.

 

[Nashmack]

My almost ideal cartridge (I think) would be about a .550 to .575 weighing about 450-500 grains loaded to about 700 feet per second. Should be relatively effective against non armored targets, as well as no all that brutal in the recoil dept.

 

[pete f]

well there is the 50 GI for the 1911 platform. I would think that moon clips would work te same for it too.

 

[mountain_cowboy]

There's the .50AE, .50WE, .500 S&W Special, & .500 Linebaugh, all of which are chambered in single and double action 5 shots by the likes of Freedom Arms, Hamilton Bowen, and Dave Clements.

 

[loose cannon]

iirc to go over 50cal in a rifled weapon(other than shotguns)the weapons is classed a destructive device and requires a stamp.

lets go cap and ball then;how bout a steel frame remington 1858 scaled up to take 45 grains of ffg and a .577 minie ball?prime it with musket caps

 

[LAR-15]

If it's intended to be soley used for sporting purposes (as in built and desgined onky for hunting or something), the AG can declare a firearm exempt from the DD definition in the US NFA

 

[Fletchette]

There's the .50AE, .50WE, .500 S&W Special, & .500 Linebaugh, all of which are chambered in single and double action 5 shots by the likes of Freedom Arms, Hamilton Bowen, and Dave Clements.

Although I have not shot all of these calibers, the ones I have are way more powerful than what I was thinking. I was thinking more of a "low" pressure, low recoiling .50 cal. Imagine an overbore version .45 Long Colt.

 

[culleniii]

Something along the lines of a .45 GAP thats .50 would work well in a Charter Bulldog Size gun. I would buy then. Then again id be all over a .45 ACP and/or 10mm configured like that.

 

[ball3006]

One of those Ruger 480 snubbies....

that is advertised in the latest American Rifleman would do the trick. It has a 2 1/2 inch barrel. You would have to have "manly" wrists to touch one off in that......chris3

 

[Slimjim]

Taurus makes a .500 snubbie.

 

[Nightcrawler]

The problem is the diameter. Automatics tend to handle fat catridges better than revolvers. On the flipside, revolvers are better suited to long cartridges.

To wit, say you wanted a revolver, firing .50G1 using moonclips. You could only fit five rounds in a S&W N-Frame cylinder, the same frame that'd give you six rounds of .44 Magnum.

Another example? Bowen (I believe) did a custom conversion of a Ruger Redhawk, which is even bigger than an N-Frame, to .50AE. It was a five shot only, though.

NOW...on, perhaps, a S&W X-Frame, you could fit six shots of .50GI (The thinner cylinder walls not mattering for the low pressure cartridge). But in the same frame you could fit seven shots of .44 Mag, and probably ten shots of .357 (wouldn't that be interesting).

On the other hand, like I said, revovlers are better suited to long "magnum" cartridges. It's hard to fit .44 Magnum rounds in a comfortable autoloader grip, for example.

 

[Warren]

Bowen also made a .577 Redhawk.

 

[MCgunner]

.45 ACPs seem to expand to about .70 inches, some less, maybe a little more on the top end. I don't know that a .50 calibler that can be contained within a K-frame would get up to 1".

Well, you know what the .45 guys say, a .45 MAY expand, but a .50 will NEVER shrink.....