700gr in the 500 S&W

[dk17hmr]

A good friend was kind enough to let me borrow his custom Mountain Mold 700gr bullet mold. First off the mold is amazing to cast with once up to temp even with this HUGE bullet I have about zero rejects. After cutting the spur and opening the bullets fall right out, I have never used a Mountain Mold before and can see a few in my future. I sized them to .501" and pan lubed with a homemade random lube. To let you get the idea of how big this bullet is that is a 22lr on the left and a .452 300gr bullet on the right.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/700gr.jpg

The load was 29gr of Lil' Gun, Winchester Large rifle primers, in Starline brass. No idea what the actual velocity was but should be just shy of 1500fps.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/500SW-1.jpg

Ok on to the shooting. To say the recoil was harsh would be an understatement. This thing is a brute. I shot 10 rounds off hand and dont think I will be shooting anymore today. All the shooting was done off hand at 25 yards. I fired 2 3 round groups and shot steel plates with the remaining rounds.

First group
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/500SW2.jpg

The 3rd round of the first group actually took the dot off the cardboard so I pasted it on different part of the cardboard box I had set up in front of the target butt.
Group number 2
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/500SW1.jpg

[45nut]

Sticks and stones may break my bones but hollow points expand on impact.
And recoil is brutal sometimes too LOL

[gon2shoot]

Ooooowwwiiieeeee, good thing you aint got to shoot somthing several time with that thing :cbpour:

[Wayne Smith]

OWCH!! I thought my 465gr boolit hurt to shoot in my Encore Pro Hunter!

[leftiye]

Jest think..... In another case you could have some powder in there too. THAT would show ya what hurtin is. Ahll stick to my 45-70, thank ya.

[dk17hmr]

I have a 45-70 and a 450 Marlin both are handi rifles also. For all practical purposes the 45-70 is the gun to grab to play with but they are all fun guns.

[OBXPilgrim]

Been a long winter up there. huh Doug? Need to get out a little more.

If I start seeing "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy, All work and no play make Jack a dull boy" scroll across the screen in a post from you, I'm calling the cops (bad joke - the Shining).




Actually that does look interesting. Got any photos of you or an unsuspecting newcomer lighting one of those off? Please post if you do - sounds like recoil work be very 'attention-getting'.

[Jbar4Ranch]

Those boolits look vaguely familiar... :wink:

I've used up to 32.0 grains of H110 with it, and it definitely wakes ya up when you touch one off. Pretty good shooting there, buddy!

[500swshooter]

you are very brave to load 32 grains of H110. I have never gone over 25 grains. One thing that I would advise, is never use early hornady brass with large pistol primers for hot loads. I ordered a mold from mountain molds when the smith 500 first came out and the only brass available used large pistol primers. long story short, while developing loads for that massive bullet the large pistol primer pierced and the firing pin of my smith 500 was damaged by the hot gas. It looked just like it had been cut with a torch. I had to send my gun to smith & Wesson for repair because the firing pin is not easily replaced. These bullets however are lots of fun to shoot if you don't shoot too many.

I have chronographed these bullets at 1150 fps from a 8" barrel with 25 gr H110.

[Junior1942]

You could load that thing way down to 1200 fps and still have a TKO factor of 60. Compare that to a 300 mag/180 gr TKO of 24. Even at 1500 fps with your 50, there'd be no leading with a plainbase bullet. In one word: wow.

[Jbar4Ranch]

you are very brave to load 32 grains of H110. I have never gone over 25 grains.

Out of my handguns, I can't get it spinning fast enough to stabilize until around 28 grains H110. At around that point, 50 yard groups go from several feet across to less than 2". That's where I load to now, 28-29 grains, but I have gone to 32 grains when working the load up.

[dk17hmr]

It was suggested that I do a penetration test with the 700gr and the 450gr bullets. The test was conducted with 2 700gr a 1 450gr bullet shot into a WET cottonwood log, after I shot it I split the log to find the bullets.

700gr number 1.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/test.jpg

700gr number 2
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/test2.jpg

450gr
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/test1.jpg

For all practical purpose they penatrated the same, the 450 went in about a half of an inch further. BUT those 700gr made the log move alot more after being hit and the 700gr nose deformed alot more.

Pic of all the lead dug out of the log.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/test3.jpg

[Bullshop]

When the 500 first came out a friend showed up with one of the first with the longer barrel. He had a box of factory ammo with the cast performance 440's
We did about the same thing shooting into a spruce log with the 500 and a 44 mag. The 44 mag was shooting the Lee 310 wfn at about 1300 fps. We chronoed the 500 at about 1660 fps.
When we split the log we found both boolits exactly equal in penitrating. Not very scientific but a kewl display none the less.
BIC/BS

[MtGun44]

OWW! OWW! Yikes!

:veryconfu

Bill

[psychicrhino]

Boy that is a lots of lead.

[kawasakifreak77]

Holy freaking ****.

[35 shooter]

Can't believe how they expanded. That's awesome! BTW... pretty impressive off hand shooting there dk. Especially considering what you were shooting.