I have a 15" Encore barrel in 50 A.E. and have been loading the 325 gr Speer Uni-Core HP to an honest 1850 fps for the five years I have had the barrel.

Accuracy is great with 50 yard groups though the 1.5-4x Burris clipping under 1" for five shots all of the time.

It also is flat out amazing on game up to the size of whitetail and mule deer.

The problem is that this high velocity puts a hell of a strain on the Speer bullet even though it has a bonded core and stands up amazingly well on impact. If heavy resistence is met, the bullet will turn nearly inside out. It retains alot of weight but with its huge diameter, penetration suffers.

I have always been looking for a better choice of bullet for this handgun/round combo, I even purchases some of Winchesters 12 gauge saboted partition gold rounds which are loaded with a true .500" 385 gr partition bullet. I would tear down the shells and load the bullets in the 50 A.E. to see what they would do.

They shot very well but with 5 shotgun rounds running +$10, this is a poor way to increase performance.

With the release of the 500 S&W, we now have some true heavy weight bullets on the market in .500" diameter.

The one I have right now is the Cast Performance Bullets 440gr WFNGC.

Does anyone have any data on these heavy slugs in the 50 A.E.?

Any information would be great. I have ran the numbers though the computer to estimate a starting load, but I would prefer data from actual shooting.

I will be using H-110 and H-LilGun.

Thanks for the data!

Good SHooting!!!

50

Old notes from my 5 Shot Ruger Bisley in 50AE (don't have the gun anymore)

Can't give you exactly what you want, but these may help you feel your way around somewhat.

With a 405 grain WFN bullet cast on a custom Hotch mould.
I fired loads of W296 up to 28.0 grains without pressure problems. I stopped there because of bullet pull.

With a BRP 380 grain and H110 I worked to 28.8 grains but was stopped by bullet pull.

The Encore should have no problems with any of these loads, but I'd still drop down and work up.

Last info I had was 30grs H-110 CCI 350 primer 1365, FA MODEL 555 7-1/2 barrel.

With what bullet coondog? That sounds like a mid level 325 load. For a 440 gr that would be high end for a 500 Linebaugh which has a good deal larger case. Sure that's right?

Cas that was with a BRP 380gr SWC.

To All,

I just finished my first serious load testing session using the 440 gr WFNGC .500" hard cast from CPB.

I decided to start out with a load of 25.0 gr H-110 and worked up 1.0 gr until I reached 27.0 gr.

This is just a breif overview of the data collected so do not take this for rock solid data yet.

The first thing I noticed was that recoil, while heavy, was not sharp like it is with my 1850 fps 325gr Speer HP load. THe Encore barrel does high almost vertical with muzzle jump, but it is much slower then I expected.

At 25.0 gr, Here are the velocity readings:
1457 fps
1450 fps
1458 fps

Ave: 1455 fps
E.S.: 8 fps
TKO: 46
KE: 2069 ft/lbs

Accuracy with this load was a bit poor. At 60 yards these three shots went just under 3" ctc. Fine for big game hunting thought. I did notice a strange smear mark on the primer crater though, more on this later.

The next load was 26.0 gr.

1519 fps
1507 fps
1504 fps

Ave: 1510 fps
E.S.: 15 fps
TKO: 47
K.E.: 2228 ft/lbs

With each of these three shots, it was clear that the action was unlocking under recoil. DO not know if this is a common problem but it has been with this barrel and my 454 barrel with heavy recoiling loads. This was the cause of the smear in the primer crater.

Also accuracy was getting worse with these three rounds grouping at 4.2" ctc.

I took the handgun to the bench to fix the problem with it opening under recoil. This is really just a problem with muzzle jump. The handgun jumps so quickly, that my trigger finger will pull the trigger hard enough to pull the opening lever.

I fitted a spacer to the opening lever spring to compress it some and increase the pull weight. Then I removed the locking levers from the barrel and increased the spring weight on them as well.

It now takes a bit over twice as much force to open the action as it did before.

I loaded up three more rounds at 26.0 gr and headed back to my range.

This time, the handgun recoil and stayed totally locked as there was no mark at all on the primer crater.

These three at 26.0 gr clocked:

1509 fps
1511 fps
1517 fps

Ave: 1512 fps
E.S.: 8 fps

The biggest improvement was that these three cut a .68" clover leaf. Obviously the action was opening before the bullet was pointed in the right direction.

The last load was 27.0 gr:

1558 fps
1565 fps
1566 fps

Ave: 1563 fps
E.S.: 8 fps
TKO: 49
K.E.: 2387 ft/lbs

These three rounds cut a .73" cloverleaf.

The last load was starting to stick in the chamber though but the chamber was also very dirty from shooting previously with the Encore. If the chamber was totally clean, I am sure the 27.o gr load would eject very easily.

Please remember that these laods are being fired in a handgun that will handle 60,000 psi. Do not try these loads in any conventional revolver or semi-auto without working up from lower pressures. And never use these bullets in the D. Eagle. This is obvious but needs to be said.

One note of interest, these bullets, being designed for the 500 S&W have a crimping groove but can be loaded to the correct length to feed in handguns such as the Automag V and will work fine in the FA and BFR revolvers, bullet creep may be a problem though.

Just though I would post the results for those that offered information on loads.

When testing these loads, the first three penetrated over 2 feet of dirt and exited my backstop. No harm done though, as I have a second backstop just to be safe. The rest of the testing was shot into a section of backstop with +4 feet of dirt, all bullets were contained by this, penetration was impressive though.

We shot my brothers 416 Rem Mag into the same area as the first rounds of 50 A.E. and non penetrated to exit while all three of the 440 gr .500" slugs did, quite impressive.

Thank for the starting help,

Good Shooting!!!

50

They unlock for two reasons. #1, your gun is screwed up.
#2, your loads are way too hot.

(#2 leads to #1)

(oops.. or #3 your pressing the trigger guard into sandbags when you shoot it)

[ 09-18-2003, 04:24: Message edited by: cas ]