There is a nib CZ in a 505 Gibbs on Guns International for $2,000 in case anyone is looking for one. Good buy!

Andrews1958 - that's what you say to your shoulder when you touch the 505 Gibbs off...GOOD BYE! LOL. Homesteader.

Good buy and a high cool factor, but way beyond my recoil tolerance for good shooting.

Love the caliber, but, like Safariman, I just cannot tolerate the recoil..I can shoot one if I concentrate real hard and keep telling myself that nobody has ever been killed by recoil, but one does not need to be going through that routine when an elephant is upon him! One might tend to sacrifice his body to the elephant as opposed to the 505!

I can shoot a .416 or 404 with no more thought than a 22 L.R., my tolerence starts kicking in with a hot loaded .470 N.E., so I sold the .470 and went back to the 450-400 and I can't see any difference in killing effect.

Thought I wanted one long ago. then bought the 416, Loaded a flat 100grs of H4350 behind a 400gr bullet and figured out real quick that I had come hard against my upper limit!

458WIN aka Phil Shoemaker used one of these for a while on big bears and wrote that he was mightily impressed by the kinds of holes it made with 510gr softpoints. I can imagine so......

I like big bores but anything over a 375 is to much for me. I am getting to old to be kicked and thats one reason why I sold my 416

Shooting should be fun

I recently talked to a custom riflemaker friend, who in the past year built, test-fired and shipped a couple of .505's to different customers, the first he had built.

He reported that the test-firing was the most brutal he had even done. Both he and his assistants could only stand 9 rounds (not 10), and the customers could not take more than 5-6.

Then one of the customers took one to Africa and got into BIG trouble with a bull elephant, because he did not hit the bull in the right place (frontal head shot) with the 1st round. Several rounds were expended, both by the hunter and PH, before it got sorted out. Apparently the .505 did NOT knock the bull out, at all, with the first shot, even though the bullet went close to the brain.

I fired a .505 three times (or maybe it was two?) a few years ago, and afterward knew the recoil was on the edge of insane for practical hunting. And I have also shot a .600 NE double.

Nice cast bullet gun when loaded like a 50-70.

hell of alot of better and cheaper options out there if yah want to launch 50 cal cast out of a bolt action......easily done at half the cost of a Gibbs

lets see $2000 to launch cast bullets out of a 505 gibbs at 50-70 velocities OR take the same $2000 buy a Sharps from Big Timber and actually chamber the [bleep] for 50-70 or even 50-90 and launch lead bullets at 50-70 velocities......

MuleDeer - "a man's got to know his limitations..." Dirty Harry (aka Clint Eastwood) Homesteader.

This thread caught my eye because I just re-read "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" for the first time in 30+ years.

It's got the PH using a short, ugly .505 to backup Macomber who used a Springfield '06 with 220 FMJs on buff and lion, and the dirty rotten memsahib using a 6.5 Mannlicher.

If only Francis had 220 SPs, it might have worked out better.

Old BoaaLady/Oldman/Karen sure has it all figured out, me thinks.

Tempting.... but how many times would I actually shoot it over my lifetime? 5 shots a year? And lord knows i don't "need" it. But since when does need have anything to do with additional rifle purchases? :P

From my experience the 505 with original 525 or 535 ( if you have a .510 bore like mine) at 2150fps is a lot more fun to shoot than any 458 Lott I have ever fired. I suspect the original Kynoch loads were only going those levels anyway.

Phil,

The .505 I shot had been handloaded close to 2400 fps or so with 535's. It was also too light even for standard loads, in my opinion, at around 9 pounds or so. It was nastier than any .458 Lott I've ever fired!

You should ask D'Arcy about .505's. He's built a couple of clients lately and refuses to do any more.

My take on it is here:

www.bigbores.ca

Bob

I shot about a box out of a 505 that a friend built and I thought that it was a good thumper

The 505 Gibbs loaded with 525's at 2150 fps and 600's at 2100 fps generates the best balance of shootability and performance in my opinion. Perception of recoil is subjective but my CZ with these loads is no worse and may be more tolerable than a Lott.The round can certainly be loaded much hotter but it rapidly becomes unusable except to the most dedicated self abuser. The round does take practice to shoot well especially on the follow up shots due to muzzle jump. Practice loads using 5744 and cast bullets at 1800 fps are easy and fun to shoot.
JB- DE told me that same ele tale I would hate to be the one responsible for testing and load development of two custom 505 Gibbs to his high standards! I too want no part of the Gibbs at above 2300 fps.

doclee - the guys who test fire the "big" guns (doubles , .505's etc.)for a living are easy to spot. They're the one's popping the Advil's, have the 'twitches' and are on a first name basis with the local chiropractor's office staff. Regards, Homesteader.

My 500 Jeffery (a CZ 550 Safari classic) weighs in at 11.25 lbs without scope and 12 lbs with my Leupold 1.5 - 5x on it. I shoot 570g TSXs at 2300 fps. It's fun offhand and kneeling, from the bench I use a lead sled with 25 lbs of weight and it usually knocks off my hearing protection with each shot lol ... At 2300 fps it's a hoot and very accurate. I've loaded it up to 2500 fps with the 570g TSX's and at that speed it's just unpleasant to shoot. The 505 Gibbs should be in about the same league recoil and power wise ...



Best 3 shot group so far at 50 yards (all have been better than MOA)



My friend holding "Baby" when she first arrived after being rebarreled to 500 Jeffery ...



Regards,

Chuck

Chuck - mighty fine looking rifle you have there. CZ fitted your piece with a nicely figured walnut stock. Have fun 'Bwana'...pardon my Swahilli(?). Homesteader.

I blame Phil for making me think that I want a 505 Gibbs. Still have never shot one, nor handled a rifle chambered for it, but there's something sick deep in my psyche that still wants one, 416 Rigby, 458 Win, and 470 NE be damned! I've even been holding onto a .510" blank for about 5 years thinking that I would some day build a Shoemaker-esque 505 (.510) Gibbs. Damn near bought a CZ action from Brownells on several occasions. Besides...why buy when you can build something similar for half again as much?

BUM,
Sounds like you need to buy that action and get on with the project .

I remember reading that Elmer Keith carried a .505 Gibbs double when hunting some of his big bear. It probably went to Africa with him.

croldfort - being old enough to know who Elmer Keith is and know about his quirks I can say the only reason he would take a ".505 Gibbs" to Africa is because they didn't make a ".506 Gibbs" - LOL ...with apologies to the Texas Rangers. Regards, Homesteader.

IIRC, On big bears, Elmer would try to take out the front shoulders with the first shot to hinder their mobility. Then he would go for the vitals.

You are correct about his thinking that bigger was always better.

croldfort - had to wonder about Elmer as to which would be bigger...his Stetson, his cigar OR his rifle caliber on any given hunt and in his articles. He would, no doubt, use an AR15 to swirl his bourbon. Can't fault his shooting technique however. Regards, Homesteader.

I just went digging through my stuff the other day and realized that the damned movers lost my barrel! Son of a bitch!

How does the recoil of the .505 compare to the .460 Weatherby?

I have fired a .460, and that is about as much recoil as I want.

I think Elmer's double would have been a .500, not a .505 Gibbs.

Yep. Of course, Elmer wrote less about where that bullet needed to be placed to take out the front shoulder(s) because he supposed (as many modern gunwriters suppose, I suppose...) that his readers understood the anatomy of their quarry from all angles, as he, and experienced hunter, guide, and field-dresser of game, did.

Depending on the presentation of the bear to the shooter, you can take out one shoulder and in some cases, with the right presentation and bullet, both shoulders while also shredding heart and lungs.

I don't presume to speak for Elmer. Just speaking from my reading of his writings.

I've got a CZ 550 in 500 Jeffery (comparable recoil to a 505 Gibbs), weighs 11.25 lbs without scope. Shooting 570g TSX's at 2300 fps gives 84 ft/lbs of recoil with 22 fps recoil velocity. A 460 Weatherby Mark V (weighs 10 lbs without scope) shooting a 500g bullet at 2600 fps gives 95 ft/lbs and 25 fps respectively.

Here's a link to the recoil calculator ...

http://www.handloads.com/calc/recoil.asp

Chuck