Hello all! I've read many posts discussing .500 A2 conversions and I have the fever! Who can build one for $2000 or less? AHR won't do it. I know Pacnor and McGowen will do the barrel and I can buy the action from Brownell's and a McMillen stock but who will make it feed and function properly? Everyone says it's an easy and practical conversion but I can't find anyone to do it. Who do I contact?

buy rifle - includes stock - 850
buy necg front and rear sights 200
send to pacnor, barrel, recoil lug, chambering, feeding, sights install, bluing .. $650-800
have a local guy dual xbolt, wrist pin, bed, and relieve rear tang $200

or just buy a 500 jeffe from cz

oh, yeah, those aren't 1963, make believe, or dummy-the gunsmidt prices.. thats what pacnor charges and probably barrels more rifles in a month than any other gunsmith will do in a life time

It might be less expensive to buy a completed CZ 550 in .416 Rigby and just do a barrel swap. Don't know where your located but a good smith with a lathe should be able to provide you with services. As far as feeding run some dummies through it and have your smith adjust accordingly and the stock can simply be opened up with some deep well sockets and sandpaper working up to your barrel contour. Don't forget to add crossbolts and bedding. Best advice I can give is talk to some different smiths in your area and find out there abilities. R.

Jeffeosso pretty much nailed the subject. My mistake was that I've spent every day this week in a machine shop that has never seen anything not gun related. Guess I'm a little spoiled. The CZ in 500 Jeffery is an easier way to get a fifty cal and it's my understanding their custom shop will even throat it for bmg bullets. R.

Thanks for the replies. I would like a synthetic stock on the rifle for strength and weather durability. I plan to shoot a lot. I am a machinist/die-maker by trade and could do some of the work myself but I lack the knowledge of the finer mechanical details. I hope to rectify this problem soon but I don't want to start gunsmithing with a dgr like this. I may do the stockwork myself though. I mainly need someone to do the action/barrel work for me. Should I go with a 1.500" or 1.375" stock barrel ? Thanks again! btw...from Georgia

I don't know of any smiths in Ga. that do anything like this. If anybody knows one I would definately talk to him. Thanks again

SRshooter- Great move on a .500a2 you will love it. Get an action and have pac-nor chamber and fit a good barrel for you. Your a machinist, fit the open sights yourself. Getting it to feed is simplicity itself. FIRST open the ramp wings with a dremel tool, deepen it a little, then polish the hell out of the ramp. file down the ribs on the mag box with a power filer. Make some dummy.500a2 cartridges and see how they feed. WITH a SWISS file, carefully open the rails till the cartridges feed straight up both rails and slide smoothly up the ramp. Its intuitively OBVIOUS!. You can do it! You can also call me if you need support during the process, but very little metal needs to be removed. You don't need a gunsmith just rely on your experience. Remember you need a good barrel mounted second recoil lug. MAKE ONE YOURSELF on a mill using a flycutter vertically. You know the barrel diameter and make one that can be screwed on and silver soldered ON. Don't wait for some BOZO GUNSMITH, DO IT YOURSELF!. This way you will be proud of your results. Use a 1:15 twist barrel and put in a integral muzzel brake while your at it. YOU MUST DOUBLE CROSS-BOLT THE STOCK A AND REMEMBER TO BED THE BARREL MOUNTED LUG FIRST or you'll never get the barrel out of the stock. I use Brownells steel bed on my guns. Rich at Pac-Nor knows me and he knows what my gun looks like. Tell him to make you the same thing. CALL ME IF YOU NEED HELP. I think m ine took a 1/2 hour to get perfect and it pretty much fed without doing anything more than file the ribs out of the mag box.-ROB

Proprietary builders of 500 A-Square and 50 Peacekeeper rifles routinely used 1:10" TWIST.
That has worked well for me.
1:12" TWIST would be a nice compromise.
Save the 1:15" TWIST for the 50 BMG.

BTW, Hornady recommends a TWIST of 13" to 18" for the 750-grain A-Max in the 50 BMG, FWIW.

The bullet revolutions per second of that bullet in a 15" TWIST 50 BMG at 2750 fps = 2200 rps.

The rps of same in an 11.7" TWIST 500 A-Square at 2150 fps = 2205 rps.

Those are realistic velocities.

Rob, that sounds great! As long as it takes very little to make it feed correctly. I wish I knew a little more about such work though. Machining skill should be no problem as long as I know what NOT to do! I am a working stiff and can't afford to put all this money into it just to screw it up. It sounds pretty straight forward though. I would like to go with a McMillan drop in stock and work with that. I will go with the Pacnor barrel and mention your gun, Rob. I'll definately be in touch with you guys and follow up on this. How many rounds will the factory mag hold of the .500 A2? What diameter stock barrel shoul I get? I believe they do 1 in 14" and 1 in 9" twist(pacnor). I didn't see 1 in 15". Will the 1 in 15" stabilize 700-750 gr. bullets? Thanks guys!

Thanks RIP ! I read the same thing about the twist on the .500 A2. I've also read that 1 in 15" is good. My BFR .500 S&W has a 1 in 16.5" twist (I think!)and will stabilize bullets up to 700 gr. They are cast bullets though.Iknow that is a different beast though. I would think all twists mentioned would be o.k. though for the bullets I'll be shooting....570 gr-750 gr. I can't wait to get going on it. I definately hope to have it built by late summer. These Georgia whitetails are tuff! I've got to get in some practice time with it! Thanks again guys!

srshooter- You betcha A 1:15 WILL STABILIZE A 750 GR A-MAX. Pac-Nor makes 1:15 but 1:14 will work quite well. I'm not a believer in 1:10 for many many reasons but thats an old story. Load a 750A-Max in a .500a2 case, send it to pac-nor and tell Rich to chamber and throat the gun so it fits. Have them make a integral muzzel brake for you .020 over the bore about 1.5 inches long and drilled with lotsa small holes 1/8 inch diameter in a radial pattern. You'll be amazed at how well that works. I like 26 inch barrels for max velocity but the length is your call. The feeding is really easy and intuitively obvious to get to work, Take small cuts and it will become obvious. A dremel tool should not be used on the rails, just on the feed ramp. Don't worry you won't screw it up and its really easy and fun for someone with your training. Rich is a good guy and knows what he's doing. He visited me at home a few years ago and we had a great time. I have not talked to him for quite awhile, but was impressed with his knowledge and sklls. his wife Penny also works there and is a real sweetheart. AS FAR as barrel profile goes, I'd go with a whatever contour you like. The shank will need to be as large as looks good on a CZ550 action. I don't offhand remember what mine is. I prefer a slightly barrel heavy gun in a big bore myself. When i get a chance I'll measure mine or try and find the dimension sheet i did on it.-ROB

...........SR ....RGB is 100% right on in saying you can do all the feed work ...I have made a Montana 1999 and 3 CZ,s feed like a dream ...But for barrels ,,there is an option you may think about ......Have the barrel maker ,PacNor or McGowan custom turn your barrel so the Rear express sight island and under barrel recoil lug , the sling eye ,,, front sight ramp and muzzle brake are all integral ...McGowan contoured my 416 rem , Stainless barrel to match the factory CZ 550 configuration from a 1.25 " blank ....I wasn,t smart enough at the time to ask for the the sling eye and the front sight ...The next one I will have made from a 1.5 " dia. blank........My 500 A-Sq. was a Hannible and it didn,t have a brake on it ,, It needed one , well I needed one !!...If you want a good demonstration of power take yours when you get it... And shoot a 55gal barrel full to the top with water with the bungs in tight.......You will be impressed !!!!!unless you just finished a hitch running a MA DUCE ............. You don,t need to get the s___t kicked out of you ........... Have fun ...PS I,m a timber faller and a carpenter /turned dirt guy , If I can make an action feed you can do so much better ....

While integral barrels are slick, I doubt Pac- Nor has the capability to do that and it will be VERY expensive. Your a machinist, just square your new barreled action up in the milling vise and D&T the Island, open sights, front sight etc. in place. Sometimes you have to fabricate parts but thats all part of the fun. Then send a polished barreled action out for blueing. Now you silver solder stuff in place. Remember no soldering till after blueing! Gunsmithing is really very very basic stuff for any machinist. There are a few hard learned tricks for DGR's but we share that info readily here. Give it a go! The worst that happens is you take an airplane ride out here and we fix up any boo boos.-Rob

I agree 100% with RGB here, and the new Brownell's Catalog (#60) Page 86 says the street price is only $660 for a 416 Rigby unit. Have Pac-Nor fit a barrel in exactly the contour and length you want, add the NECG sights and barrel band sling swivel on Page 349 rear 3-leaf express sight $125, Page 102 Talley barrel band sling swivel $30, barrel band front sight see Jim Wisner, or the pictures of the ones my gunsmith makes in my 550 photos thread. Add a McMillan or other suitable synthetic stock and you should be in for about $1500-1800...?

Rich
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

As far as gunsmiths in GA, try Roger Ferrel in Fayetville. He has done work for several AR members, including my 375 wby. He is good.Best of luck

And don't forget to use more than the usual twist of the 50 BMG.
That is, if you want to use any and all 50BMG bullets in the slowpoke 500A2.
With the lighter bullets inside of 500 yards range, more than enough twist is never a problem.

"Not enough twist" is always a problem, when it occurs, with any bullet at any range.

With a 10" twist, I can rest assured. Never a problem.

Just an opinion, but a little extra spin don't hurt if your shooting long for caliber bullets such as 600 grain monometals or even the 750 grain BMG bullets. When I get back on my "510" project you bet I'll be looking for a 1 in 10 or 12 barrel. R.

quote:

Originally posted by Rodney H.{500Jeffery}:
Just an opinion, but a little extra spin don't hurt if your shooting long for caliber bullets such as 600 grain monometals or even the 750 grain BMG bullets. When I get back on my "510" project you bet I'll be looking for a 1 in 10 or 12 barrel. R.

Rodney, my friend, are you baiting Rob?

Thanks for all the help guys. I've gotten more useful information from you guys in the last 24 hours than all other sites/forums combined! Pacnor hasn't emailed me back yet but McGowen did. They said they would make the barrel to my instructions, fit it to the action, make it feed and function and install XS ghost ring/white blade front(I prefer ghost ring sights to any for close work) for $415. They said that they could have it back to me in 4-5 weeks. I forgot to mention that I wanted .500" of freebore for .50 BMG bullets but emailed them back with that info and to confirm the price. That seems like a good deal to me. I still want to speak with Pacnor but I think the quote I got from McGowen will be hard to beat. The McGowen staff seemed very friendly, confident and eager to please. I was impressed. I have heard many good things about McGowen & Pacnor and will go with the most timely and economical bid.

I want the rifle to weigh about 11 pounds naked and about 12-12.5 pounds with ammo and 1.5-5X Leupold scope in Leupold's QR rings(may go with a 2.5X scout scope and QR rings; undecided) I'll probably sight in my scope with Barnes X 570 grainers and ghost rings with the heavy bonebreaking solids.

Currently, my hardest kicker is my Ruger no.1 ss/lam .458 Lott with the useless factory brick pad(which may soon be converted to a .460 Wby for brass)which will soon be replaced. I can handle it's recoil pretty well,at least for 20-25 rounds from the bench before my shooting begins to suffer. I have also shot my friend's .460 Wby Mark V a good bit. My Ruger No.1 seems to be a little worse, actually, though his .460 is braked. How do you think an unbraked 12 pound 500 A2 with a properly bedded McMillan stock with decelerator pad will compare, recoil wise, with the .458 Lott #1 and .460 Wby.....all using full power factory loads? I want to try my .500 A2 first without a brake. If I can't handle it well, I'll do the integral muzzle brake myself like Rob suggested. Thanks again to everyone. If not for talking to you guys, I would probably have chickened out and went with the factory CZ 550 .416 Rigby. It's a great round but I've always wanted a .500 A2 stopper. Now it seems very doable

..........McGowan makes a real nice 20 port brake .....The nice thing about a removable brake is you can compare .............Ya , a 600 gr bullet @ 2400 fps ,,,,You will have no doubt about when it goes off ...................After about 10 rounds you will probably be screwing the brake on ...,with 271 LocTite on the threads .........I had a 4x leupold pistol scope on my 500 ...........It was ok but the actual scout scope would be better ......

srshooter,
Sounds like you want a copy of my .510 JAB rifle except with peep sight instead of the Wisner "African" express rear that I have. That is cool. I prefer a peep myself. If I screw the leaf of my express down all the way to bottom I can see over it for use of peep with a large white bead or the gold patridge that stays on the rifle mostly.

My rifle has a 1:10" TWIST stainless McGowen barrel that is 23" long. 1.250" shank. with 3" parallel Knoxform (includes threaded area), then straight taper to 0.870" at muzzle.

On a BRNO ZKK 602 (mine) or your CZ 550 Magnum (same weight), in a McMillan stock, it weighs 10.75 lbs bare.
Scoped (2.5X Leupold in Warne low QD rings) and loaded with 4 cartridges and with muzzle brake screwed on, it weighs 12.5 lbs.
effective barrel length with the brake is 25".

I prefer to hunt without the brake using 570-grain bullets at 2400 fps.

I put the brake on for 705 to 750-grainers at 2100 to 2150 fps.
Supersonic past 1000 yards.
It is the most fun you can have with a big bore.

Removable muzzel brakes are a waste of time and money. Make it integral. It's a whole lot cheaper and easier to do and the results will amaze you. The internal crown thats built into them protects you from muzzel damage and accuracy is enhanced. You save money by not threading. I reccomend the 1:15 twist based on my experience with that twist in both hunting weight bullets and especially with LR shooting of 750 gr A-max's. McGowan is OK but IMHO Pac-Nor does a better job.-Rob

have to differ with you about the brake Rob: if this gentleman ever gets to Africa the PH and trackers will be much happier to see the brake come off and a little cap screwed on it's place.

Rich
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

quote:

Currently, my hardest kicker is my Ruger no.1 ss/lam .458 Lott with the useless factory brick pad(which may soon be converted to a .460 Wby for brass)which will soon be replaced. I can handle it's recoil pretty well,at least for 20-25 rounds from the bench before my shooting begins to suffer. I have also shot my friend's .460 Wby Mark V a good bit. My Ruger No.1 seems to be a little worse, actually, though his .460 is braked. How do you think an unbraked 12 pound 500 A2 with a properly bedded McMillan stock with decelerator pad will compare, recoil wise, with the .458 Lott #1 and .460 Wby.....all using full power factory loads? I want to try my .500 A2 first without a brake. If I can't handle it well, I'll do the integral muzzle brake myself like Rob suggested.

I just took delivery of a 500 Jeffery not too long ago. Haven't shot it much yet, as I am still in the process of assembling reloading components. What I have shot was 570gr Tripleshocks and 600gr Woodleighs loaded by Superior to approx. 2250-2300fps, which isn't quite A-Square territory, but is in the neighborhood. Recoil is very manageable in my rifle, which is about 11LBS. with two mercury rods in the stock and no muzzle break.

For comparison, I also own RSM in 458 Lott and a Mark V in 460 with the older Pendleton style break. The 500 is actually more comfortable to shoot than the two big 45 cals in my opinion. Adequate rifle weight and proper stock design definately go a long way towards making recoil managable. Based on your prior shooting experience, I don't think you'll have any problems with the A-Square

quote:

Originally posted by srshooter:
Hello all! I've read many posts discussing .500 A2 conversions and I have the fever! Who can build one for $2000 or less? AHR won't do it. I know Pacnor and McGowen will do the barrel and I can buy the action from Brownell's and a McMillen stock but who will make it feed and function properly? Everyone says it's an easy and practical conversion but I can't find anyone to do it. Who do I contact?

srsshooter:

Are you sure AHR won't do it? I have exchanged e-mail with them about that exact same project. My intent was to buy a new CZ .416 Rigby in a laminated stock and send it to AHR and have them re-barrel it in .500 A-Square, bed it and put their trigger in it. They told me they had the reamer and would be glad to do the work for me.

Dave

Dave - I think he means that AHR won't do the conversion for the price of $2000 (not that they won't do the work).

KMule

Rich- Been to Africa 7 times. Basically if during the interview phase the PH didn't like muzzel brakes, I took my buisness elsewhere. No one ever complained. They made alot of money!-Rob

Penny @ Pacnor emailed me today suggesting that I contact www.noveskerrifleworks.com so I guess they are passing on my .500 A2 project too! She refered me to them and that's all that was said. I think I'll go with McGowen. They want the job and seem like good people to meand their price is right too.

Dave, AHR passed on my project because of the .500 A2's rim being .010 smaller than the Rigby's. At least that's what he said. He was friendly though. He was trying to sell me on the .500 AHR cartridge, which is a fine one, but the .500 A2 is better for me for $$$ reasons and there's plenty of brass. McGowen seemed to believe that the .500 A2 will work fine on the CZ action......or at least he could make it work fine. Rob definately seems to like his. Thanks to all for your input and useful information. Much Appreciated Fellas!

Excuse me, that's www.noveskerifleworks.com ! Too many r's in the first one.

Rob, have you taken any big game with your .500 A2? How'd it go?

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
have to differ with you about the brake Rob: if this gentleman ever gets to Africa the PH and trackers will be much happier to see the brake come off and a little cap screwed on it's place.

Ditto.
Every integral braked sporting rifle I ever owned (all two of them), I regretted, and swore never to do it again.

I traded off the 460 Wby Mark V with the Pilkington/Pendleton/Schmendleton integral brake.

I still suffer with one 23" barreled .458 Lapua with integral brake. It is too short to cut off the swiss cheese on the end of it. I hate rifle barrels shorter than 23".

Does anyone offer a .510 barrel blank with an outside diameter more than 1 1/2 inches. Something I've allways wanted to do is turn the barrel out of round with the bore at the breach end and taper back to true at the muzzle to creat enough of a lobe to be able to mill a quarter rib. Has there been any problims with the .009" difference in rim diameters? Thats .0045" to the side, and that may or could be of concern. R.

pac-nor and mcgowen will turn up to 2" .. i did the 550 express barrel on a 1.75, which allows sightbase and barrel lug on the barrels
jeffe

I cannot say about an eccentric turning of the barrel for start of a quarter rib. Sounds like disaster planning to me.

My rifle had the bolt face opened up from .375 H&H to 460WBY size.
I have found the .416 Rigby bolt face on the CZ to work fine with the 460WBY rim size, just a little extra slop makes it feed smoother and never an extraction problem.

Here is the ultimate big bore that I have had since 2000 AD.
10.75# Configuration, McMillan stock, McGowen Barrel, this is a McFiveHundred rifle:


12.5# configuration (both rifles same weight and length as shown, same caliber):


2.5X scope usually stays on the .510 JAB, it was switched to .505 Gibbs for photo-op:




It has slain a bison and it was carried as protection in brown bear country.

I fired it at a big black bear at 400 yards range, and 30-degree incline up a hillside in Alaska once, using the iron sights and 570-grain XLC at just over 2400 fps. I do believe the bullet went through the fur of the bear's back. I could see the hit in the earth of the hillside from 400 yards away, a shower of rocks, vegetation, and soil spewed onto the bear. The bear spooked. The bear went over the mountain really fast.

Thanks Jeffeosso, thats very helpful. It will be alot more work doing the countor this way but will definaitly be worth it. Right now I'm just trying to finish my double project then onto the two turnbolts I'm obligated to. Rodney.

If Pac-Nor won''t do it then McGowan for sure. I would never have somebody unfamiliar with DGR'S GIVE IT A TRY. That link looks like a AR-15 site so I'd stay away. At the worst just get a .375 H&H Claw extractor and replace your .416 extractor claw with it. Then you carefully open the claw with a dremel tool till it snaps over the WBY rim. Again minor stuff. I can't remember if I had to do that or not. My .500a2 started life as a .416Rigby and I don't remember even having to re-shape an extractor. In fact I think I simply re-shaped the bottom of the hook and that was it.-Rob

RIP, how well did your 1.25" barrel fit into the McMillen stock? I had decided to go with a 1.375" diameter, 22-24" long, with the first 3.00" from the receiver a straight 1.375". Then from there, tapering to about 1.00" at the muzzle. I figured that this would get me a 11-11.5 pound unscoped rifle. How well do you think such a barrel would fit McMillen's stock? You are pretty close to my goal at 10.75 pounds though and I may go with that. By the way, nice rifles! Yours is close to what I have in mind. What's the barrel length on the Ruger No.1? Guessing.........28"?

Rob, I agree with you. The sight Pacnor sent me to does look like an AR15/assault weapon site....I ain't going there. That's for sure. I already agreed to send my action to McGowen. Again $415 for the WHOLE CONVERSION and installation of sights and freebore is better than I expected. Plus, they will be responsible if it doesn't work. He guarranteed it. They seem very confident and comfortable with the conversion. I believe I can do it but at that price, I'll let them do it. Gotta get this thing going!

I can't believe all the positive support I'm getting on this site about a .500 A2 rifle! Most people oooh and aahhh about a .458 Lott and how unnecessarily powerful that is. You guys shoot some mean rifles.
Thanks for all the help!

RIP, it sounds like you ordered the Shilen #7 barrel contour from McGowan. McMillen says their CZ 550 Safari Magnum stock will only handle a Douglas #5 barrel contour. The #5 is a 1.150" stock that tapers to .700" on a 26" barrel. That seems way to thin to me, at least for a .500 A2. That may be good for a .416 but not for a .500!! What gives?

quote:

Originally posted by KMuleinAK:
Dave - I think he means that AHR won't do the conversion for the price of $2000 (not that they won't do the work).

KMule

Sorry guys, I misunderstood.

Rob has sort of got me convinced that the most practical big bore is the .500 A-Square (or perhaps the .495 A-Square) and if I go ahead with this project, I am pretty sure I am going to have the guys at AHR do it for me. I haven't talked money with them yet but if you already have a .416 Rigby, I can't believe it would be to much for a re-barrel job and a trigger.

Dave