500 S&W Ruger No. 1

[daved63]

I finally got my Ruger No. 1 back from Regan Nonneman at Nonneman's Custom Rifles. I had him rebarrel a 458 Winchester Magnum to 500 S&W. I got the 458 for a price that was too good to pass up and since I already had one in that caliber I decided to have it rebarreled with a 20 inch 500 S&W barrel. He did nice work, he reused the quarter rib, the front sight, and the sling swivel band from the 458 barrel. It makes for a good looking rifle, and it is something different that you don't see too often.

I've been shooting it quite a bit lately. It likes the Lee C501-440-RF as far as cast boolits go. My mould casts at 465 grains using wheel weights. It groups them at about an inch at 50 yards. The load I'm using gets 1700 fps out of the rifle's 20 inch barrel. The same load out of my S&W revolver gets 1450 fps. I tried the Lyman 501680 plain base 375 grain boolit at around 1000 fps and could not get it to group better than 3 inches at 50 yards.

It shoots j-words excellent. The two best are the 500 grain Hornady flat nose and the 300 grain Hornady FTX. Using a load of CFE BLK with the 500 grainer at 1700 fps it groups just under an inch at 50 yards. With a load of Accurate No. 9 and the 300 grain FTX at 2250 fps it shoots one ragged hole at 50 yards.

All of the loads are comfortable to shoot because of the weight of the rifle. The contour of the new barrel is heavy to allow the reuse of the sights and barrel band from the original 458 barrel. The entire rig weighs 9.0 lbs with a Leupold 2-7 Compact on it.

I'm finding that there is a big difference in case capacity between the different manufacturer's brass. I have a bunch of Magtech CBC brass and it has quite a bit less capacity than a few Hornady cases I have. Apparently Starline brass is supposed to have more case capacity than the others. The CFE BLK load with the 500 grain bullet in the CBC brass is 43.4 grains. That is the all the powder that will fit in the case and still allow the bullet to be seated without deforming the nose of the bullet. The Hornady case will allow 45.5 grains of CFE BLK behind the 500 grain Hornady. The Hodgdon load data on their website lists 48 grains of CFE BLK behind the 500 grain Hornady as a max load using Starline brass. It claims 1628 fps out of a 10 inch barrel. I need to get some Starline brass to try in this rifle but it is backordered at the moment.

Are there any others out there shooting the 500 S&W in rifles? I would be interested in any pet loads you have found to work well in the longer barrels.

[Intel6]

Nice!

I really like Ruger #1's and yours is very cool in 500 S&W.

I picked up a used Ruger #1 in .458 WM and had it rechambered to .460 Weatherby Mag. Definitely cheaper than what you did with yours.

I ended up getting a Katahdin barrel in 500 S&W for my Encore receiver. It is quite the thumper, especially with the heavy 700 gr. bullets. I do shoot a lot of the Lee 440 bullets also.

Here is the Ruger, just a standard #1H. Notice the big recoil pad. )





Here are some of the loads for it including cast bullets. That is the Lee 500 gr. but I also shoot a few others in it as well. .223 round for scale.





A pic of the T/C carbine in 500 S&W, 20 inch Katahdin barrel. Nice and handy with a 2x7 scope.





Loaded rounds L to R:

Lee 440 loaded short = light plinking round
Lee 440 loaded long = high end load
NOE 640 gr. HP
NOE 700 gr solid

[GARD72977]

I love that Ruger!

[WBG]

I finally got my Ruger No. 1 back from Regan Nonneman at Nonneman's Custom Rifles. I had him rebarrel a 458 Winchester Magnum to 500 S&W. I got the 458 for a price that was too good to pass up and since I already had one in that caliber I decided to have it rebarreled with a 20 inch 500 S&W barrel. He did nice work, he reused the quarter rib, the front sight, and the sling swivel band from the 458 barrel. It makes for a good looking rifle, and it is something different that you don't see too often.

I've been shooting it quite a bit lately. It likes the Lee C501-440-RF as far as cast boolits go. My mould casts at 465 grains using wheel weights. It groups them at about an inch at 50 yards. The load I'm using gets 1700 fps out of the rifle's 20 inch barrel. The same load out of my S&W revolver gets 1450 fps. I tried the Lyman 501680 plain base 375 grain boolit at around 1000 fps and could not get it to group better than 3 inches at 50 yards.

It shoots j-words excellent. The two best are the 500 grain Hornady flat nose and the 300 grain Hornady FTX. Using a load of CFE BLK with the 500 grainer at 1700 fps it groups just under an inch at 50 yards. With a load of Accurate No. 9 and the 300 grain FTX at 2250 fps it shoots one ragged hole at 50 yards.

All of the loads are comfortable to shoot because of the weight of the rifle. The contour of the new barrel is heavy to allow the reuse of the sights and barrel band from the original 458 barrel. The entire rig weighs 9.0 lbs with a Leupold 2-7 Compact on it.

I'm finding that there is a big difference in case capacity between the different manufacturer's brass. I have a bunch of Magtech CBC brass and it has quite a bit less capacity than a few Hornady cases I have. Apparently Starline brass is supposed to have more case capacity than the others. The CFE BLK load with the 500 grain bullet in the CBC brass is 43.4 grains. That is the all the powder that will fit in the case and still allow the bullet to be seated without deforming the nose of the bullet. The Hornady case will allow 45.5 grains of CFE BLK behind the 500 grain Hornady. The Hodgdon load data on their website lists 48 grains of CFE BLK behind the 500 grain Hornady as a max load using Starline brass. It claims 1628 fps out of a 10 inch barrel. I need to get some Starline brass to try in this rifle but it is backordered at the moment.

Are there any others out there shooting the 500 S&W in rifles? I would be interested in any pet loads you have found to work well in the longer barrels.

I shoot the 500 S&W in a 20", TC Encore and a 50-110 Winchester necked down to true .500 cal. in a 24" H&R Handi rifle.
CFE BLK is the best powder, I think, for .500 S&W rifles. I use 117 grains of N530 for the 500-110 Handi rifle.

The .500 cal., 410 gr. Cutting Edge Raptor Bullet at 1,940 fps has give me three, one shot, dead-right-there, kills on Cape buffalo on one hunt. (All shots were in the middle of the shoulder.)

A 375HH with a good shoulder shot usually allows the cape buffalo to still go 30+yds.

The killing power of a bullet goes up exponentially as the diameter of the bore increases, given the same quality of bullet, especially above .375 cal. My .577 NE, 700 gr Cast Boolit at 1,600, and my 700gr. Peregrine BushMaster bullet at 1,700 fps. give one shot, DRT, kills on cape buffalo with a decent shoulder shot. (I try to get within 50 yds. for my first shot.)

[eastbank]

i just bought a ruger #1 in .475 linebaugh, i just got ammo for it and have dies on the way. i also have a #1 in .460 S&W i have yet to shoot, i hope to get both rifles up and running soon.