The Hand Cannon:
500 S&W Mag. 8-3/8" barrel.
The Bullets:
440gr Cast Performance Gas Check ($0.60 each);
325gr Barnes XPB Solid Copper Hollow Point ($1.55 each);
350gr Hornady XTP-Max JHP (about $1 each)
The Powders:
Trail Boss
Unique
H110
CFEBLK
Lil'Gun
The Ballistic Data (10 tests):
Observations upon my first shooting of the 500 Smith and Wesson Magnum:
Each of these bullets makes very fine looking and nicely performing ammo.
The lightly loaded 7.0-10.0 Trail Boss, pushing a 440 slug, felt like a .38. Anybody can handle this and claim to have shot the 500.
The 10.0 Unique/440gr load was mild and yet authoritative. They could be shot all day. But even then, delivered 700 ft/lbs (!) of energy. By comparison, a 201gr .45 slug pushed to 849 fps delivers 320 ft/lbs. A 9mm 124gr slug at 1039 fps delivers 297 ft/lbs.
When you start uncorking 39 to 50 grains of H110, Lil'Gun or CFEBLK, what do you expect? Heavy recoil; high impact to the hand; and I split in two the foam gun rest I was using to aim. Taped it back together to continue. And those were the "starting" loads! No signs of overpressure. Primers look good, brass fell out of the cylinder, and it wasn't even hot.
I practiced on a paper target to see how I handled the beast before I shot through the chrono so I wouldn't kill my Chronograph. Tended to shoot a bit low and to the left.
(By the way, I have the "upside down" Caldwell Ballistic Precision G2 Chronograph with Bluetooth back to my phone. All the data above came from that device. It allows you to email or text a session, and includes a file that can be opened in a spreadsheet. Their included tripod sucks, however. I employ a heavier tripod I already had, and a ball head to level the Chrono quickly on the pod. The G2 is rechargeable. Good thing. It was dead when I got to the range this morning, but there was an AC outlet nearby. Charged enough in a half hour to handle the testing. I shot other guns in the meantime....)
Anyway, some of those rounds were genuinely painful to shoot. But one was delivering 2,317 ft/lbs of energy. Amazing.
I had the urge to see a genuine reactive target get hit. I found a small empty plastic water bottle in the trash and refilled it, screwing the cap on tight.
I set the bottle on top of our standard 2x2 range target frame, and unloaded a 350 Hornady XTP-Max JHP into it.
Wow. The bottle detonated. Just disappeared. Then, 3-4 seconds later, I heard its blue bottlecap fall to my right, about 40 feet from the target. The cap had blown off its thread and launched straight up, very high. Landed way to my right and behind me. The water was just gone. Target frame was not wet at all. The fractured bottle was to the left. Pretty impressive.
I must remember to bring multiple two-liter water bottles for demonstration purposes....
Bottom line: I don't think I'm going to load up too many high power rounds. Simply too painful. And I will load plenty of the "introductory" 10-gr Unique or 10-grain Trail Boss loads. Don't want to scare off my friends for no reason.
Practical? Hardly. Unless you come up against a bear. Or absolutely need to obliterate bottles of water.
Economical to reload? For sure. Commercial 500 ammo runs $2.30 to $4.75 per round. I'm reloading for $0.78 for lead gas checked, and even the premium Barnes runs $1.75/round. And if I bought Bear Creek non-gas checked slugs, cost could drop to $0.42/round. And casting my own even less.
Fun? A bunch.
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