Paul, this is a little late but I would like to point out the NEF in 500 S&W is a real brainbuster when it comes to recoil. Been there. I got rid of it quick. Also there isn't many bullets for the 500 S&W because it isn't a regular .510-.512 bullet. The 500 S&W bullet is .500 dia. An oddball. It is a true .500 caliber with a .494 bore. The 500 part is rather misleading.   ..........Paul H

Actually Paul, as I was looking for .512 bullets for the .50 Alaskan, I found a great deal more .500" bullets than I did .510" or .512" bullets. There were more moulds for .510-ish than .500, but there were really a LOT more .500" bullets than .510-ish ones. Also, there are all the .50 cal sabots that are so popular with the modern muzzle loading groups, and I like to fiddle with sabots.
 
Which brings up an almost unrelated subject: I just remembered last night that couple of years ago I designed some bullets that require a sabot. They are pretty "out there", but... now that I have the lathe and mill, I fully intend to make a mess of these up and see how they work. I also found a set of plans for making a simple injection molding press that can use household plastic like milk jugs and pop bottles. I intend to make sabots for lotsa calibers. As far as I can tell, the only sabots commercially available for centerfire arms are made for .30 and .50 cal. You can bet your bippy that I'll be making some for 8mm and .338.
 
Paul

Paul, I went off the reservation again, a .357, [ soon to be .357 MAX] barrel and a .500 S&W barrel should be here in 2 - 3 weeks.
I got tired of you having all the frus, uh fun, of messing with something else.
I just finished a project to make slugs for .410, $1.39 per shot for factory slugs is very irritating to my Scot/ German personality.
Also the .53c per shot shot loads for .410 was another irritation, so I am now making slug loads for .07c and shot loads for .11c, the difference is because I have to buy shot and I cast the slugs.

Paul, I wasn't aware things had changed that fast with the 500 S&W. I didn't keep the NEF 500 S&W long. It only took about 15 shots to make me take the cure. The recoil was extremely vicious for me. The 45/120 3.25 Sharps with 95 grs. H4895 and 300 or 350 gr. bullets didn't bother me near as much. I have used sabots for jackets on lead bullets in the 45 Sharps cartridge but results were rather dismal. Maybe I should have played with it more. Most 50 cal. sabots for muzzleloader are almost a perfect fit in the bore of the 500 S&W. It would be rather easy to load them in the 500 cartridge using a crimp to hold them. You do have to start them in the case by hand unless the case is bellmouthed good. Accuracy would probably be marginal but satisfactory for short range work. I still have a bunch of new starline brass for the 500 which I'm keeping for some future expeirmental work. I also have loading dies for the 45/500 S&W which is another future project. Most likely a waste of time. I'm intrested in making up a 6.5/500 S&W just for the heck of it...............Good luck with your ideas amigo. You will enjoy it..............Paul H

Don,
 
Glad to hear you "went off the reservation" and got the .500 S&W. It sure looks like a good cartridge to me. I don't know what might have been the problem with the one Paul H. had. Must have been the NEF's lightness and stock. I look forward to hearing about how yours shoots.
 
The .410 slug-casting sounds interesting. The exhorbitant costs of .410 components - from firearms to ammo - annoys me to no end. You should make up some 16 ga moulds... . Maybe some day I'll be able to make a cherry on the mill or lathe that would work OK for making a 16 ga mould.
 
Paul,
 
The .50 cal sabots for the ML crowd might have some real potential for the .500 S&W. Light-weight projectiles would lower recoil too.
 
I haven't been able to get any of the sabot'd bullets I have shot so far, (all .22 bullets in .30 cal sabots), to shoot accurately enough for my tastes. Nonetheless, the potential is so great I can't give up. The .308 Win case gives the best velocities and accuracy results. In cases bigger than the .308 Win, the bullet leaves a 24" barrel long before all the powder can be burnt and therefore the velocity for the larger cases is actually lower than in the .308 Win case.
 
I developed some duplex loads for the .308 Win case that can push a 55 grain .22 cal bullet out of a 24" barrel at more than 4500 f/s. The best I could do with an '06 case was about 3900 f/s. The bad news is, I can't keep those loads inside about 2.5" at 100 yds. I think there is too much disruption to the bullet's stability as the sabot separates from the bullet. My design efforts have been to work on minimizing that "separation instability", AND/OR restabilizing the bullet after separation. I have a bullet design that I think might allow restabilizaton after separation.
 
I would like to shoot 7mm bullets (the Speer 115 HP specifically) out of an 8mm bore (8mm Steyr perhaps . I think I should be able to get it going over 4000 f/s. And 8mm bullets out of the .338 bore, and .....
 
Paul

Paul, either one, I need a dimensioned drawing of the .500 S&W cartridge, any idea where I can find one to download?

DG, Try Lee Precision for case dimensions. When I bought the Lee dies for the 500 S&W, there was a loading chart with the dies and it had a dimensional drawing on it.............Paul H

I cannot find anything about the .500 S&W on Lee Precision's site.
Any more suggestions?

DG, all I can do is give you dimensions directly from an unfired Starline case. Starting with the base.
 
Rim dia.  ...................                 .554
Rim thickness.............                .059
Extractor groove width.....         .050
Case dia. at base................        .528.....tapered to .525 at the mouth
Case length.......................         1.620
Inside case mouth...........            .496
 
When a bullet is seated this makes the case dia. bigger at the front than the base dia. A poor design in my opinion. The case should be tapered at least .010  to alleviate this. There is little one can do about it tho because of the poor design. The chamber has to be oversize in order to accomodate the loaded cartridge being bigger at the front than the base diameter............Hope this is of help to you.............Paul H

Here ya go Don. I got this off of QuickLoad.
 
Paul

Thanks to both, Don

Paul,
 
I haven't been around much lately and sorry for coming into this thread late (hunting and life in general gets in the way of things...:D ). I've had a 358 Win for a few years and have tinkered with a number of powders and loads. I haven't tried the 225 Partition yet but thought I'd post some real chrony'd numbers in the 225 grain Sierra GameKing out of my BLR with a 20" barrel:
 
225 Sierra GameKing:
 
46.0 IMR 3031 - 2450 fps
47.0 IMR 3031 - 2478 fps
 
48.0 IMR 4064 - 2415 fps
49.0 IMR 4064 - 2487 fps
 
48.0 IMR 4895 - 2364 fps
49.0 IMR 4895 - 2411 fps
49.5 IMR 4895 - 2419 fps
 
49.0 Varget - 2402 fps
50.0 Varget - 2433 fps
51.0 Varget - 2457 fps
 
I've also worked with the 180 & 220 Speer FP, 225 Barnes TSX, and most of the 200 grain bullets and a number of powders. IMO, any cartridge based on the 308 Win is a great cartridge and this is no exception. I think it was Ken Waters who called it the best non magnum cartridge around. I'll say it's definately one of the most underrated cartridges around. If I had to recommend one powder it would be IMR 4064. There are some that gave a little better velocities but accuracy was excellent with it. Here's a 3 shot group with IMR 4064 with the 200 grn Remington Core Lokt PSP and a 10 shot group with the 200 Sierra Pro Hunter (I threw one :o )

Glad to hear from another fellow with .358 Win experience.:smiley:
 
Both those groups are impressive! Looks like 9 inside no worse than 1.5", and three inside 0.500". I notice that both the CoreLokt  and the Prohunter are a flat-based bullets. :D
 
What do you think of the Speer 220? And, if you have "settled" on a hunting bullet, which one is it?
 
Paul

So far, I've "settled" on the Pro Hunter for deer hunting but it's tough to settle on one as I'm getting some good results from about 4 bullets in the 180-200 grain range.  I had just worked with the 180 Speer and was getting 3 shot groups of .75" and 2600+ fps. I'm thinking that FP will put a serious hurting on a lot of creatures. I haven't worked with the 220 Speer as much..but have some other loads I'm looking at trying.  I like the idea of the 358 and FP bullets though.  
And yes I've gotten better accuracy thus far with the flat base bullets :smiley: .  I think the only boat tail I've worked with is the 225 Gameking and the best group so far is a 5 shot 2" group and I've almost went through one box already.  I just can't seem to get the accuracy out of the GK's (read boattails :frown ) in several of my rifles that I do with the FB's.  I think for now I'll work a few I have on hand before I try others...the 220 Speer and 225 TSX and see how they do.  It's a fun round to shoot and it's really hooked me on the 35 calibers.