This last year or so I have been tossing around the idea of a new bigbore. I've considered the 500A2, 470 Capstick, 470 Mbogo and a few others. Recently, the 500 AHR has caught my attention and I'm seriously considering it. Is there any reason why I shouldn't?

Thanks,

Landrum

No reason; each of the cartridges mentioned have something going for it.

Decide for yourself:

• what kind of hunting or shooting you will do with it
• what size action is needed
• economics of reloading
• availability of components
• complexity of building around each cartridge

George

George has covered all the bases.

I'm not sure about brass quality/availability for the AHR round, so if I were you, I'd want to check on that in particular.

doesnt AHR sell the Brass?

We do have the brass and dies. You will use the same loading data as you would for the 500 Jefferey. The case is near identical to the Jefferey except the AHR has a longer neck and a slightly larger diameter rim. The AHR round must go in a magnum length action. I hope this helps.

There is a nice 500 AHR for sale on Gunbroker!

I have one! Nice gun and better cartridge design than the old Jeffery IMHO.-Rob

This is an old thread but maybe some more light can be shed on the subject. Any of you guys own a 500 AHR?

Bertram Brass seems to get crapped on a lot. Anyone care to elaborate on the issues surrounding this brass?

Thanks

Robgunbuilder has one.

As for Bertram brass, it has been found to be 'soft' in the past. Search this forum and the African Hunting forum for relevant threads.

George

An excellent caliber for elephant, have 4. Have one built on a CZ action by AHR. As Rob indicated, solves the feeding problems associated with the 500 Jeffrey.

Brass is readily available from AHR.

Good luck.

Dak

The 500 AHR is a well designed cartridge with 148 grains capacity in "ammoguide" units. It is wonderfully powerful, if you actually use it's capacity.

If you want to utilize the capacity, then the loads should be developed to at least 8000 ft lbs or more. If you are not planning on using 8000 ftlbs then some of the lesser capacity 500's will allow less expensive configurations. Next step down would be the A-2 (belted) and 500 Mbogo (beltless), though both are also good for about 8000 ftlbs. If you want to drop to a 7000 ftlbs level, then the 500 AccRel Nyati (a 2.65" Rigby case) is the choice, which can also be fitted in a 'standard' length action. The A2, Mbogo and Nyati have brass available through Quality Cartridge.

My 2 cents.

That 500 AHR brass is one-sourced from Bertram, yes?.
Quality Cartridge made the 500 Mbogo brass from Hornady basic-cylindrical Rigby brass.
It was good stuff, when I had it made up, and Peter Cardona was talking back then about what basic he used.

Yes the ammoguide case capacities are not real.
They are calculated, relative case capacities that have to be indexed on known realities.
The 500 Jeffery is about 160 grains of water, so the 500 AHR must be closer to 170-grains.
The 500 Mbogo is over 150 grains.

168 gr of water in once fired cases! My gun does not use a single stack mag and initially had major feeding issues which I solved by some magazine tricks. I discussed it big time with AHR and we came up with the SS mag box adapter which solved all the problems. It's a really good cartridge though and shoots quite well! -Rob

I have a 500 Jeffery. Great cartridge. However, if I was building a 500 today, the only 500 I would consider is Jeff's 500 AccRel.