New project idea

[jason045]

Sounds like you hunt the same woods as me geezer.  I rarely shoot over 75-80 yards.  I have a lane to my south that goes for 700 yards or so but the deer are nearly always traveling to the north along that corridor.  So as long as I'm patient, i can usually get my shot under 100 yards.  By my estimation, the .500 will come in at about 30.25 inches and 5 1/2 lbs.  I also plan on shooting cast bullets only.  Probably the cast performance 500 gr gc at around 1500fps.  Perfect thick woods, close range deer and hog medicine I think.

[myarmor]

Just weighing in..no pun intended.. the 500 should be a very good round for what you are looking for. I would have opted for a 44mag but the 500 is a nice heavy fit for you. Go and hit'em hard!




-Aaron

[guns-o-fun]

I cut my 500 S&W handi back to, IIR, about 17 inches before I got a nice square crown.  I put it in synthetic stocks and it is light weight and super handi.  It likes the synthetic stocks and the new crown and is shooting pretty accurately.  The reloading cost is not that bad, and the kick is not that bad (if it seems excessive, just throw a limbsaver pull-over on in addition to the factory butt pad).  Then again, 400 grains is about the heaviest bullet that I shoot from it.  More than adequate for anything that I care to run into in the woods (or anywhere else!).

[petemi]

Of the two I would say 45-70., but the 45-70 limits me to about 150 yards.

Mc. you're a friend, buddy and co-conspirator, but I gotta challenge you on the 150 yard .45-70 idea.  No way.  If a person shoots it, learns the rifle and the load, has good sights, it'll easily dump deer at twice that distance.

Another errant thought just came to mind.  405 gr. .45-70s loaded down to punch paper with   Geeze, there's gotta be a more economical way to do that??.........Oh yeah, I remember.....22LR.

Pete

[jason045]

Gotta agree with Pete on the 45-70.  I ran the numbers with the high end loads out of the barnes manual for the 300 gr TTSX boattail @2560fps.  My ballistics program shows a maximum 6" point blank of over 240 yards.  In essence out to that distance the projectile never goes higher or lower than 3" of your point of aim so basically no correction is necessary on a deer.  It still carries over 2000 ft-lbs at that range too.  If someone really knew their load and trajectory, I believe a deer could be taken out to 350-400 yards without much problem.  I prefer the big heavy slow bullets though.

[gcrank1]

So, a big, heavy (300gr compared to the weight of most sporting rifle bullets) fast bullet with a better trajectory has a downside of just what? Most misses at game, I suspect, are because of mis-estimations of range, so a flatter trajectory is a good thing. Will that bullet above still go completely through the amimal? If so, it has more than enough mass.
I am a traditionalist, and like the old, classic rifles and calibers, but have learned that some of this 'new stuff' works pretty well.

[jason045]

 Didnt say there was a downside, just what I prefer.  I like cast bullets and I suspect if you started driving cast bullets over 2500 fps you would run into leading problems.  As stated earlier, I almost never shoot over 100 yards so the trajectory/range estimation thing is a moot point.

[NFG]

I like the big bores...45-70 OR 500 S&W...the bigger the better...you can always mitigate recoil and/or down load a bit...or go to a longer case in both for more hair, but either one in a shorter barrel wouldn't loose you too much as far as velocity is concerned...where you loose is in the energy department...

45-70, 400gr bullet, 22" bbl/1900 fs/~3200 ME - ~2350 ftlbs at 100 yds.
45-70, 400gr bullet, 16" bbl/1826 fs/~2900 ME - ~2100 ftlbs at 100 yds.

400 gr Speer, 0.259 BC...if you use a Barnse X bullet, or ANY spitzer with a BC 0.457 plus or minus a bit, then the energy at 100 yds is increased considerably, ~2700/ 2500 ftlbs at 100 yds

Many times the argument becomes hair splitting, defensive, apples and quavas, or "I'm right and your wrong" and misses the point altogether.

I found over the years that the bigger the bullet the less meat is lost and the quicker the animal goes down...much bigger blood trail and a quicker bleed out.  Works for me.

There is a whole passle of 357 cal cartridges...357 Maximum, 357 Herrett, 35 Rem, 356/358 Win you could upgrade to and they have fairly heavy bullets, up to near 300 gr in caste lead and are excellent woods cartridges, that would work great by rechamberting the 357 Mag and being cognizant of the pressures.

Lots of ways to go...always the hardest part for me...making THE decision, then doing it.  The rest is just mechanics.

Not to keep the pot stirred....it is the bullet profile that limits the range more than anything else...use a bullet with a high BC and you can increase the effective range buy a considerably amount...of course increasing the velocity also helps.  The object is to optimize ALL the parameters you can.

Luck