I'm toying with the idea of completing a 510 Wells Brevex barreled action I have. How much should a 500 magnum bolt rifle weigh? 11 or 12 lbs enough? Thanks.

My 500 Jeffrey weighs 10 1/2 pounds, which seems just about right to me. I really wouldn't want to carry something over 11 pounds, nor would I want to shoot an unbraked 50 that weighed less than 10.

It's all personal choice, and a properly fit stock is way more important than what it tips the scales at.

Paul, I think you're right, I'll probably shoot for just under 11 lbs. My Lott at 10.25lbs seems heavy, especially when you start walking with it.

My 500 A2 is called a .510 JAB.
It weighs 10.75 pounds without ammo and with iron sights only. The sling, scope, and muzzlebrake that can be added, don't belong there when it is ready for action.

However ammo is necessary, and 4 rounds of that weigh about 1/2 pound. So it will weigh 11.25 pounds loaded with ammo.

That is heavy enough to make unbraked recoil tolerable, and a 10.75# bare/empty rifle is as heavy as I want to carry all day for a week through hill and dale of Hinchinbrook Island, Alaska, or anywhere.

This is a BRNO ZKK 602 with McGowen 10" twist 23" long stainless barrel that is 0.875" at the muzzle with a straight taper, not a sporter contour.

It has a barrel mounted sling base, Wisner 3-position safety, NECG front, Wisner African rear sight, all blacked and in a McMillan stock.

12 is a bit heavy , 9 is too light...

the rest is preference...

aim for 10# empty?

I would
jeffe

I have a 25 inch barrelled .500 A2 coming soon from AHR (the rifle is finished and Ed Plummer will begin final proving and function testing as soon as he can put some ammo together). I specified a weight for my .500 of plus or minus 12 lbs. empty. Using RIP's ammo weight figure, loaded with three down and one up it will go 12.5. With a scope (which I really don't plan to use much, if at all), it will push 14.

I like a heavier rifle than most people. I also like heavier contoured longer barrels. They hang better and I shoot them better. Plus, the recoil becomes almost neglible, even in the big boomers. The trade off is that they will of course will wear you down on a long hike.

My fully scoped and loaded (three down, one up), 25 inch barrelled Blaser R93 Synthetic .375 H&H comes in at nearly 11 lbs. (with a Kick-Stop tungsten bead recoil reducer in the buttstock and a Break-O mercury reducer added to the fore end for balance). And that's minus the Answer Products muzzle brake. This rifle kicks about like a .30-06 sporting rifle without the brake and with it even less.

I use the exact same rig with a .338 Win. Mag. barrel on it and it weighs the same but kicks a bit more than the .375.

My loaded (five down, one up), 24 inch barrelled AHR .458 Lott comes in at 12.25 lbs. (including two mercury reducers in the buttstock) with another pound and a half added when scoped. Also minus the AHR X-Brake. This rifle is a joy to shoot even without the brake. With the brake, it's a pussycat.

I have carried these rifles fully scoped in the bush for hours--and I won't lie to you, before too long they seem to get heavier than Rosie O'Donnell. But I still love them. I just shift from one carry method to another, and another and another . . . to spread the pain.

mrlexma,
I like it! The 500 A2 in an AHR-perfected CZ 550 Magnum sounds great!

Your little bit of extra weight will make it nicer to shoot, and the .460 Wby brass will be good to load it with when a headstamp doesn't matter.

I shoot 570 grain Barnes XLC's at 2450 fps, or 700 grain Black Tip AP, APIT/Ball/etc, at 2150 fps. These are my accuracy loads. My 27" barreled Ruger No. 1 will add 100 fps to these velocities, and very accurate.

There should be a 500A2 in every home.

quote:

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Originally posted by RIP:
There should be a 500A2 in every home.

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I'll post pictures of mine after it arrives in the brown truck. I picked a nice piece of English. Plus, I liked the engraving on my Lott so much that I had this one engraved too. I am such a sucker for a good-looking rifle.

I was wondering how the .509" XLCs would shoot in the A2. I'll bet they're bone-crushers in any case. I bought a box to try a while ago. I can't wait to load some up and give them a try.

My dies are on order now!

The Barnes .509/570gr XLC's and .510/570gr GSC FN solids shoot great and are fine in 10" twist or 15" twist. Same for the 600 grain Barnes solids, but I would save those for just plinking. Also good plinkers are 647 grain Speer and milsurp ball.

The slow moving 700 to 750 grainers (milsurp .50 BMG anti-materiel and also the various finest match target bullets) might be best in a 10" twist at 2100 to 2300 fps.

One can get 800 grain Barnes bore-rider solids, and I even have a few proto-type GSC 850 grain target bullets, but those are really too heavy for the efficient little 500 A2.

The 705 grain "Harlow" By AAA Ammo is phenomenally accurate to 1000 yards in the 500 A2. The 750 grain Hornady A-Max is almost as good.

Cheers!

RIP
What is you load for that 700gr at 2150

RNS

BY the way 510 wells will have headstamped brass soon.

RNS

quote:

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Originally posted by RNS:
By the way 510 wells will have headstamped brass soon.

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Who's making it? I just bought a bunch of 460 to fireform! At least it was cheap (Midway special).

That was going to be my question who is going to be making the 510 wells brass.I was lucky enough to get 100 pieces of unformed weatherby brass from Mast before they stopped making it.
I would like to have a sorce of some more brass.

Like Mrlexma, I have a 12 lb American Hunting Rifles CZ 550 by Ed Plummer, only in 500 AHR. I do use a 1.5x5 Leupold scope, so this adds a bit of weight when loaded. My guess 13+ lbs.

Now, that is a weight to carry on long hot hikes. Like most I put a sling on the rifle, which I am not real fond of, due to some hanging up in heavy bush. But I take it off when we get to this kind cover. The advantage for me is the perfect balance of the rifle. I like heavy rifles and feel that if you close your eyes and quickly shoulder the rifle, the sight picture should be right there.
For this, I will switch to a few different positions during the day when hiking. Another thing, I never let the trackers carry my rifle, I want it available.

Dak

quote:

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Originally posted by RNS:
RIP
What is you load for that 700gr at 2150

RNS

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RNS,
110 to 115 grains of IMR-4350 depending on whether it is a 23" or 27" barrel. Both of my rifles are 10" twist McGowen stainless .510 caliber barrels.

Depends on the rifle, but IMR-4350 or equivalent nearby powder can do it. A lesser charge of H-4350 Extreme would be my next try.

What is the best powder for a 700 grainer or 750 grainer in the 550 Magnum? A bit faster powder than IMR-4350?

With the 570 grainers I stick with 110 grains of RL-15, and get around 2450 fps. Varget might be good there, or in your .550 Magnum with 700 grainers?

I believe SSK was initially claiming 2300 fps with a 750 grain bullet in the 50 Peacekeeper, which is nothing more than a 500 A2 which was derived from the .510 Wells, which was derived from the .505 Barnes Supreme, and it all started with John Buhmiller necking up the .460 Weatherby to .510 caliber to shoot cut off 50 BMG ball backwards, boattail first like an FP/FN.

RIP, glad to hear you've had good luck w/ the 10" twist mcgowen bbls as that's what's on my jeffery and 500NE both. the jeffery still isn't "finished" (feeding issues) and has only been shot abt 30 times. the 500 isn't an intact "gun" yet and is unfired. i've always been really happy w/ mcgowen's barrels and work in general altho they don't seem to get a lot of press. i didn't think to specify a twist when i ordered either barrel and they sent their fastest.

i've heard the current school of thought is twist should tend twd overstabilization as bullets are made so much better, so few concentricity/ eccentricity issues that seldom is a too-fast twist a problem.

oh, weight. the jeffery bbl was 23" and .90"+ at the muzzle. finished out 10#-6oz. recoil was "brisk" and since was a little muzzle heavy i added 8oz lead to the butt. balances much, much nicer and recoil is heavy but in no way obtrusive or painful. the 500NE is on a ruger #1 and so far seems is going to weigh exactly 10# even and balances so well i expect to leave at that. but the 500NE is also a gentler round than the ones questioned in this post.

willmckee,
You won't be disappointed with a 10" twist McGowen barrel in .510 caliber. They used them on the original 500 A2 from Art Alphin, and he is a smart cookie when it comes to the technical issues.

My Ruger No.1 is one inch at the muzzle, and I shoot it only with scope and muzzle brake. It has 29" of barrel with the muzzle brake, 27" without.

The BRNO ZKK 602 is 23" without brake, 25" with brake, so they are both about the same length and weight overall when unloaded and scope removed.

The Ruger No. 1 in .510 JAB/500 A2 has a throat cut with extra freebore to handle the 750 grain Hornady A-max seated out as far as possible. 2150 to 2250 fps with that rifle is easy with 750 grainers. It is strictly a target rifle.

i bought the a-squared manual just for 404 jeffery data (not yet, planning stages still) but found it to be one of the best books i've bought on ballistics. is worth owning just for the internal ballistics data and experiments he did even if it had no load data at all. i read it just for the fun of it some times. have noticed on midway that A2 ammo is back in existence - at least theoretically. i'll agree - alphin really knows his stuff and can back it up with experience.

The 510 wells headstamped brass is going to be offered by Quality Cartridge sometime in the very near future as the tooling has already been ordered. You can buy it directly from Quality cartridge or me as I am acting as a distributor for his brass. Price will be determined soon as well.

RNS