500 S&W

[nighthunter]

OK .... I think I am going to own one of these beasts in the near future. I have shot one and can handle the recoil. It was much less than I was expecting. My question is what is a good cast bullet for the 500? I'll probably order from Dan at Mountain Molds as I consider his molds to be the best I have ever owned. What would some of you 500 vets suggest as far as weight and design? I was thinking 400 to 440 grains cast .502 or .503 with a 75% meplat with a gas check.
Nighthunter

[Iron River Red]

I have a 300 gr swc in a bore rider and a 330 gr rnfp with a big metplat.
Both with gas checks and they work great. I shoot about an 8" group at 200 meters with either bullet.

I wanted to go fast with low recoil.

I chrono the 300gr at 2260fps and it does a great job.

Can't say much about a heavier bullet. Don't know why one would want one either. 300gr is big enough for me.

Its a serious customer at that velocity!

[Bullshop]

That 300gn er in 50 cal must have about the same BC as a round ball. At that 200 meter line a gusting wind must keep it interesting.
I have an old Ideal mold for the 50/95 Win express. It is supposed to be a 300gn but was probably for pure lead as with WW its closer to 290. Its a little fatter than for your Smith at .512" and its about as long as it is wide.
I wonder whats left of that high starting velocity out there at 200m?
BIC/BS

[Beau Cassidy]

I recently read somewhere (probably here) about optimal boolit weights per caliber. for the .500 it was 440 Gr. For the .38 it was about 170 Gr. For the .44 it was 260 Gr. and for the .45 it was 270 Gr. (I think).

Beau

[RANGER RICK]

OK .... I think I am going to own one of these beasts in the near future. I have shot one and can handle the recoil. It was much less than I was expecting. My question is what is a good cast bullet for the 500? I'll probably order from Dan at Mountain Molds as I consider his molds to be the best I have ever owned. What would some of you 500 vets suggest as far as weight and design? I was thinking 400 to 440 grains cast .502 or .503 with a 75% meplat with a gas check.
Nighthunter


Most of my 500 moulds came from Dan . He does make good ones for sure .
I do have a 440gr WFNGC with 90% meplat .
370 gr WFNGC
535gr Keith gas check
575gr WFNGC
700gr WFNGC .

The 535 keits and the 440 are my favorites .
I am moving the 700 gr at 1264 vel with WW 296 another good load H110 vel 1223 .

Enjoy your new hand cannon.

RR

[475/480]

Your bullet weight is good but my 500's like bullets sized .500 so you might want to have as cast dia of .501-.502 MAX.

Sean

[snowwolfe]

I may as well jump in and get my feet wet!
I own a 4in S&W 500 and a 6 1/2 in from the Performance Center. Since I am the rookie of all rookies on casting intelligence I ask this question. Is it necesarry to measure the throats and barrels on these revolvers or can I simply order a mold from Mountain molds measuring either .501 or .502 and size the bullets to .500?
I plan on just casting 440 grain slugs for these revolvers.

[nighthunter]

Probably best to slug the barrel if you have the firearm. Don't get me wrong .... I'll have the 500 S&W before I order a mold. Sometimes we like to plan ahead. My wife says it is something like dreaming.
Nighthunter

[Iron River Red]

I have 2 molds from Dan and I really like the 300 gr swc.

The biggest thing to be careful of is the gas check shank dia. I wish he would cut them just a couple thou bigger to get that gas check on consistently. The alloy will have to be kept consistent or you may have loose gas checks.

As for the bullet's bc, the swc looks better than the 330rnfp to the naked eye. I have seen the really big bullets that R.R. sells on ebay and I personally don't think a bullet that large is fun to work with. Its just not pleasant to shoot and not necessary unless you really are hunting bear. But to each his own. The 300 gr swc at 200m really works for me. I have shot them with the wind at about 15mph give or take a few and they don't vary much. I do advocate the fast velocity and the lighter bullet. In the 500 S&W, I would also hesitate to go lower than 300 in weight. I would think the 375-425gr weights would be optimum, but that's just an educated guess for now. I am planning more molds and will keep the data for us to review.

At 50m the 300gr bullet beats up the targets so bad I could not even consider them for competition. On my 1/2" plates they leave a 1/4" crater and one bigass, fully expanded gas check for the world to see. Nothing else...

I have to say, the thought of being in bear country without a .500 would leave me feeling a little naked...

Better buy a few of those 575's from Rick now that I think of it!

Anyone have an opinion of the 500 gas check by gator?

I'm not satisfied with them myself... they seem too soft compared to the hornady gc.

Kinda curious from those using the .500 gc...

[475/480]

I have had 4 (at one time or another ) of the SW 500-4".6.5" PC, 8",10.5"PC, all of them have had throats of .498-.499.IMO get a mould made at .501-.502 and get to shooting.
I alway's wondered were writer's get optimum bullet weights from,it sure is not a mathimatical formula they use.
As to the Gator check. I have gone thru probably 7000 with no problem.They do seem to fit all the moulds (20 or so) I have in .500 cal. And I have many .475 moulds and the 475 check's fit all of them. Obviously I think they are very good (LOL).

Sean

[RANGER RICK]

The Gator gas checks have been a good choice for me . I have had in excess of 10,000 checks pass through my hands for the 500 bullets alone and I also use them for my 45 cal bullets with not one problem at all .
I have tried to pull some of the checks off of some .500 bullets that had some lead flaws . They would not budge . They went back into the pot to be skimmed off later .
They do run a bit higher than other checks but are worth it . I would like to make my own though !!!!!!

RR