The guns were the 10.5" Performance Center w/ a 2.5-8x Leupold and the other was the 4" w/ open sights.
He also dropped off 200 pieces of brass, dies, large rifle primers, H110 and various bullets on Friday. I already had 500 wonderfully handcast 440 grain LBT LFNs, lubed with LBT Blue, that another good friend cast up. I want to say that he sizes them to .502".
I trimmed all the cases, sized all the flash holes, uniformed the primer pockets and chamfered all the cases. I set the dies and then resized and belled all the cases. I then hand primed all the cases. I loaded 20 rounds using a load from a friend. The rest of the cases would be loaded at the range so adjustments could be made to powder charge if necessary.
Saturday morning, I was at the range bright and early (a rarity for me).
After a quick standing shot w/ the 10.5", I always fire my first shot from an unfamiliar gun and/or load from a standing position to get a feel for the recoil, I would have started the bench work but the gun wasn't on paper @ 50 yards.
4 shots at a 200 yard berm had the gun on paper quickly @ 50 yards. I proceed to sight in the 10.5" PC w/ 2.5-8x Leupold using a normal benchrest style front rest and a square bag for the rear rest. I like to just support the rear of the pistol for bench work but I make sure that only about 1/4" of the front of the grip is touching the rear bag. This allows the gun to recoil normally as if it wasn't using a rear rest.
After getting it quickly sighted in, I started shooting 5 shot groups with the 440 grain offerings. To say that this gun was accurate would be an understatement. The gun flat out shot 1" ragged holes, group after group, which is pretty impressive with a bullet that measures 1/2" to begin with.
After filing up a 9 bull 50 yard target up with tiny groups, I placed a new 9 bull target out at 100 yards.
At 100 yards, accuracy was still the name of the game with the big 10.5" 500 Mag. Average 5-shot groups hoovered at around the 3/4" to 1 1/2" range (measured center to center) over the 9 groups that I shot with the 440 grain loading.
General impressions of the 10.5" Performance Center 500 Mag were very good. I loved the accuracy of the gun. It was absolutely outstanding. The weight of the handgun along with the effectiveness of the comp made the gun a complete pussycat to shoot. In all seriousness, I probably have 16 handguns that recoil significantly more than this gun. After shooting it off the bench, I did shoot it out of several more rounds out of different field positions. For me, true consistant accuracy from this pistol required some form of rest, be it sitting with shooting sticks or prone and using a pack.
Overall I was very impressed w/ the 10.5" 500 Mag offering from the Performance Center.
The other 500 Mag that I got to play with was the 4" version.
I shot from a standing position @ 25 yards and, by the time the cylinder was empty, I had quickly adjusted the sights so the gun was shooting in the black.
After running through 40 rounds of the 440 grain loads, I decided that a trigger job warranted and, since the owner is going to use it as an "Alaskan protection piece", he is going with me on a alaskan black bear this spring and an alaskan caribou hunt in August, that the sights should be changed out.
First impressions of the 4" 500 Mag Smith was the recoil, while much heavier than the 10.5" scoped version, still wasn't anything to write home about. I know that atleast 3 of my revolvers recoil significantly more.
Anyway, hopefully, the sights will come in this week for the 4" because I'll have the trigger job done tonight. I want to shot the 4" gun again on Sat.
I might take a pig or two with them in the next week or two...
SA
PS. the highlight of the weekend for me... my 12 year old godson taking my 629 Light Hunter, wears a 2x Leupold, for a 200 round shooting position marathon. Using either a prone position or a sitting position, he was consistantly ringing the 6" gong at 100 yards.
