OT - 500 Mag S&W revolver?

OT-Anyone out there familiar with this beast of a handgun? I had guy who wants me to take it in on a partial swab for a tractor. I have 44 mag that is a real bear, but I am not at all familiar with the 500?

Would be handy if a Grizzly bear was charging you,
otherwise kind of a useless ego trip, that's why people
keep them for such a short time.

recoil on a 44 mag is mild compared to a 500. My
suggestion is to shot it and see how your wrist
handles the recoil.

Do you need a cannon like that? Can you sell it
for more than the value you receive in the trade?

(quoted from post at 18:52:22 02/06/15) Would be handy if a Grizzly bear was charging you,
otherwise kind of a useless ego trip, that's why people
keep them for such a short time.

Click to expand...

I was told that everyone should carry a .44 mag. in grizzly bear country. When the bear got you down you can shoot yourself and end the suffering.

I have the .460 S&W like this one.




Planned to use it to go bear hunting. Never got to go. The gun was a waste of money. Still have it and can't get rid of it. Even reloading the ammo is expensive. I'd walk away from that trade.

I've spent a fair amount of time on the handle end of the .460 S&W, which is in the same ballpark of power and recoil, as two friends have owned them. Either the .460 or .500 is overkill for anything in North America with the exception of the great bears, and then only in a situation where a charge or close encounter would necessitate the level of stopping power they provide. Their other calling card is their ability to maintain adequate levels of energy for clean kills at distances beyond where most handgun hunters are capable of reliably and consistently placing a killing shot, and as such they don't bring anything to the party that's needed by the vast majority of ethical handgun hunters. With that said, assuming this is a S&W X-frame gun, they're very well made, accurate, and more than capable of taking deer, black bear, and feral hogs, plus a sure ticket to giving fellow shooters a case of Range Envy. I've passed on a couple as they don't let me do anything that a properly-loaded .44 magnum will not, at least for anything I'm apt to see here on the right-hand side of the Mississippi, and the penalties in weight, purchase cost, shooting cost (unlike the .460, the .500 does not have relatively cheap or readily available understudy rounds that can be used in it, and .50 bullets are considerably more expensive than .45's--a factor for both purchased ammo and reloading), noise, blast, and recoil mean its downsides more than equal any upside. If the gun in question is a BFR or one of the few other revolvers that handle it, I don't have any first-hand experience in shooting them but from handling a few they're also very large and heavy--far more than the stoutest of .44 magnums.

That gun is for those who like to scare other shooters at the range. Works too.

My old boss had one I shot a couple of times. I'm a big man and I'll tell you it was not fun to shoot. Personally, you couldn't give me one. As said below, no one wants them. Interesting conversation piece though. Bob

There is a guy that brings his truck into my dads shop every once in a while... He is a back woods, true North ID Guy!

Not sure how big he is, but he is taller than me, and I am 6'5. He HAS to be 250-300 lbs. Just built like a tank. I know he carrys something large like that, but told my dad that it is "mostly just for show".....

Can't blame him, .44 is potent enough for me!!

Could make a matched set if Thompson Center makes a carbine in that caliber?

the guy with one arm on railroad alaska was target practicing the other night with one on tv. recoil didn't look like it bothered him much. might have been a light load for tv however. i prefer a 41 myself.

I have several friends that have been to Alaska to hunt Kodiak bears. They both carried 44 mags just in case bear is not really dead when they get to him.

As posted below the recoil on a 44 Mag is mild compared to the 500. My brother has one (has at least one of everything) and it gets showed a lot but about 4-5 rounds is all anyone feels like shooting. I'd tell him to sell it and give you the cash.

I wasn't aware that selling them was hard to do but I wouldn't doubt it.

44 Mag muzzle energy is in the 1200 ft*lbs range

454 Mag muzzle at nearly 2000 fps with around 2000 ft*lbs


http://www.rc-trucks.org/taurus-raging-bull-44-magnum.htm

500 Mag is in the 2600 ft*lbs energy at the muzzle

Probly handy if you have an angry rhinoceros on your case. Maybe put wheels on it and use on the 4th of July. ;^)

I have a buddy who has one of those in .500 Magnum. We were shooting it one time. He had some boxes of old school books that he had bought at the auction when their school closed. We stacked a half a dozen of those books up against a hay bail and shot at them to see how far it would penetrate. It blew those school books up into confetti - all of them!

The .41 Mag. is more than adequate and is preferred by many over a .44 Mag.

A light Target load in a .44Mag is more powerful than a Full load in a .45ACP.

If you handload, you can reduce the load down to something that's manageable. But even then, what are you going to do with a big, heavy pistol? Hunting large game with a pistol isn't everybody's cup of tea. Might be OK for shooting metallic silhouettes. Otherwise it's a bit of a novelty.

I have a ruger redhawk in 454 casul and a smith i in 44 mag. I have
used both for white tail deer hunting after I have got one with a
bow. I looked at .500 and the only reason I would consider one is in
Ohio you can use straight wall hand gun cartridges in a rifle to hunt
deer. However hunting with the big pistols is not that great of an
experience. If you dont really really want one to have I would not
take it on trade....

http://www.tcarms.com/firearms/interchangeable-platforms/encore-pro-hunter/encore-pro-hunter-katahdin#models

The 460 S&W and 500S&W in a 20" barrel have similar ballistics to some of the old African big game calibers.

Too much recoil and too loud even with hearing protection. I
didn't like shooting it at all. I've killed several deer and hogs
with a 44 mag and it's more than powerful enough.

I always carry a pistol when rifle hunting. If game is close
enough I'll use a pistol. My 44mag was hand loaded to the
max and then a little more. Lots of recoil and noise. I went to
a 1911 in 45 acp and killed the hogs and deer just as dead as
the 44 mag without all the noise and recoil.

I'm carrying a Ruger black hawk in 45 colt now. Bigger bullets with
about the same recoil and noise of the acp.

I have three of them. I call them Daddy, Mommy, and Baby. 8-3/8", 6.5", and 4". The only one that I don't have is the performance center 10.5", which I refer to as "Junior, the track star".

The 8-3/8 kicks straight back perfectly. The 6.5" appears to be ported better, but kicks upward and has a hair trigger that I've double clutched (pow, pow as the barrel was moving upward on the second round), and the 4" I took out today and fired off 10 rounds at 50', and it has a tendency to lift upwards. I have a 8-3/8" Model 629 .44 and a 8" Ruger Redhawk .44, both very nice, but nothing like a .500. A .500 will stop a brown bear. It won't bounce off of its skull. One thing about my 6.5" .500 that I don't have a problem with the 8-3/8" or 4", is that for some reason it doesn't like the casings on Winchester white box. I don't know what it is or why, but it almost brazes two of five casings in the cylinder after firing them. They don't pop out, have to tap them out, seriously tap them out.

In these two pictures: Daddy, Mommy, Baby and then Daddy compared to the Ruger Redhawk

Mark