Reloading 500S&W Magnum

Thousands of rounds of my own cast lead bullets are much cheaper than the commercially available ones.

I know, and I will be casting eventually. I got into a couple of the mold group buys over at castboolits, and there's at least one other 500 shooter at my range who's helping me out. I'll try to make it to the workshop too. Thanks.
 
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Cool, thanks. Also, what do you think about the 350 grain Speer "DeepCurl" JSP bullet? Looks like that's about the cheapest thing out there ($20 for 50.) Would they be OK loaded kinda light as a plinking round? Would LilGun work?

(I'm not set up for casting yet so I'm stuck with whatever I can buy, and don't really want to buy 5 different kinds of power.)

You shouldn't load Lil Gun (or H110/W296) any lighter than the minimum loads in the manuals. I haven't seen that Speer bullet, but if it has a cannelure, you should be OK. If it doesn't have a cannelure, I wouldn't use it unless you load it light (with Titegroup or Trailboss).
 
You shouldn't load Lil Gun (or H110/W296) any lighter than the minimum loads in the manuals. I haven't seen that Speer bullet, but if it has a cannelure, you should be OK. If it doesn't have a cannelure, I wouldn't use it unless you load it light (with Titegroup or Trailboss).

It does:
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Last question for the day: My supplier has Winchester brass or Hornady brass (that's it.) The Hornady is quite a bit cheaper, but is it any good?
 
Starline is awesome brass, and sometimes EVEN cheaper when you can find the deal.

I just scored a batch of 700 pcs of brand new Starline..... traded for a large batch of .45 ACP brass, and some pure lead. (I made out better than the other guy on the deal! I had tons of 45 ACP and almost tons of pure lead. Actually, some other guy in Montana needed some of my excess 44 mag brass, and sent me a box of pure lead in payment. I'm back to where I was with lead. Net = traded 44 mag and 45 ACP brass for .500 brass.)

Another way around the cannelure/crimp/powder load issue is to do what some of us do (Thanks E/C for the tip!).... load one round at a time.

That way, you have no set back issues as you fire the gun. I do that on most of my hot loads now as a matter of practice.

Note: I found a pair of gel cushioned gloves that I love, at Graingers!
They are called, "ERGODYNE PRO FLEX" 900 Gray Tag also says 0309HL2
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ERGODYNE-Impact-Glove-1EC81?Pid=search
That link takes you to the XLarge size, which is what I needed. The sizes run weird, so you'll have to try a few pairs on to make sure they are right for you.

What I like about these is that they are leather with some spandex, and the gel is well placed. Even with the gun clinched in my hand, the gloves are not binding, and feel great. Impact is amazingly reduced.

I sought these out after trying E/C's gloves (made by Uncle Mike's.... which no longer offers padded shooting gloves)..... Just thought I would pass along my experience with trying the various gloves at Graingers.
 
"LeadHead 440-LFNGC over 34.0gr of Lil'Gun/BR2 Primer for 1,546fps chrono'd / 2.5"moa
(This is one grain under Hodgdon's max load listed at 1,650fps/50,000psi)"

Hope this helps.
 
OK... I finally got around to shooting some of the big hollowpoints:

bigbullet.jpg


The bullet on the right is a lead semi wadcutter hollowpoint that weighs in at a svelte 647gr including the gas check and lube (the 9mm cartridge gives you an idea of the scale).

I loaded some up. Here are the specs:

Bullet: 647gr LSWCHP
Powder: H110
Charge Weight: 26.0 grains
Primer: CCI Large Rifle
C.O.A.L.: 2.290"
Crimp: Heavy roll crimp

Here's how they ran (10-shot string):

Gun: S&W .500 Mag w/8-3/8" barrel
High: 1135
Low: 1038
Avg: 1113
Std Dev: 16

They were pretty consistent velocity-wise, and the recoil was tolerable but stout. I shot 5 by single loading them, and five in a full cylinder. I checked the last bullet in the full cylinder and it hadn't jumped at all.

Best of all, they were pretty accurate:

50target.jpg


That's 10 shots at 50 feet from a rest. BTW, shooting a .500 from a rest sucks. The revolver is sighted in for 385gr bullets at about 1800fps, so you can see how much higher these heavy bullets hit. I didn't measure the group, but looks about 1-1/2".
 
Hi, does he cast the 350gr or purchase the bullet? If he casts could you pass along the mould mf name and mould # if possible? Thanks
 
Hop on over to castboolits.gunloads.com and look for NOE and Mihec molds.

Each of those guys have made an array of .500 S&W molds, including some in the 350 grain range. They might even have some extras available for purchase.

All of the molds that I cast with for this gun are custom molds (NOE and Mihec), purchased in a group buy over at that forum. Good bunch of people.

The molds are brass or aluminum, and at about $120 each, aren't cheap. But, boy are they good!

This is the only currently active group buy for a .500 S&W Mag bullet mold. Production scheduled October time frame.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=111062

Smallest one available in that group is 450 grains.
 
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Photos. Beware minimum or below charges of H-110

Here is what happens when there is not enough H-110 to provide full ignition.

Unburnt powder in cylinder
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Bullet stuck in forcing cone
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Hunk of powder pushed out o the end of the cylinder
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Muzzle flash from full power loads. [smile]
muzzleFlash.jpg
 
Good thing the bullet went far enough into the forcing cone to allow you to open the cylinder. I wasn't so lucky when it happened to me.
 
What makes you think it's unburned powder? Did you put a flame to it?

Sent from the Hyundai of the droids, the Samsung Replenish, using Tapatalk.
 
Good thing the bullet went far enough into the forcing cone to allow you to open the cylinder. I wasn't so lucky when it happened to me.

How'd you deal with it? The only way I can think of is to push the bullet back into the cylinder from the muzzle. That would give me the heebie jeebies.
 
From my droid that yellow looks like an ear plug.



Sent from the Hyundai of the droids, the Samsung Replenish, using Tapatalk.
 
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