500 S&W Load Data Help

[Shooter Mcgun]

Going to shoot the 500 magnum in the morning and was wondering if anyone had starting data available for the Matt’s Bullets I got today, I got some 390 grain spire points and some 385 grain long nose “John Ross design”, I plan on using H110/296. I know the long nose design is going to take more powder than any standard data, but I’m not sure how much. If anyone has start and max data I’d like to load a ladder for each bullet. Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

The search function on this site doesn’t seem to be working for me? I’ve used it without issue before but now searching takes me to an advanced search page. The results from the advanced search are pretty much useless.

[lar45]

What we will need is the bullet's length and the nose length or loaded length to plug into Quickload.

Here are a couple of references that might help.
http://www.lsstuff.com/misc/500loaddata-02.xls

http://www.lsstuff.com/misc/j-ross500data.pdf

[Shooter Mcgun]

What we will need is the bullet's length and the nose length or loaded length to plug into Quickload.

Here are a couple of references that might help.
http://www.lsstuff.com/misc/500loaddata-02.xls

http://www.lsstuff.com/misc/j-ross500data.pdf



Thank you! I need to get quickload, it seems pretty useful.

Long nose Bullet is

.855 long

.172 from base of bullet to top of crimp groove

.132 from base of bullet to bottom of crimp groove

Loaded length would be 2.298

Spire point Bullet is

1.050 long

.526 from base of bullet to top of crimp groove

.507 from base of bullet to bottom of crimp groove

Loaded length would be 2.122

This one is gas checked if it makes any difference.

[lar45]

Okay, this is from Quickload, which is just a computer simulation, not pressure tested load data. So compare it to other load sources to see if it seems reasonable before you start.
You didn't say which gun, so I assumed the 8.5" barrel.
Hope this helps.

385gn John Ross Long Nose bullet, .855", COAL 2.298"
H110
50gn 1873fps @ 52kpsi 93% load density
52gn 1947fps @ 59kpsi 97% load density

390gn Spire point, 1.050", COAL 2.122"
H110
36gn 1621fps @ 45kpsi 101% load density
38gn 1720fps @ 55kpsi 107% load density

[Shooter Mcgun]

Okay, this is from Quickload, which is just a computer simulation, not pressure tested load data. So compare it to other load sources to see if it seems reasonable before you start.
You didn't say which gun, so I assumed the 8.5" barrel.
Hope this helps.

385gn John Ross Long Nose bullet, .855", COAL 2.298"
H110
50gn 1873fps @ 52kpsi 93% load density
52gn 1947fps @ 59kpsi 97% load density

390gn Spire point, 1.050", COAL 2.122"
H110
36gn 1621fps @ 45kpsi 101% load density
38gn 1720fps @ 55kpsi 107% load density


Thanks for all your help, I have the 6 1/2 ported version, no need to rerun it though, would only change velocity right? Pressures should be pretty close? 50 grains of H110 under 385 grains of lead... it’ll definitely be the hottest load I’ve run so far. Would you recommend working up from 48 or 49? Or just start straight away at 50?

[Shooter Mcgun]

Loaded up 5 test rounds of the long nose. I couldn’t find any load data anywhere for long nose bullets to compare to using H110. Overall length ended up coming in at 2.305 when seated to crimp groove. I settled on 49.8 for the test batch. Will report back tomorrow with results.

[Shooter Mcgun]

Chronograph results from the 385 grain long nose Matt’s Bullets if anyone is interested

S&W 6.5 inch ported barrel

50.5 grains H110
Shot 1: 1561
Shot 2: 1656
Shot 3: 1637
3 shot average 1618

51.2 H110
Shot 1: 1638
Shot 2: 1663
Shot 3: 1631
3 shot average 1644

51.7 grains H110
Shot 1: 1654
Shot 2: 1650
Shot 3: 1670
3 shot average 1658

52.1 grains H110
Shot 1: 1638
Shot 2: 1644
Shot 3: 1614
3 shot average 1632

[lar45]

Your 50.5gn load looks like it wasn't burning efficiently with the wide range of velocities.
The 51.2 and 51.7gn loads look like it might be a place to spend some time to see what's the most accurate.

For Quickload, once I get some chronograph data on a load, I go back to quickload and adjust the barrel length until it gives me the chonoed velocity. I write that number down and use it for future calculations as an effective barrel length and then it gets me really close with other bullets and powders.
I am surprised that it was off by 300fps though.

Did you have any problems with the bullets jumping the crimp? That isn't much of a shank to hold in the case...

[Shooter Mcgun]

Your 50.5gn load looks like it wasn't burning efficiently with the wide range of velocities.
The 51.2 and 51.7gn loads look like it might be a place to spend some time to see what's the most accurate.

For Quickload, once I get some chronograph data on a load, I go back to quickload and adjust the barrel length until it gives me the chonoed velocity. I write that number down and use it for future calculations as an effective barrel length and then it gets me really close with other bullets and powders.
I am surprised that it was off by 300fps though.

Did you have any problems with the bullets jumping the crimp? That isn't much of a shank to hold in the case...


Yeah I’m thinking the porting is hurting my velocity some, I really wanted the 6.5 inch barrel, I just wish it wasn’t ported. Had I known the 5 inch John Ross performance center model existed, I would’ve definitely tried for one of those instead.

No problems jumping crimp, I was only loading three at a time though, it could’ve gave me problems had I shot 4 and checked the fifth, but I did have about the most crimp I could give it. Also the weather was pretty bad, raining and overcast, conditions were 43°F and 30.07 for barometric pressure. I’m fairly inexperienced with chronographs and not quite sure how all that effects velocities.