Ran into this problem tonight with the .500 reloading process...

[twohats]

I ran into a problem reloading my .500 SW Mag in an Encore Pro Hunter pistol tonight...I have reloaded for the .444 and .44 and 7-30 waters but this 500 has got me puzzled.I am using new Winchester brass and Hornady 300 gr FTX's.I went through all my steps and towards the end I made up a dummy bullet to test proper C.O.L. and it should be 2195 and mine ended up 2194.The problem occurs when the round doesn't even chamber.I have just a little cannelure so i tried to crimp and the round seems to go a bit further but with some force i know this  isn't right.What could I be doing so wrong? I compare my bullet with acyory soft point and they are crimped alot and the micrometer in circum. is the same and COL.....Any help would be great,Thanks

[MePlat]

Are you actually talking about 2.195" opposed to 2.194"?  That is .001" difference if you are.
Are you actually worrying over .001"?
I am completely confused over this.

[twoshooter]

First step, are your cases all trimmed and square at the case mouth? Secondly, the case wall thickness may be slightly off, I have had some that were .002 thicker in spots than in others. You need to coat the case with a magic marker , or smoke it, to see where the rub is coming. Do the cases chamber freely before you put the bullet in? Do they get almost fully seated before they get tight, or are they tight to start with? If you seat the bullet deeper in the dummy round, does that make a difference? Also, are you sure on that length? That sounds a bit long.The OAL for revolvers is 2.100.

[MePlat]

I understand what you are asking now.
Seat the bullet till the case is just barely under the crimp groove and then turn the case flare in until it just touches the side of the bullet and start seating the bullet deeper and deeper until it chambers freely in the barrelwhen it is held muzzle down and the barrel is off the frame.  When the barrel is turned up and the cartridge falls out on its own that is max seating OAL.  Then you can adjust your seating depth to the desired OAL after finding this out.  You gotta go with what you got.

[twoshooter]

  Don't mean this to be mean, but, do you still have all your digits? I think you need to do some quick, serious reading. That cartridge produces pressures right at 50 K psi, that is nothing to sneeze at. This is somewhat like baking a cake, only you dont blow up the house if you forget an ingredient with Betty Crocker. Changing the seating depth also changes the pressure curve, so PLEASE read carefully ALL the reloading info you can find. Start at the LOW end of the load data and work up until you get an accurate load and then STOP, at least until you get used to the cartridge / gun combination you have. This is a good gun you have  and we need more sportsmen and shooters, I dont want to see you go from MePlat to MeSplat.

[Ranger99]

ain't these a pretty high pressure
cartridge that are kinda on the
edge to begin with?
just asking because of unfamiliarity.

[MePlat]

I have a short throat 500 S&W barrel.  I know as seating depth gets deep load data goes down.
I assume others know to work up a load from below.
Of course i may be assuming too much nowadays since everyone wants to come on the internet and ask for load data etc. and get the low down on reloading where years ago we learned from loading books and had to search out answers on our own.
We don't know most of the people that give out loading data or id they even own the caliber asked about much less know what they are talking about.
Trust me I have 2 Smith revolvers in it plus an encore barrel and a handi rifle.
If it is something i don't know about you want see me trying to answer a question that is asked.  I absolutely hate when someone does it to me and i don't do it to others whether it is guns, ammo, knives watches cameras etc.   

[twoshooter]

OK, no harm, no foul. I no longer assume anything, and I don't give information that I am suspect of. I have reloaded for 45 years and some days I miss something simple, that I should know. That is why I am patient and methodical, I would like to become older still. Good luck with the gun.

[simplicity]

After reading throught his post I have just acouple things to add. First off twoshooter the 500sw is a 60kpsi cartridge SW has stated this numorous times I don't know why folks still claim it to be a 50k cartridge. there isn't a factory load out there that makes it over 52k anyways. The other is two hats you never stated what bullet you were trying to reload. if you are trying to load a cast bullet that wasn't properly sized then you will run into exsactly what your talking about. The other is I have to aggree with twoshooter on the getting the case mouth square. I'm pushing 5k through my 500 and many of the new cases I get are not cut square and when crimped will leave more material on one side. Me I would dykem the case and slide it into the chamber. and close the action. reopen and look at the cartridge to see where it is rubbing. I've never had such problems loading 500's or for this matter any straight walled cartridge.

[Catfish]

Did you size the brass before you loaded it? I have found some new brass that did not chamber is a tight chamber. The other thing that pops into my mind is that you may have put alittle to mush presure on the case when crimping and expanded the case alittle.

[twoshooter]

Mostly I call it a 50K psi cartridge because my reloading book does not list ONE , repeat ONE load that goes over 50K. Now, I know that there are people with a testicle to gray matter weight ratio that would run 70K if their gun did not fly apart and claim it was great. AND, there are people here that don't know beans and would take whatever said as gospel and pour a cup full of powder in and head for the range. I am NOT going to promote loads that I do not know to be pretty much idiot proof, not edgy or pushing the envelope. That is for experts and people with lots of technical experience, as well as equipment. I know that in a handi or encore you can jack things up over a revolver, but personally, if I need more power I will get a bigger gun, not try to hotrod a smaller cartridge.
  I agree whole heartedly on the bullet size, I had problems with my initial cases and a  501 sizing die. It was actually close to 502, I ordered a 500 RCBS lube/sizer die that WAS 500 or a tiny bit less and it made all the difference. In the Starline brass, the Lee push through sizer was fine, but in the Magtech brass, I had to use the RCBS.

[buck460XVR]

I know in other calibers, cases need to be shorter than standard when reloading the FTX bullets to keep correct OAL while crimping into the cannelure. One reason I never got excited about using them. Cases from factory 200gr FTX .460 ammo are shorter than standard and I have to separate those cases when reloading XTPs and use less powder. I wonder if you are buckling the case when crimping? Are you seating and crimping in one step? I know the long length of .460 cases lends itself to buckling when crimping during the seating step.  Because of this, the .460 is the only handgun caliber that I seat and crimp in two steps. Since your firearm  is a single shot and not a revolver and you do not need to worry about bullet jump, seating the bullets past the cannelure and then crimping just enough to get the flare out should work and should tell you if indeed the bullets are too long for your cases.