Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers 500 Shock & aWe, Lever Gun?

Years ago I used a 444 Marlin for moose hunting and packed a 44 Magnum revolver as backup, used the same bullet for both guns, a 265 grn. Hornady, those days are long gone now.

In January '04, I fell off something, bumped my head and in the morning found myself to be the owner of a shiny new S&W 500 Mag. revolver..

I'm always the one to shoot the big guns first (in my crowd at least) wasn't the least bit intimidated by the recoil and believe if you can shoot the 454 Casull the 500 will pose no problems..

I commenced reloading and settled on the 440 grn. Cast Performance with 40 grns. of H110 for a velocity near 1700 fps... Where does this all fit in with lever guns, (I hear someone yelling)

I just wanted some input on the 500 Shock & aWe as a possible lever action round, wouldn't that be sweet!! Hunting with a lever gun and packing a revolver using the same bullet, brings back the 444 Marlin/44 Mag. days...

Is it possible to build one based on the 1895, my caliper shows rim dia. @ .554" and .527" just ahead of the rim.
What would be the velocity gain in say a 22" or 24" bbl.? Would 2200 fps be possible in the 24" bbl ? If so that would be a most impressive moose and bear thumper out to 150 yards.
Remember, I want this for dual purpose capabilities based on the cartridge, so please refrain from reminding me of other cartridges with similar performance..

Well, MArlin is making the the 1895 in 475 & 480, so I don't see why the 500 wouldn't work! Isn't velocity increase something like 50 fps per inch of barrel? My favorite is still the 444. A 300+ gr gas checked hard cast with a healthy dose of H322 does the trick! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> SW

FWIW:



I hear that Wild West Guns is making the 1895 Marlin in the 500 S&W magnum and the 500 Alaskan.



Go to: www.wildwestguns.com



Good Shooting,



BMT

Actually, WWG's is making the 500 on a totally custom action that is based on the 1895. they were having pressure problems with the factory action. Last I checked I believe they were going for about $1700 or so.

I don't know what the barrel length of your pistol is, but I'm assuming 8". Straigthwall pistol rounds generally pick up about 100 fps for every 3" of barrel. Let's say you go with a 23" barrel, for an additional 15" of barrel, that should net you about 500 fps, which would be right at your 2200 fps goal. You'll also pick up a few fps by getting rid of the barrel/cylinder gap.

Unless the law of diminishing returns comes to play, S&W will have made the ballistic breakthrough of the century. If you can get 2200 fps with a 440 gr bullet out of the .500 Magnum case, you will have just duplicated factory .404 Jeffery and .416 Rigby ballistics with significantly less case capacity. I'd venture a guess that the velocity gains will be nowhere near that great, no matter how much barrel length you add.

But if it works out, I'd like to have one... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Not really, because if you load the 404 to the same pressure as the 500, it'll push a 400 gr 2500+ fps, and the 416 will do 2600+.