Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading 500 S&W

Anybody reloading for one? If so what bullets and powder are you using? Have you run into any strange problems when reloading one?

I use large rifle primers in my 4”. Pistol primers work but they are shorter and maybe there’s a chance of a misfire.
Trail boss, Blackhorn209, longshot, 5744, 4227 and probably more.
I cast my own bullets from 300 grain to 480 grain.
It is an interesting cartridge in the revolver, the lever action adds about five hundred feet per second to heavy loads. My rifle ammo is loaded with lilgun, 1680 and 4227
I’m traveling now but can provide details in a week or so.

Bought one when S&W first produced the mighty 500, just had to have it. Intended on hunting with it, but it became just a range toy for me. I'd load 100 rounds or so every year. That would keep me suitably entertained.

Usually loaded the 440 grain Cast Performance flat nose lead bullet and usually with Accurate No 9.

No handloading issues whatsoever using Hornady dies. It's like loading any other revolver cartridge, except bigger.

I liked it, but it was kind of useless for me so I only kept it a dozen years or so. It was fun.

A buddy of mine let me shoot his last year and we caught it with the camera. As I recall, this load used H110.



Regards, Guy

I got a set of Lee carbide dies to start reloading for my 500. The up stroke through the resizing die was stiffer than I thought it should be. The real problem came when I went to lower the ram. It was very hard and when I looked at the die there was a ring of brass stuck in it that the die had peeled off the case side. I tied some once fired brass and some new Winchester brass and had the same peeling off of the case. Been reloading a long time and this is a new one on me. Got any ideas?

I had a buddy who had one of the first 500s in AK when they debuted. He hated the brake and was the first to have a 3” with no brake after he had it cut off, just like the Survival Kit guns they brought out later on. He told the S&W guys at SHOT that they should bring one out without a brake and they told him it couldn’t be done, it produced too much torque. The next year they brought out the unbraked models.

He shot his 500s a lot, thousands of rounds experimenting with molds, custom and off the shelf, as well as jacketed bullets. Everything from 325 gr up to over 700.

In the end his claim was that it didn’t get any better for a combo of killing power, penetration, accuracy, and shootability than a 440 WFN out of a Mountain Mold over LilGun. He’s no longer with us or I’d ask for more specifics. But that powder and around that weight might be a good place to start.

I have loaded 325 and 500 grain jacketed stuff and 370 grain cast. All over medium loads of 1680. Have not had a chance to shoot them yet.
I have some factory loads of 350 at 1450 and 440 grains at 1550. The lighter loads are real soft shooters. The 440 grains at 1550 are more but not bad.

I need to find a good set of reloading dies for the S&W 500. The set of Lee dies I got were junk and headed back to Midway.

I loaded up a bunch with H110 and used Standard Primers as directed by my book.

I had to lean the hard way with the slugs getting stuck in the cone locking the cylinder up.

It only took a couple hours here on the Fire for help to let me know what I did wrong following my load book.

Using H110 powder always use Mag. Primers.

I got one when they first came out. I’ve pretty much settled on 350 grain XTP’s and Lil Gun or H 110. I don’t shoot it much. I find it somewhat unpleasant to shoot. I’ve often thought about making some milder loads, maybe I will. For whatever reason, I can’t bring myself to send it down the road.

Been loading for mine since I got it in 2004 without any issues. My favorite loads are a sweet shooting cast bullet load with 16.0 grains of Titegroup under a 350 grain LSWC for target and deer hunting and a roaring dinosaur hunting load with 42.0 grains of Lil Gun under a 325 grain Speer Uni Cor hollow point. Large rifle primers in all my loads.

Happy Blasting with your monster hogleg!

Doc_Holidude

The 500 S&W is an easy cartridge to load for these days as it has settled down in spec's.
I was sent one for review when released in 2003 and spec's were different.

The dies from RCBS were originally manufactured for flat based bullets and they retrofitted conical seaters, to allow for better bullet alignment with the pointed Barnes X bullets of the day.

The original factory ammo issued by Corbon features pistol primers and the Max pressure was lower than today's accepted levels. Likewise the cases featured shallow primer pockets that accommodated pistol primers but would not house rifle primers without crushing them a little, Not ideal an potentially hazardous when reloading.

My original reloads generated erratic velocities and I also used the (now we all know) too soft 325gn Speer HP which was ideal in the .500 Desert Eagle popular at the time, but had no cannelure and crimping was a manual crush of the jacket which also compromised the bullet.

After playing it for a while, I concluded that because I was using 243 volumed charges, the primer was erratic so squeezed some Federal 210's into the Corbon cases and behold, velocities increased 2-300fps and with a range that was normal meaning you could record velocity spreads and determine uniformity. At this time, other industry people learned what I did and new case spec's were issued with Large Rifle Primers and a corresponding increase in Maximum Pressure for the cartridge. I still have those original cases with Pistol primer depth but these days use commercial LR standard brass and the issue has been resolved.

The bullet I used on Whitetail was the 275gn Barnes which I loaded 200fps over Corbon Factory loads of 1652fps for the factory load and 1861fps for my handloads using 40 grains of H110. These days Barnes lists a Max load of 45gn for 2082fps. Doesn't really matter any loads work on whitetail. Accuracy for me was 1.7" at 30 yards with the factory open sights and as the deer dropped in their tracks and at that time, I didn't know maximum pressures were going to be increased, I stopped there with that bullet and still load it today.

That 325gn Speer HP bullet I loaded to 1566fpsd using 35gn of H110 with the Federal pistol primer.

Stepping up to the Barnes 325gn X bullet, I tried H110, H4227 and Lil Gun standardizing on 46gn of H 110 for 1705fps though Lil Gun was faster using 42gn for 1856fps.

The 350gn Hornady responded well 42gn of Lil Gun for 1676fps with 43gn H110 delivering 1640fps and 44gn of H4227 chronographing at 1648fps, all much of a muchness depending what your gun prefers.

Barnes makes a very useful 375gn X bullet where 36gn Lil Gun generated 1683fps, H4227 for 1551 and 41gn of H110 for 1532fps which I settled for as it shot 1.2" groups regularly at 50 yards with the 2X Leupold I had installed at this point.

I found bulk packs of Remington 383 grain soft points and secured a few bags which I loaded 40gn LiL Gun for 1665fps, 42gn of H4227 for 1936fps and very heavy recoil though it shot really well using Remington cases and Federal 210 primers. I settled on 37gn of H110 for 1431 using Starline cases as it was easy to shoot and will be fine for deer and pig use using a softpoint.

For heavy loads, I tried the 400gn Flatpoint and the Barnes Bone Busters for a solid, which Barnes kindly provided and again settled on H110 for the powder choice as velocities for each of around 1520fps using 35 grains. Also tried up to 34gn 2400 for 1447fps, 37gn H110 for 1550fps which I didn't consider much of a gain considering the increase in recoil and 17gn of Tite group which recoiled hard but generated only 1254fps which was a no contest. I started at 15 grains which generated 1153fps which some may like for a lightish load using 400 grain bullets.

I never used the heavier bullets or some of the heavier loads published around the internet these days, as this handgun is already adequate for all that walks the same land as I. All loads chronographed on my Oehler 35P. Drop back a couple of grains please and work up.

Incidentally, apart form adding the Leupold, I never liked the factory grips. Too small for my long fingers making the revolver muzzle heavy and an unnecessary distraction, so I added a set of S&W wooden grips designed for the S&W model 629, 44 Magnum and they work wonderfully, balance the handgun and totally removed that muzzle heavy sensation.