.500 S&W .22 LR load

[MnMike]

I recently got two barrels for my Handi. One was a .205 Ruger. That was boring. It shot under 1/2" at a hundred yds. with the first laod I tried.

The other was a 500 S&W and I wanted it as a plinking rifle. I don't like a lot of recoil. There was not a lot of info for low velocity loads for it. The only thing I found was Trail Boss, but that was 1000 fps at the top end. That seemed to wimpy, even for me. I had a can of Blue Dot. It is not a great powder, but from looking at a lot of loads for similar cartridges it looked workable.

I started at 10 gr. with a Ranier copper plated lead bullet. That did get the bullet out of the barrel. It smoked the shell - a sure sign of low pressure. If you try this, make sure that the bullet did leave the barrel.

I moved up a bit, and discovered that my chronograph showed a 200 fps difference between holding my rifle muzzle up before firing and holding it down.

I then added pillow stuffing, poked into the case. This solved the muzzle up/down problem. Fillers hold the powder near the primer.

I finally wound up with a load that duplicated the velocity of the 22LR. It shoots better than my ability to use open sights.

mike

[knight0334]

The powder placement makes a difference.  One of the free gun magazines I get had an article about the powder up/down thing.   several hundred FPS difference when powder is against primer vs powder against bullet.

[Icy Straits]

I have tried a few light loads with a 45/70 that have smoked the shell, what do you use as "pillow stuffing".

[MnMike]

It was a bag that my wife had that was labeled "Pillow Stuffing". It said it was polyester. Someone on the handloading group said this is the generic term for Dacron. I have seen Dacron mentioned as a good filler, so I used it. Seems to work.

mike

[wtroger]

I use 1/2 a sheet of toilet paper over the top of my 1873 springfield imr-4198 loads. Thats about as cheap a filler as I have found.

[James B]

I have not tried the 500 S&W but in the 45-70, 13 grains of Unique with a WW Magnum Primer and a 405 grain cast bullet gives a nice reduced load at about 1150 fps. No fillers are needed and the position of the powder is not an issue.

[eskimo36]

I shoot 10 grains of Unique in my 500 under a 440 grain bullet with no filler for a light load with good consistency.