The best thing you can do is to first, send that rifle to me so I can reimburse you what you spent and then turn yourself over to the authorities 'cause you stole it at that price. Just joking.
I like the 500 S&W and am looking for a Handi in my budget range, I currently load for and shoot a S&W Model 500 and I suspect the loads for the 8" barrel revolver will be similar to your Handi.
First, I found out right away you can't afford to feed the 500 with factory ammo, not at $54 a box of 20, unless your last name is Gates or Trump. I have one box that came with the gun, everything else is reloads.
I bought once fired brass off Gunbroker at significantly less than new but Starlline and Hornady make new brass for this round. CAUTION> There was a change in the primer size early on in the 500 S&W from Large Pistol to Large Rifle. ALL cases that use Large Rifle primers (and that is pretty much all of them with one exception I can't remember who) will be head stamped "500 S&W R". If it doesn't have the "R" it is probably a large pistol primer. I sorted my brass out upon purchase and the couple I found without the "R" I set aside so as not to get them mixed up.
So, moving on. I bought bullets from Speer that I thought were too expensive, then I bought the Lee Mold C501-440-RF which is a double cavity 440 grain round flat nose bullet that works well for me in my revolver and I have heard other Handi owners recommend it. I have also heard of people using a 501 diameter 350 grain black powder bullet but I have never used it. My revolver leads significantly without gas checks on this bullet, a couple of non gas check rounds and I spend 45 minutes getting lead out. With a Lee sizer (Midway, around 14 bucks) and a box of Hornady gas checks (around $50/1000) you can easily size and gas check your own bullets. I have also bought 335 grain copper washed bullets from Midway (made by Rainier) and they worked well in actual shooting but you have to be cautious with loading them 'cause they are made for the 50 AE and do not have a cannelure so it's hard to get a good crimp on them.
If you don't cast your own bullets now its easy to start with this large caliber. You can buy lead/tin/antimony mix on E-Bay but I find I am able to salvage spent bullets from the range and mix them in with wheelweights from where I buy my tires. I can usually salvage 25 lbs of lead in 20 or 30 minutes at the range and then spend a couple of hours melting it and skimming the crud off it.
Loads ?? I typically use 14.6 grains of TiteGroup with a heavy roll crimp on the 440 grain and 13.0 grains of TiteGroup on the 335 grain bullets. Obviously, these are my loadings and I bear no liability if you use them, etc., etc... Those are not max loads but I find they work well for me and I am able to keep a 3-4" group at 100 yards out of a revolver so........
Bottom line, continue the investment with:
Carbide Dies, lee run around $25
Lee 501 Sizing Kit, around $15 with lube
Gas Checks, around $50/1000
Lee bullet mold, around $20
Brass,
??
I calculate by casting and gas checking my own bullets I am able to reload this caliber for less than 10 cents a round if I diregard the cost of the tools and the brass. Compare that to well over $3.00 a round for Factory ammo and you can see why I do it.
Hope this helps, give us a range report when you start shooting it !!!!
Dan R
