.500 or.454

I'm kinda new to "Big-Bore" shooting and only have a "puny" .44 Magnum (by ya'lls standards ;) ), but I'm curious as to what does one of these handheld artillery pieces such as the .500 do when it hits an animal? I have this image in my head of the animals internal organs being scattered all over the country-side from some massive gaping wound, but I know that this highly unrealistic. So how do the "standard" loads of a .500 work against large game?
 
UT_Air_Assault, any info you get on that question is going to be strictly anecdotal. We've all heard the tall tales about how certain calibers have what sound like virtual magical powers, i.e., my favorite when I was in the Army (back in the early 70s) was that if you hit a man in the hand or arm with a 45ACP, it would spin him around and hurl him to the ground. I don't think so. But, having said that, the 500 S&W Mag does seem to have some real knock-down power based on my experience (two guns, approx. 1000 rounds fired over the last 18 months).....which is admittedly just anecdotal. It pretty well splatters a Columbian ground squirrel (called gophers in these parts). It turned a red cabbage into cole-slaw and deposited small chunks of it on the windshield of my car, which was parked 50 yards behind the firing line. I shot a nice whitetail buck with it at about 50 yards last fall, one shot and when the gun came down from recoil all I could see were four feet sticking straight up in the air. Can you say "ton of bricks"? Bowling pins hit with it fly about ten yards and then spin on the ground. Seriously, from my observations the gun does indeed seem to be in a league of its own where it comes to knocking stuff down (or blowing it up).
 
Shooting multiple calibers in the Taurus is an attractive option. With the 500, you get the 500 Mag and 500 Special.

None of these; 45Colt, 454, 460 or the 500 in either the Special or Mag are cheap to shoot factory fodder from. This being said, even if you do shoot 45 Colt out of it, reloading makes sense. You wouldn't consider loading for just 45 Colt and not .454 or .460 too would you ?

I have gotten my per round cost down to .17 cents per round (plated bullet) for the 500 for a good midrange load. This translates to $8.50 per box of 50 - about the cost of WWB 45 ACP if you find it on sale. I can load it for about .10 cents a round using Northeast Bullet hardcast bullets - about $5.00 per box of 50, as cheap as 9mm surplus.

I can load the 500 with energy levels down to any of the calibers fired in the Taurus (to a point of course), and still do it with one set of dies and one caliber brass.

Food for thought...

BigSlick
 
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what kind of velocity can you expect from the 500 mag? 500 special? 460? you guys have got me all interested in these guns now. shame on you :D
 
I've chronographed some loads out of a pair of 500 S&Ws, one being the 4" and the other the original 8 3/8". Factory Hornady 350 grainers and CorBon 440 grain, as well as my handloads, a 400 grain SWC hard-cast/gas-check lead bullet over 40 grains of W296 (or H110, they are one and the same powder, just packaged in different cans) all yielded a little better than 1600 fps out of the longer barrel, and over 1400 out of the shorter one. Whap!!
 
Well, Unique is a bit faster burning than WW296, but yeah, at 40 grains per round you go through a pound of powder PDQ. I don't have a loading manual in front of me, but for years I recall that I loaded 7 grains of Unique in 357 brass under a 158 grain SWC bullet. It wasn't a hot load, but not really a mild one either, so I'm wondering if that might not be a bit stiff for a 38?
 
i actually use .357 brass too, but dont load it up too hot, dont see the point in making shooting into a painful thing. most of the time
 
But, having said that, the 500 S&W Mag does seem to have some real knock-down power based on my experience (two guns, approx. 1000 rounds fired over the last 18 months).....which is admittedly just anecdotal. It pretty well splatters a Columbian ground squirrel (called gophers in these parts). It turned a red cabbage into cole-slaw and deposited small chunks of it on the windshield of my car, which was parked 50 yards behind the firing line. I shot a nice whitetail buck with it at about 50 yards last fall, one shot and when the gun came down from recoil all I could see were four feet sticking straight up in the air. Can you say "ton of bricks"? Bowling pins hit with it fly about ten yards and then spin on the ground. Seriously, from my observations the gun does indeed seem to be in a league of its own where it comes to knocking stuff down (or blowing it up).
Click to expand...

LMAO...

Mr Allison - You Sir are a class act...
 
With all this talk of the .460 S&W, I'm curious to know what it's really capable of. They made much ado about getting 2300 fps with a fairly lightweight bullet. My .454 lists 2100 fps with a 260 grainer. I bet it could also do 2300 with the lighter bullet. Guys over on sixgunner were getting over 4000 fps from their .454's, but they were doing it with tiny bullets in plastic sabots.
So, does anyone know what max loads would do from the new .460 with 250, 260, 300, and 335 grain bullets?
 
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