S&W 500 Loads

[805_Sniper]

I bought a S&W 500 with a 4" barrel and wanted to see if anyone has a "Manageable" Grizzly load? I'm looking forward to hunting in Wyoming this year (pending draw results), and wanted a load that was accurate & deadly. Bullet types, powder, primer info would be greatly appreciated. I bought some Starline Brass. I have never used Starline before. Hopefully it will hold up to the thunder of the 500!

 

[BigDaddy0381]

In my 8 inch I use 43gr of H110 and winchester LR primer pushing a 350gr XTP/MAG. This is a great load out past 100yards. it hits in a 3inch circle with 5 shot off bags. I'm wanting to say its pushing 1,800FPS. I'll look and my books and see exactly what it is pushing them at.

I'm not sure if the 4 inch would be a good one to shot this load out of might want to back off a bit and work up.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Well, there's plenty of loads that'll kill a grizzly stone cold dead, no problem. The hard part is getting him to shoot the gun!

A 4" . . . Ouch!

 

[Outlaw6.0]

WLR Primer, H-110 & the 500grn Hornady in my 7.5" BFR. It's not the nicest load on the shooter (BFR's don't have a muzzle break) but I would be willing to bet it will stomp the *&$% out of an old Grizz! H-110 has been the best powder in my limited experinece loading for the .500, good velocity & great accuracy.

 

[lamiglas]

We have three of the 4 inch models in my group and all of us love them! It is very surprising how accurate they are, and it never fails to put a smile on the face of anyone that shoots it! you can feel the raw power in the recoil. my wife knows how to hold a revolver, and she can put a full cylinder into a small paper plate at 15 yards all day long. Does it have alot of recoil. yes, but with that comes alot of knock down power. i think you will find that it is very managable.

we have two loads that we have played with. one is the 500 grain xtp, and the other is the 350 grain xtp. Its been awhile since we loaded up any 500 grainers, so i cannot recall the exact load data.

but we just loaded up some 350 xtps, and some berry 350 grainers for practice. They are 38.99 for 150 of them, and can be loaded similar for practice. we still practice alot with what we carry, but these others are nice for when someone comes over and wants to shoot it.

anyway, we use the starline brass and it has worked very well. we use cci 250 primers, and H-110 for powder. we load them up around 40 grains. Check the manual, or online on hodgdons website. i believe the start load is 39 grains, but double check to be certain.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Almost forgot, do yourself a favor and order up a Lee Factory Crimp Die for this one. One of the few that I found which would reliably hold bullets in place with the 500 S&W or the 454 Casull when heavy loads are used.

 

[805_Sniper]

Thanks guys for all your input, I really appreciate it. I will definitely get a crimping die, and will try out the 350gn loads. I can't wait to load some and see what these puppies can do! Watch out Grizzly's here I come!

 

[sp6x6]

My bear load for my 44 ,4"TIT, 300 gr Hornady, dont recall powder. It kicks a bit.

 

[lamiglas]

I am glad the crimping issue was mentioned, as i forgot to mention it.
we use rcbs carbide dies, and we really had to play with the crimp to get it right. Even after we thought we had it set, we would load a cylinder and shoot 4 then measure the 5th. at first the 5th round had grown (bullet pushing out) to the point you could see it with the naked eye. towards the end, it would grow .003 or so and we used calipers to check it. you need to go slow, as there is a fine line between the right amount of crimp, to buckling the case.

also, the crimp was alot easier to set with the xtps, than with the berrys. the berry's required a heavier crimp.

have fun!

 

[Kevin Thomas]

lamiglas,

Give the Lee Factory Crimp die a shot. It's almost impossible to buckle a case by overcrimping with these, and in these calibers, I'm not sure the term "over crimping" is even applicable. I'm not a Lee fan, by and large, but blind pigs do find the occasional acorn. Lee definately did with this one, as it was virtually the ONLY die that I found that would allow prolonged shooting of the 454 Casull or the 500 S&W without having bullets pull under recoil. They're good and really do live up to their advertising.

 

[805_Sniper]

I looked on Lee's website and didn't see crimp dies for the .500. However they can build a custom crimped for $90 if you send then a empty round that has a bullet seated at proper depth... Is that what you guys are finding too? Is there somewhere else that I can pick one up at? I know redding makes one for $30. Are they any good?

 

[Kevin Thomas]

805 sniper,

The Redding Profile crimp is pretty good, but the Casull still pulled under recoil. The Lee's were literally the only ones that held these. Don't recall, but I guess we probably did have a custom die made for the 500, it's been a while.

One thing to remeber here, most crimp dies do their work by pushing DOWN on the case neck to form the crimp. The Lee dies press IN directly at the cannelure. results in a totally different looking crimp, and is virtually impossible to buckle a case like the normal crimp dies do.

 

[805_Sniper]

Cool!I'll order a custom one and try it out. Thx for the advice!

 

[lamiglas]

Thanks, thats great information. i will check it out.