For you .500 S&W shooters ....

[Ohio Rusty]

For many years ... I have done alot of shooting and plinking with a roundball loaded in a primed cartridge case with a small amount of powder. They were a great joy to shoot in a bullet trap. We found them to be so accurate, I have put out the flame of a candle without hitting the candle !! It seems if you have a .500 S&W, you pretty much stuck shooting only earth shattering loads. On Ebay is this old dixie mould: --Vintage Dixie Round Ball Mold Pliers 505-- It is a .505 roundball mould, perfect for the .500 S&W. The round ball can be run through your sizer and can be crimped into the end of the shell. A small load of maybe 5 grains of red dot or unique, and some kapok on top of the powder (between the powder and the ball), you would have a very pleasant plinking load you could shoot all day at small targets or field targets. If you worry about leading, roll the ball in Lee Alox and let dry. Small loads like this put almost no strain on your brass cases and you can load them many, many times with these easy shooting loads.
Just saying there is a way to really enjoy shooting your monster caliber pistol without loads that measure 9.5 on the Richter scale every time you pull the trigger. Even your children would enjoy shooting these round ball loads.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[LUBEDUDE]

What a great solution for those that won’t, can’t, shouldn’t, are afraid, or hate to shoot their 500 S&W anymore.

[str8wal]

Trail Boss?

[CGT80]

I have never shot balls, but use trailboss often.

My pistol is a 460 smith 8 3/8" with the factory sights and the light loads are very fun and just as with the 500, it can be tamed.

11.1 grains of trail boss under a 45 270 SAA powder coated boolit is great for plinking on steel silhouettes and even works on half size rams at 110 yards (6-7" tall body), and full size chickens at 100 yards, without using any kind of rest or even object to lean my body on (same as the lever action silhouette match rules).

Trail boss will work as low as 70% of air space in the case and I found that 11.1 was more consistent than 13.0 grains in my pistol.

Accurate 5744 is great for mid loads and they feel somewhere between a 357 and 44 magnum for recoil.......actually a 44 mag single action with full loads is far worse on the hand. The concussion and noise is still there with the warmer loads of 5744. Light loads of 5744 use far more powder than you would use with trailboss and the velocity isn't much higher, so without calculating actual powder cost for each load, I'm guessing it doesn't pay to use very light loads of 5744.


Back to the 500 Smith- I'm assuming the ball would be easy to seat deeper in the case, than a light bullet, making it safer with small amounts of fast powder. For the 460, a 45 colt case achieves something similar with 200 grain 45 acp bullets and feels like a pellet gun or 22, but accuracy, especially over distances of 50-110 yards is not very good. It is great for under 40 yards and is very fun to shoot double action on a duelling tree.

The OP's idea is a great way to get some fun out of the big revolver and is something that anyone who can hold up or rest the revolver can use. Guests get a (figurative) kick out of shooting mouse fart loads from something that they see videos of where the gun flies from people hands who have no clue how to handle a magnum.

I wonder if there are any 45 cal ball molds out there that work in the 45 colt pistols......it would work in the 460 as well.