ORIGINAL: driftrider
I feel that there are pistols that are just as good and effective as the M500 for a lot less money, as the M500 is just downright pricy. Secondly, the M500 doesn't offer a lot of flexability that, say, a .454 Casull does. The .454 Casull can be shot with low to mid-powered .45 Colt loads, making trips to the range for practice much less painful on the hand, ears (I forgot to mention that both the .454 and the .500 have A LOT of muzzle blast and noise, with the .500 being by far the worst of the two), and pocketbook. There are also a number of very good .45 Colt loads that are comparable to the .44Mag in power that would make excellent hunting loads without all the recoil and blast. This option simply doesn't exist with the .500S&W. The case capacity is really very large, making reduced loads problematic, which makes shooting full or near full power loads mandatory all the time. And in factory ammo for the .500 there isn't much to choose from, and it's all full tilt and expensive.
Mike
I disagree, Mike. For one, the 500 is one of those handguns some guys just gotta have, untill they get one. I just picked up a used one, 15 shots fired, at a considerable discount. I think you will see quite a few barely used 500s on the market in the coming days.
Also, there is reduced load data for the S&W 500. Please link to
M.D. Smith, 500S&W There are loads there with M.E. under 1200ftlbs. Any straight walled case can be downloaded and Dr. Smith has the data.
Admittedly, the 500 ammo is costly. I saw a box of 12 for $40. I have not and will never buy a box. It cost me about $.55 a round to load, which is still expensive, but not outrageous. When I try reduced loads with a cheaper .50 Beowulf projectile, that should go down to $.25 a pop. The best value in dies is the Lee 3 die set. The sizer is a carbide die, and load data is included, all for $19.95. I am going to replace the lock rings with Hornady lock rings, but other than that the Lee set can't be beat.
Early on, there were some issues to work out with the 500 cartridge. The 500 S&W rounds initialy were loaded with large pistol primers. I wonder about that one. With heavy loads, folks were getting pierced primers. The flame would eat up the firing pin. So then large rifle primers were used. Problem is, the pistol primer pockets were .006" too shallow, and the primers were above flush. Several sympathetic detonations occured. Exciting, I bet! Now Starline brass has primer pockets of the correct depth for rifle primers, and there is an 'R' designation on the case head. Brass with pistol primer pockets may have their pockets deepened .006" using a uniformer, with no loss in case integrity.
Glad they worked all this out, before I got one.
