I,ve tried to resist for a long time, just can,t take it no more. Decided I,m gonna have to round up a 500 S&W, 8.38 barrel, fiber optic front sight,fish gills muzzle brake..
Thinkin I might want to throw a scope on it not too far down the road, got Mr.McGoo eyes that don,t seem to be improving with age. Scope or red dot, not sure which would be a better call, open to suggestion...
Started roundin up brass, dies, bullets, was,nt payin enough attention, noticed my chamfer/de-burr tool was a touch on the smallish side. Reckon a 50 BMG tool is on the horizon. Got used to mostly running 240 XTPs and 310 cast bullets in a .44, this may seem like a silly question to some of you, but here it is...
Never dealt with a gun with a muzzle brake before. I,ve got 350 gr Speer and 400 gr Sierra,s rounded up to get started, I,m wondering if there are any issues I need to be aware of in regards to running cast bullets through the gun? Any problems with leading in the muzzle brake?
And, like any kid with a new toy, more questions.. What cast bullets work well with this gun? I don,t cast my own, so looking at Beartooth, Montana Bullet Works, etc...
Again, open to suggestions as to which bullets, weights, powder, etc... Plan on a whole lot of plinkin to start, with high hopes of developing the ability to hit a wide barn thats not moving too fast... Like the idea of trying a little hunting with this gun, contingent upon my ability to actualy hit something with it. Pondering the idea of a spring black bear hunt, and the idea of being perhaps a little over gunned for blacktail deer.
And there are probably obvious questions I should be asking, but due to inexperience with this gun in particular, and handgun hunting in general, are not occurring to me...

Ive used laser cast gas check bullets
Accurate and no issues

Go dot. I've used a scope but in low light in the woods a dot is much better

Great revolver for bear, mine has gone after black bear in western timber.



Cheers
Tinker

Never had a leading problem at all except with the 700 grainers. They leaded the hell out of evreything for me. Worthless bullet too by the way. I used an ultra dot red dot on one of mine and it worked great. I used 440 grain cast performance bullets. Shot very accurate out of my gun, highly recommend them. I have since sold both of my 500's though.

Go for the Performance model with the 10 1/2 " barrel. The difference in recoil is definitely noticeablely less. As much as 30%. These things are good for about 700 rounds and then the throat is gone and they start spitting stuff back at you. I'm on my 3rd one now. I don't think they expect you to shoot one this much. Other than that, good gun, accurate and has the punch.

And then get a trailer to haul it in......

Dang, the X-frame is already large by huge, but add a 10 1/2-inch tube and you've got yourself a crew-served weapon!

I agree that the 700 grainers are about as useless as a hat on a boar hog and nothing more than a novelty. Cast Performance has a very good 500 grain LFN that works like a charm.

I have been shooting the 500 Mag since 2003. I have put thousands of rounds through the tube's of 5 of my 500 Mag. I have shot everything from 275 gr. Barnes bullets to the 700 gr. hard cast. I have never ran into a problem with leading in any of my 500 mags. I bought bullets from Cast performance, Montana bullet works and Ranger Rick. I have taken a lot of deer, hogs and black bear with my 500 Mag. I use a Ultra-dot red-dot sight. They seem to work the best for me. The best weight bullet I have found that works the best in all my 500 mags, has been the Montana Bullet works 440 gr. hard cast LFN gas checked bullet. I don't ever see a need for anything over 440 gr. for the 500 mag.

I have a Raging Bull .500 S&W. Very heavy, but very deadly. The Taurus brake has not had any leading problems. I have a T'SOB mount and a Bushnell Elite 2-6X on it. No problems with either. Mine is wickedly accurate with 375 gr. Xs, like 1 1/2" at 100. Big guns are short rangers. Yeah, right. Taken deer out to 200 and a brown bear at 129, both with the X. Casts only do about 3", still not bad for that big a gun. Quiet Hide made me a belt holster for it that's a lot more comfortable than a shoulder one.

quote:

Originally posted by WV Hitman:
I have a Raging Bull .500 S&W. Very heavy, but very deadly. The Taurus brake has not had any leading problems. I have a T'SOB mount and a Bushnell Elite 2-6X on it. No problems with either. Mine is wickedly accurate with 375 gr. Xs, like 1 1/2" at 100. Big guns are short rangers. Yeah, right. Taken deer out to 200 and a brown bear at 129, both with the X. Casts only do about 3", still not bad for that big a gun. Quiet Hide made me a belt holster for it that's a lot more comfortable than a shoulder one.

Hey Larry, how've you been?

The gun is very heavy, thats why I dumped mine. Like taking a rifle out. They both were very accurate. The 440's are probably the best bullet for the 500.

Will try some of the Montana cast.. What powders work well with the 440 cast bullets? In .44 I,ve gravitated to HS-6 for plinkin loads, and a good charge of #9 behind the 310s for anything more serious.. Got some 110 kickin around, have,nt used it in a while..
I know some guys like Lil Gun, keep hearing it burns hot, don,t have any around, but I do get curious about the stuff.. Any thoughts or reccomendations in that regard?
Apreciate the replies, thank you!!

h110 for stiff loads, thats what I used. Worked well and produced some accurate loads.

I've been shooting 35.5gr H4227 behind my own cast 440gr gas checked slugs (Lee mold). This gets me to 1550fps and is easy to shoot.

I also tried H110. That didn't burn clean until I got to the top loads at 1600+fps. Lots of soot.

Jeremy

h110 is strictly for thee hot stuff

I use H110 for my 500 Mag, I have a lot of load data for the 500 mag with different powders, but H110 is what I use 95% of the time.

I'm 100% WW296 for my .500s. Always works great.

Sorry fella,s , bear with me. More newby questions...
Looking at Montana,s site, I,m seeing 3 prime suspects, a Lee mould 440 gr flat nose GC, an LBT mould 440 long flat nose GC, and an LBT 450 long flat nose GC... The 440 LBT looks like it has a fairly long nose, might require extra trimimming to make it fit right.. Almost seems like the 440 Lee or the 450 LBT would be the two easiest to deal with in a revolver.. My first thought was to go with the 450 LBT, but I,ve gotten in trouble with previous assumptions.
Of the three cast bullets, which one to go with?

I use WW296 with 500gr XTP's in mine. It's the most accurate bullet in the most accurate handgun that I own. I've tried 275gr, 350gr, 440gr and 500gr bullets.

Muttly,

The cylinder on the 500 Smith is long enough to handle any 440gr cast bullet with no OAL issues. Look at the length of the Barnes bullets for it. The LBT LFN is shorter than the 325gr Barnes from the crimp groove to the nose. The Barnes bullets are long.

I cast my own with the Lee mold, and they are accurate in my Smith after sizing to 0.501". Cheapest shooting I can get with that cartridge.

Jeremy

I hate to be a naysayer, but 440-500 gr. bullets are not needed in the lower 48. They greatly increase recoil and probably decrease accuracy and increase recovery time for the next shot. I doubt if anyone has killed more groundhogs and deer with .500s than me. 350 gr. Sierra HPs, 325Xs, and 400 gr. Speers kill fantastic, are much easier on the hand ,and give superb accuracy. My brown bear dropped at the shot with the 375X.
I don't want to sound like a know-it-all, but you won't be happy with the big bullets unless you arte very experienced with the .500.

Muttly, you don't have to trim the 440 gr. LFN from Montana bullet wotks, I used them with no problem and lots of room for them.

WV Hitman, like I posted above, I have shot just about every bullet out of my 500 mag's. The most accurate for my guns were the 440 gr. Montana Bullet works LFN gas check. The 500 Mag shooting full house loads no matter the bullet weight is going to a good bit of recoil. Unless you load the 500 Mag down, and I don't know why anyone that bought a 500 mag would want to do that, as they should not of bought such a gun in the first place. Everyone is going to pick there favorite load and bullet weight. What works for you and I, may not be ideal for someone else. As far as you statement about recovery time, I wish I could post a video of my black bear hunt, I took 2 shots on my bear with a single action BFR in 500 Mag, and the shots were so close together, people thought I was pulling the trigger on a double action as fast as I could. As for the bullet placement on the bear, both shots were within 2 inches of each other on the bear as well. That just goes to show, everyone handles recoil differently.

quote:

Originally posted by WV Hitman:
I hate to be a naysayer, but 440-500 gr. bullets are not needed in the lower 48. They greatly increase recoil and probably decrease accuracy and increase recovery time for the next shot. I doubt if anyone has killed more groundhogs and deer with .500s than me. 350 gr. Sierra HPs, 325Xs, and 400 gr. Speers kill fantastic, are much easier on the hand ,and give superb accuracy. My brown bear dropped at the shot with the 375X.
I don't want to sound like a know-it-all, but you won't be happy with the big bullets unless you arte very experienced with the .500.

You are probably right (concerning most native game)....but don't forget that we have some very BIG exotics here in Texas. In fact, I will be looking to get a .500 of some flavor in the future to hunt Asian Water Buffalo and American Bison with....as I'm not sure I'm comfortable taking those with my .44 (particularly the Water Buffalo).

Right, ES. The big boys need more than .44s. .454s are marginal. I put a water buffalo down easily with a .475 Linebaugh as well as rhino. .500 would probably give you more piece of mind.

Hahaa!!! Talk about timing! Just got a call from the gun shop, a 500 just showed up with my name on it! Gettin ready to head out the door, the mailman shows up with Whitworth,s book!

An update, of sorts. Brought the 500 S&W home last friday, got some ammo loaded up for it this week. Made it out yesterday evening, got a chance to try the beasty out!
Put together some softys with 19 grains Unique, 350 Speers. Not bad, easy extraction, had,nt used Unique before, burned a little cleaner than I expected.
Mid range, 35 grains #9/350 Speers. This one pushed back a bit, more muzzle flash than expected. Burned a little dirtier than I thought it would. Sticky extraction on one, think it was a combo of too much crimp (Redding crimp die, think I got a little over enthusiastic...), and untrimmed brass.
Couple of em had bulges in the center of the brass after crimping,had,nt seen that before. Set those two aside, chalked it up as collateral damage on the learning curve. Think the one that had sticky extraction was doing the same thing, did,nt see or feel it after running it through the crimp die. After taking the fired case out of the cylinder, it had a bright shiny ring all the way around, halfway up the brass..
Backed off on the die slightly, put some rounds together with 37 grains H 110, 400gr Sierra,s. This one had a little skonk, raps the knuckles if I,m not careful.. Mini flame thrower, nice clean brass, easy extraction. Like this one, think I,m on the right track, hafta see how accurate it is, may be a keeper!
Any hints, tips, or insight would be appreciated. Work my way into heavier charges with the 110/400 Sierra,s, or call it good for now?
Had a suspicion that #9 might not be a great powder for the 500, but realy like it in the .44, could,nt resist trieing it... Try a heavier charge of #9 behind the Speer 350s, see if it starts to clean up, or call it a dead end and use 110?
And finally, got a box from Montana Bullet Works yesterday! 440 LFNs. The big guys! At least for this newby...

I,m thinking 110 for these guys. Lookin at the Hogdon manual, would imagine 36-38 grains should be about ball park.. If somebody wanted to PM me their favorite load for these ones, or point me in the right dirrection, would,nt hurt my feelings at all!.. Cutter holder on the way, know I oughta keep the brass a litle better trimmed, usually do....kid with a new toy syndrome!..

And thank you, gentlemen, for the replies! I do appreciate it!

Muttly, did you end up getting the 10.5" barrel? Performance center? Pictures?

My one regret about my X-frame .460 is I bought a 5" barrel. Wishing I'd bought the 10.5"!

Got the one with the 8.38 barrel, fish gills muzzle brake. Box stock so far, think I might put optics on it.. Originally thought I,d throw a Leupold on it, but I,m getting more and more curious about the ultra-dots. I,d like a low power VX-R with unlimited eye relief thats completely immune to recoil, with a nice wide field of view, but I,ve got a funny feeling thats not gonna happen real soon..

I'm quite interested in the ultra dots, myself. I've currently no optics on any of my revolvers, but should I change that I'll probably look towards the ultra dot 30mm.

Now to just find Whitworth so I can blame him for prompting the spending of all of my firearms funds recently..... His book only made that worse!

I know everyone says H110 and W296 are essentially the same powder, but I've consistently gotten much smaller groups with H110 in the .500. Maybe I have a bad keg of 296, but this keg groups the same or better than 110 in several different .44's.

quote:

Originally posted by Kyler Hamann:
I know everyone says H110 and W296 are essentially the same powder, but I've consistently gotten much smaller groups with H110 in the .500. Maybe I have a bad keg of 296, but this keg groups the same or better than 110 in several different .44's.

H-110 and W-296 are exactly the same powder. Made in the same plant and put into different containers/ Hogdon will confirm.

The difference is lot to lot and nothing more