500 S&W Encore Questions

[Thundarstick]

There is a stainless synthetic stocked one at the gun shop that had caught my eye. I have no experience with this round and was wondering if it just kicks your filings out of your teeth and how well they shot cast boolits? Little under 5 Ben Franklin's. O,I have a 375 H&H 1885 Winchester to compare recoil with.

Anyone have any experience with this combo?

[BCRider]

I had one up this way with the wood stocks and "only" a 15" barrel. Down your way it would have been an SBR. But up here it was just a "regular" rifle even with the short barrel.

You are 110% right that it kicks the fillings out of your head with full power loads of H110 and 350gn bullets. Someone gave me a few of the 700 grain "trashcans" to try but after reading about them I never got up the chutzpah to try any. I eventually sold it when I realized it was more fun to watch others shoot it than for me to pull the trigger.

If you ran it with cast bullets and reduced loads you may need to do a bit of testing to find a load to shoot well. And the other thing against it is that for reaching out to some distance the bullets have some of the worst possible Ballistics Coefficient numbers. So they don't have to go out far before they slow down a lot and start falling earthwards rapidly.

To get around that I tried some 250gn .40cal bullets in sabots. I didn't do much in this direction. And the initial results were abysmal. But I figured that if I could get the muzzle velocity up and launch bullets with better BC numbers there might be a use for it after all. But the sabots didn't seem to grab the rifling that well and the bullets tumbled and ripped sideways through the targets. I thought that perhaps a tighter fitting sabot might do the trick but I never got that far into it.

[Thundarstick]

"You are 110% right that it kicks the fillings out of your head with full power loads of H110 and 350gn bullets. Someone gave me a few of the 700 grain "trashcans" to try but after reading about them I never got up the chutzpah to try any. I eventually sold it when I realized it was more fun to watch others shoot it than for me to pull the trigger."

Perhaps that's why it's priced about what the frame and stock set would sell for!

[Wayne Smith]

Is it a 20" barrel? If so and with a recoil controlling stock it is a Katadin. I have one in 45-70 and your caliber. Haven't shot the 50 much, took the scope off it when it gave me my first ever scope cut. Yes, it is essentially a short range rifle. When S&W brought out the cartridge my statement is that it is a terrible revolver cartridge but could be a great carbine cartridge. Think 50-70 on steroids. Part of the problem is that the Encore stocks tend to recoil up, not straight back. That is trouble with a scope and this cartridge and a heavy boolit. OTH, with the 45-70 barrel and the Lyman 457122 HP it is a favorite of a couple ladies I know. I'm loading that boolit to about 1300fps and they love it. Arisaka99's wife is one of them.

[500Linebaughbuck]

i'd go with a 500 Linebaugh in 24" MGM barrel.

[geezer56]

I HAD an encore and a handi rifle in 500 S&W. I also have a 416 Rugby encore. I sold the 500s. Too much fun for me.

[Thundarstick]

I stopped in and gave it a good fondling yesterday. It's got a nice hunting weight trigger that breaks like glass. For $450 I'm still thinking about buying it just for the frame and stock set, but even the young men at the gun shop want to shoot it. They say the fellow who traded it claimed to have never fired it, but it's missing the Williams peep and has an aluminum scope rail mounted, so someone has shot something trough it judging by the copper streaks in the barrel. Hopefully someone will save me from myself before I get back to the shop and buy it! He he

I suppose one could load it down and still have a dandy brush gun, think of it as a 28ga slug gun.

[Thundarstick]

Well I done some horse trading and bought it and a box of ammo this morning. There is a small range behind the gun shop where we could fire it. On the first shot I was really leaning into it fully expecting to get a bloody nose! After the shot I'm thinking, "Is that it? ". It's a kitten compared to my 375 H&H. The young men who work there fired it and seemed a little disappointed as well. I'm sure glad I made the trade, now let the fun begin!

Thanks for the input CB members.

[Intel6]

I have recently got my .500 S&W Katahdin barrel for my Encore up and running. I just picked up a Lee 440 gr mould and I also have a mould to make the big 700 gr. trashcan bullets along with a bigmoulth HP with the same mould. Powder coated them and worked up some loads in it. Came up with a mild plinking load and a stiff shooting load with the Lee 440 and started messing with the 700 gr. bullets @ 1,000 fps. and the HP's (come out to 590 grs.) going a bit faster. So far it seems to be a good shooter.


You can see it in the pic below. I mounted a Redfield 2x7 on it because it has a reticle with a few different hold over points on it. You can also see the ammo in the boxes below it.

[Moonie]

I've got one in a 15" pistol. So far I've loaded the Lee 440gr and yes, it will stomp on you if you want it too. I also have the big 700 with 3 different hollow point pins including the John Ross monster HP pin. I haven't loaded and shot any of those yet.

[curator]

I got a .500 S&W Katahdin barrel from a gun-club member really cheap along with a half box of factory ammo. It didn't take me long to realize why he was happy to unload it. No fun to shoot! I got a custom mould for 370 grain LFN/GC from LBT that shoots clover leaf groups at 100 yards with velocities in the 1100-1350 fps range. Fun to shoot and inexpensive too! Kind of like the poor man's 50-70. SR4759 and AA 5744 is your friend with this round. Anneal the star line case mouths if you don't want gas blow-back as light loads will not expand the hard factory cases enough to seal the chamber otherwise.

[Thundarstick]

Another quick question. Have any of you slugged the bore, and what size boolit do you use?

[Thundarstick]

Evidently I picked the weakest factory loading for the 500S&W for my first shots (Federal 325 fusion)! I got 370grgc and stoked them with varying levels of H110, and boy howdy, the beast is unleashed! Not sure if I want to let her run, or rein it in yet.