S&W 500

[Axxe55]

A smaller framed 44 Magnum revolver, loaded with some decent 44 Special rounds makes for a fine carry gun! I carry one on a regular basis around the farm for critter control.

Another point I will add is this, you will need to double up on hearing protection in some way. They are extremely loud and will damage your hearing in short order if you are not adequately protected.

 

[rotor]

Got ZERO experience with magnum hand guns. shot a 357 back in the 70's once or twice but that's it. I shot 6 rounds outta Moonpies 10mm revolver wit a 1/2" barrel . That hurt my support hand more than the primary.

Point of all of this. My thought is if I get used to something larger than a 9mm it will probably make me more proficient with the 9mm. So might start looking at a 10mm or a 357. That would be a more natural progression up - right?

You don't need to move up to a larger caliber to get more proficient in 9mm, just get a lighter 9mm gun and use +p ammo. The laws of physics don't change, the lighter the gun, the more a given load recoils. Shooting so that you hurt your hand doesn't really make you more proficient. Practice does.
My wife is a really good shot but won't touch my Ruger LCR in 38 special no matter how much I lighten the load. Any lower would be a squib.

 

[cvgunman]

I had one for about a year. I was to much of puss to shoot it. I took it out once to shoot it, chickened out and let others shoot it instead.
Main reason I got it was as a backup for archery elk hunts in Montana/Idaho where there are some rater large bears.
Sounds like you are deciding against getting one, but if you do, I'd recommend only loading and shooting one round at a time until you get used to it. Also, I might know a guy who has some ammo and no gun

 

[sparkyv]

This was what I did and what I recommend. After I familiarized myself with my own stout 44 Mag loads, I ended up with the 460S&W instead of the 500S&W because the cartridge and reloading options were more numerous and flexible, and less expensive components. It's so much fun, and my son shoots it way better than do I. Glad I did it. The 500S&W is still on the list!

I'd recommend picking up a 44 mag before venturing into super mag territory. The ammo is far cheaper (cheaper, but still not cheap) and more readily available, and it will teach you how to handle heavy recoil.

I'd start with a nice 44 Magnum revolver. You can start with 44 Specials and also shoot the hotter Magnum loads as well. Great starting point. Shoot it and learn how to shoot it. Then decide if you want to progress to a larger bore.

 

[majormadmax]

Always wanted one, until I shot one...

 

[PinnedandRecessed]

Work your way up so you don't "learn" a bad flinch. If you really gotta have one, find a range that will rent one to you and only load one round at a time. Like others said, it's hard to go wrong with a 44mag/special.
I posted these in the handgun thread in 2019.

 

[Dougw1515]

Thanks to all who offered up recommendations. After thinking about it, and my reasons for wanting one, it's making less and less sense. As several stated the transfer of shooting technique wouldn't really transfer from the 500/.44 revolver to the 9mm semi-auto due to a number of factors.

As it currently is I'm practicing with the 9mm(3 - different pistols but mostly the P365) twice a week. Around 200rnds per session and between 2-3 hours. The reason for the extended time duration is I'm also using the SR22 at about 3-400 rounds per session. I'm getting better. If I really focus and take my time I can put a full magazine, depending on pistol, between 10-18 rounds in a 2"x3" oval @ 7 yds. Attempts to speed up and that grouping disappears pretty quickly but still not horrible. I'm starting to work on double tap accuracy and changing targets between each round fired.

Below is the target I'm using and part of my drills are to shift between targets. A shooting sequence of target #'s : 1-5-2-4-3 gives me a fair amount of required movement between targets.

 

[IXLR8]

I never owned a .500 but I knew a kid that did. He could shoot your target pattern no problem, and he only weighed a buck thirty.
he suckered me into shooting it once and I am a big fella. I tensed my muscles so much that it reverberated my skeleton when I shot it. Never again for me, but he seemed content.
I do own a Desert Eagle, and it is fun to shoot.
According to the Genitron handgun database, S&W .500 has a recoil of 59 ft/lbs, the Desert Eagle .50AE is 25 ft/lbs, and a .45ACP 1911 is
7 ft/lbs.
Those high recoil pistols take a toll on your joints after a while.
it looks like you made the right decision.

 

[kbaxter60]

This:

Another point I will add is this, you will need to double up on hearing protection in some way. They are extremely loud and will damage your hearing in short order if you are not adequately protected.

I credit my tinnitus to shooting one as a teen. No ear pro. D'oh!

 

[oldag]

Past .44 mag, I would recommend 454 Casull because of the flexibility, as pointed out previously.

I definitely recommend having it Magnaported, to reduce muzzle flip.

Sure they kick, but it really is not that big of deal at all. But then I never understood all the fuss over recoil in handguns or rifles. Thankfully, my arthritis is not yet affected.

 

[benenglish]

Those high recoil pistols take a toll on your joints after a while.

After a short while.

According to a member here who owns two S&W snubbies, one in .460 and one in .500, the instruction manual for the .500 explicitly says to limit your shooting to 12 rounds per day so as to avoid injury.

Now, I've never seen the manual and they can be revised so I can't personally vouch for any of that as true. I can say that the only handgun I've ever shot (and I have many single-shot pistols in seriously powerful chamberings) that left my wrist sore was a snubbie .500 S&W Magnum after a cylinder full of full-house 700-grain loads.

Of course, that means I've lusted after one ever since...

Now to get serious.

When shooting the .500 snubbie, the amount of recoil isn't really what hurt my wrist. The pain resulted from the muzzle flip that hyper-extended the joint. You can do the same thing with any of those cannon-breech pistols (e.g. Competitor CP-1, Lone Eagle, etc.) if you get them with a short barrel and in a stout chambering. I have a CP-1 Competitor with a 10" bbl that's really punishing even though it's only chambered in 7.62x39. Those pistols are deceiving; they feel great in the hand when you pick them up because their balance is so totally neutral. Yet, that's not what you want when actually shooting anything that kicks. In that case, their balance is terrible; there's just not enough mass out front. Instead of the pistol recoiling up and back (both movements are present but are surprisingly mild), it violently rotates on a central axis. That's very tough on the wrists.

.500 snubbies aren't as bad but the same dynamics are in play.

OTOH, it's possible to make a hard kicker that's easy to shoot. I have a full .308 Win bolt pistol in a rear-grip configuration. It could never be shot offhand; the balance is all wrong with 4.5 pounds of pistol having nearly all the weight completely in front of the hands. But when actually shooting from a rest? What a joy! It's a complete pussycat! It just picks itself straight up a few inches and drops right back down. The muzzle blast makes everyone think I must be punishing myself severely but, in truth, it's the kind of mild shooting experience you can do all day without fatigue.

So I don't really lust after a .500 snubbie. I want a .500 but something with enough barrel that the entire handgun pushes back and rises rather than rotates in my hand. If anyone here has a John Ross edition with the 5" bbl, please bring it to a shoot someday. I'm guessing (well, mostly hoping) that 5" should be about the sweet spot for something small enough to holster yet long enough to not be so punishing.

If someone wanted to build a .500 snubbie that didn't hurt, they'd most likely need to configure it to shoot from the bottom of the cylinder, like a Chiappa.

Stopping now, before I drift further off into fantasyland.

 

[sparkyv]

I definitely recommend having it Magnaported, to reduce muzzle flip.

Never did like porting or comps. In the 460S&W, the report and concussive wave are a significant distraction, and the recoil mitigation of the comp was minimal...so it's gone.

This is my grail gun:

I want a .500 but something with enough barrel that the entire handgun pushes back and rises rather than rotates in my hand. If anyone here has a John Ross edition with the 5" bbl, please bring it to a shoot someday.

My M460V user manual has no such reference. Big bores are not for the frail or weak of heart...but they aren't as bad as some would want others to believe. And brother, they can easily be tamed with handloads as you indicated, benenglish (but I don't bother with the softies).

According to a member here who owns two S&W snubbies, one in .460 and one in .500, the instruction manual for the .500 explicitly says to limit your shooting to 12 rounds per day so as to avoid injury

 

[benenglish]

In the 460S&W, the report and concussive wave are a significant distraction,

Yep, the concussive wave is a big deal. Some of us on here have some experience with that.

Speaking of which, does anybody still have a link to the vid on YouTube where Sugar Land fired a .460 snubbie and a .500 snubbie simultaneously, one in each hand, and set off all the car alarms at American Shooting Center? I'd love to see that again.

 

[oldag]

No problems with Magnaported 480 Ruger Alaskan with regards to concussion.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Yep, the concussive wave is a big deal. Some of us on here have some experience with that.

Speaking of which, does anybody still have a link to the vid on YouTube where Sugar Land fired a .460 snubbie and a .500 snubbie simultaneously, one in each hand, and set off all the car alarms at American Shooting Center? I'd love to see that again.

I turned down the offer to shoot both at once....

 

[Younggun]

I’ve shot the twins that used to frequent the Hicksville range days. Never found than to be terrible. The 460 had a little more snap than the 500. But I thought both were enjoyable. Even single handed they weren’t all that bad.

I wouldn’t own one without the equipment to handload though.

And personally, I don’t think the investment would be worthwhile for me. But I also fully support the idea of having something just because you like it. It doesn’t always need to be about practicality.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[IXLR8]

You could try a S&W .460 XVR. A pistol designed from the ground up for accuracy.
You can also shoot a .454 Casull, a .45 Schofield, or a .45 colt out of it, if you do not want to subject yourself to the big magnums recoil.
S&W spend a lot of time insuring that the .460 was the most accurate big bore pistol you could buy.

 

[Axxe55]

Thanks to all who offered up recommendations. After thinking about it, and my reasons for wanting one, it's making less and less sense. As several stated the transfer of shooting technique wouldn't really transfer from the 500/.44 revolver to the 9mm semi-auto due to a number of factors.

As it currently is I'm practicing with the 9mm(3 - different pistols but mostly the P365) twice a week. Around 200rnds per session and between 2-3 hours. The reason for the extended time duration is I'm also using the SR22 at about 3-400 rounds per session. I'm getting better. If I really focus and take my time I can put a full magazine, depending on pistol, between 10-18 rounds in a 2"x3" oval @ 7 yds. Attempts to speed up and that grouping disappears pretty quickly but still not horrible. I'm starting to work on double tap accuracy and changing targets between each round fired.

Below is the target I'm using and part of my drills are to shift between targets. A shooting sequence of target #'s : 1-5-2-4-3 gives me a fair amount of required movement between targets.

View attachment 236863

Doug, let me offer these thoughts for you to consider. None of my advice was to deter you from getting one. I just want you to be aware about larger bore handguns and what they are about. Getting a gun doesn't always have to be about a practical purpose of use for it. I really have no practical purpose for getting a revolver in 454 Casull, other than, I just really, really want one of my own. I plan on shooting it and reloading for it. Just for the sheer fun of having a very powerful and loud revolver and to make my father piss his pants when I fire off a few rounds!

For most people, these types of handguns serve no practical purposes. They do some people and I know several people that have them, that actually hog and deer hunt with them. I know several people that shoot nothing more than paper or steel targets too with theirs. I do use my 44 Magnums on the farm for utility purposes, or at least I justify that to myself! But in all honesty, I really enjoy shooting them too.

 

[CyberWolf]

...In the 460S&W, the report and concussive wave are a significant distraction, and the recoil mitigation of the comp was minimal...so it's gone.

Yep, the concussive wave is a big deal. Some of us on here have some experience with that.

^Was going to mention just this....IMHO, not too bad for the shooter, but standing anywhere nearby and it's a whole different story.

 

[wbblazer90]

More practical perhaps than a .500 Nitro express handgun

Gun Flies out of Man's Hands

When this guy fires off a .500 Nitro Express bullet, which is made for big game hunting, the force is too much for him and the gun flies backwards out of his hand.

sports.yahoo.com