500 S&W

[AtlLaw]

Now that I have all my reloading stuff for my new 500 S&W Handi Rifle, I sat down with my manuals last night to start thinking about loads.  Guess what, I don't have a single powder suitable for this cartridge!     Well, I do have Trail Boss, but it's loads are just TOO mild!

I picked up a 440 gr. FNGC mould and a box of 400 gr. JFP's, so using those bullets I went thru all my manuals and LoadData.  Looks like H-110 is the "go to" choice for the 500 for both cast and jacketed bullets with Lil'gun and 4227 showing up as also rans.

I normally don't like powders with as many "watch out for's" and "you gotta's" as 110 and Lil'gun, but the only thing I know about them is what I read so... I gotta see for my own self!     H110 it is!

[buck460XVR]

AtlLaw........the more I use it, the more I like IMR4227 in my .460S&W. It also worked well in my son's .460S&W  20'' Encore Pro Hunter. Does not give the velocities of H110/W296, but comes close and seems to perform well in longer pipes. It also is more forgiving than H110/W296 and does not have as narrow parameters as H110/W296.

[AtlLaw]

Thanks Buck!  I was wondering about that powder.

[simplicity]

I'm approaching the 5000 round mark with my 500. I've used h110 and lilgun the most and lil gun far more then h110. The main reason is top loads are the same velocitys but the lil gun puts less stress on the gun. Also h110 is four times dirtier. I don't load light loads with the exception of some trail boss loads for a particular plate shoot where I had to get ME under 500 ftlbs due to the plates that were used. The only two things you have to remember with lilgun 1 don't load light you get pressure spikes and 2 don't go over the max load data on the hodgon website (i get most of my data from there) or you run the possiblity of getting some mayjor spikes. I foyu want to work past the max data charges go with the h110 (though I'm not really reccomending it) it's the safer of the two if you want to venture into dangerous territory. Honestly though what on this continent do you need more then the max listed data for? It is quite impressive what the round will do when its loaded to it's 60kpsi limit though, it is not fun to shoot at all when you get up there. You won't find ay factory rounds that load it past 48 k.

[kynardsj]

I also do the Lil Gun thing with my 500. My Encore loves a 350 gr JHP over a good dose of it. Very accurate.