was doing more research on the "perfect sidearm" and was considering thr 475, 500linebaugh, 500sw and 45-70. i liked the up to 590 grain bullet selection for the 500l but i heard of the wall thickness issue on the ruger conversion. is this realy an issue or a way to make people feel better about their gun that is not a 500l? i am strongly considering the 475 500sw and 500l right now so dont go on a 45-70 tangent as it is not an issue right now. thanks for your help

BOOM STICK, Talk to Gary Reeder http://www.reedercustomguns.com He has built plenty of them in all the calibers, except for the 45-70 that you mentioned. I don't have one yet, but I do have a BFR 500 S&W.

if it counts i have read many times that the 475 out penatrates the 500 linebaugh and that the lower velocitys, say 1300 fps out penatrate somthing higher like 1600. all though that is just what i have read here. if you want to see a nice gun in 475 look at here

http://www.gunblast.com/Freedom_83-475.htm

also check out the archives there they have articles on lots of big bore revolvers

What about the BFR in 500 JRH?
Their custom shop will take a BFr in 50 AE and fit an extra cylinder for 500 JRH for $300. Any barrel length can be specified. To buy from them will run you just over $1200.
I was thinking about this, but got a BFR in 475 Linebaugh for $635 on Gun Broker. It should be here next week. Can't wait to shoot it.
While browseing I did see 2 Freedom Arms 50 AE guns for $1050
Have you picked up one of the 4" 500 smiths? They feel pretty good to me and I think would make a good packin gun. You don't have to load them all the way up all the time. How about a 500gn bullet at 1200? I hear from Mountainmolds.com that he has made some 700gn molds for the 500 S&W.

Lar45
I got my 6 1/2" BFR .475 a few weeks ago and it and the .45/70 10" have become my two favorites in the gun safe. IMHO Magnum Research is putting out a high quality gun for the price.

ive shot alot of real heavy loads out of my .500s without problems. John L. purposely has his loads for the 500 on the light side. He loads the .475 to much higher pressures but like i said my guns have seen some loads that i wont publish and there no worse for the wear. But like youve read if your shooting cast bullets 1200 fps is all you really need and really 1000fps will do the job and either will do that easily with any bullet weight.

It's pretty hard to overload the 500; it just has too much bore. That said, you can cause a creeping casehead expansion which most dies will not correct. If you look, RCBS has their set in the bottleneck group. A sized case even looks bottlenecked like a 44-40.

Don't ask me why. I bought another set from another maker and they're not much different.

If anyone wants a set of 500 Linebaugh RCBS dies cheap, PM me.

what about the distance between the chambers on the ruger conversions? is it thick enough?

Tiggergate,

I have a friend that has had problems with his 500L dies from another maker, and has been looking for RCBS dies.

I've never heard of the 500L having problems with thin cylinders. It can't be loaded to the same pressures as the 475L, but despite that, has no problem slinging heavy bullets at reasonable velocities.

Paul, I just sold them but thanks. Boomer, the cylinders are custom built and larger in diameter than factory Rugers. There's plenty of meat in the 5 shooters.

thanks guys

Die problems can come from the brass. Cut down 348 brass, BBA/Starline and Hornady brass are all slightly different in thickness. CH4D sells two different sizers because of this. The cases sort of looked bottlenecked when I used the dies from them. I used them for a few years, but sold them and got a set of Hornady, and I like 'em. (and I HATE Hornady dies)

My friend has had problem with the CH4D crimping die, well it might be a combination of a sizing die and crimping die problem. With the 470 gr bullets I cast for him, he finds that when he loads them up around 1330 fps that by the 3rd or 4th shot the remaining bullet(s) will start pulling out of the case and tieing up the gun.

i had problems with the ch dies too with .348 brass but with starline or hornady brass and horandy dies i havent had the problem