NEXT MONTH
38 SUPER
“As a ‘last resort’ bear
stopper on the
Appalachian Trail it might
make some sense.”
108 SHOOTING SPORTS MAGAZINE
WORKSHOP | CASE HISTORY
OMG only the Yanks could think up such a calibre and hand cannon
to go with it, the .500 S&W can generate a claimed 3000 ft/lbs;
definitely too much handgun!mark. A Ruger Redhawk revolver chambered
for the brutal .454 Casull was the fi rst mass
production arm to steal the crown, followed
by the bonkers .480 Ruger (designed for
their 2.5” barrelled Alaskan) as well as
equally monster cartridges from Winchester
and others. Smiths riposte was this straight
walled, semi-rimmed, 3000+ ft/lbs big game
bulldozer. That’s almost TWICE the Bizzers
Gallery/Pistol Range energy limit. Today, it
still qualifi es as the ‘most powerful’ straight
walled production handgun cartridge around.WHY?
A handgun cartridge that can take the
biggest native American game will
undoubtedly give you
bar-room bragging rights...
big deal, but what’s wrong
with a nice sensible rifl e?
As a ‘last resort’ bear
stopper on the
Appalachian Trail it might
make some sense. An
encounter with a hungry,
ready to hibernate black
bear is a butt tightening
experience – I know.
It may be tagged as
a handgun cartridge but
the semi-rimmed design
has allowed leveraction and more conventional rifl e makers to
chamber for it, affording us the opportunity
to ‘enjoy’ it. The Big Horn Armory offers their
5-shot Model 89 L/A, whilst the Handi-Rifl e
from Harrington & Richardson is a single
shot hammer gun. The Thompson Center
Encore rifl e might qualify as UK legal,
depending upon the interpretation of their
take-down mechanism.DIY PROSPECTS
In the ‘states Winchester, Hornady and
Magtech catalogue various designs of
fi nished ammo and they, together with
Starline, also list unfi red brass. Cor-Bon and
Grizzly ammunition are amongst a number of
other builders. Bullet weights range from
275 to 700-grains, the consensus being that
the heavier it is, the better it performs. As
one would imagine, most designs are
‘expanding’. Lee, Hornady, RCBS, Lyman and
Redding all produce die sets. Load data will
only be present in a small number of post
2004 manuals or from untested sources on
the web. Whilst the original Cor-Bon creation
delivered well over 3000 ft/lbs, it’s 60,000
p.s.i. working pressure created case
extraction issues. Newer designs are almost
all limited to a SAAMI spec of 50,000 p.s.i.,
but still offer limited case life when loaded
near the top of the charts. Grunt or group?
Well, most reviewers agree that it has more
‘Slug and Lettuce’ qualities than F Class
potential.W
ord of a new mega-power handgun
cartridge circulated around SHOT
Show 2003 in Orlando. It was on
display at the Cor-Bon booth. On one of the
Smith & Wesson stands the new cartridge
and revolver were featured in a glass case. It
was the prototype .500 Smith & Wesson
Magnum and their new launch platform, the
X-Frame Model 500. In the Press lounge a
seasoned American gun-writer confi ded that
he had been invited to try the new creation,
“more grunt than group” he volunteered, “...
and it hurts”. It was SHOT ‘04 in Vegas
before the rest of us got our hands on it. The
gnarly old scribe was right!BLOW YOUR HEAD CLEAN OFF!
“you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do
I feel lucky?’ Well, do you, punk?” This brief
fi lm excerpt made Smith & Wesson a small
fortune, as for some time thereafter sales of
Model 29’s out-ran production, creating a
black market in overpriced .44 Rem Mag
Mod 29 revolvers. However, the fi lm claim
that the .44 Mag was “the most powerful
handgun in the World and would blow your
head clean off” was already well wide of theWheelwrite discovers that bigger is not
always better
Mad As!
CASE HISTORIES: .500 SMITH & WESSON
.500 S&W schematic, with a COL of 2.250”
it looks more suited to a rifle