This is why I wish I had a secluded area to shoot. Something all mine that I could waste lead, day in and day out. Need a shack in the boonies for that, but someday who knows.
Anyway, a couple of 10 and a half inchers in 500 and 460 caliber can make a man grin. Particularly the type of man who doesn't understand that pain is not a good sign. The 500 Magnum is the new Dirty Harry Slept Here, boss of all bosses with regards to production handguns. A mild load, something like Winchester's Supreme Platinum Top will coax 400 grains of bullet along at around 1800 fps. A hot load using the same round will jack it, and you, up to 2200 or thereabouts. 750 grain handloads at 1500 fps make the peashooters the ugly old fat guy at Box O' Truth shoots from his buffalo-guns seem like the old fashioned playthings they really are. You know, where the idiot fires a tame rifle then makes certain to say that handguns are so weak they shouldn't even be spoken of in the same breath as the almighty longarm.
It's embarassing sharing the same hobby, let alone species with that doltish cretin, but I do, and it's safe to say that he's never shot so powerful a firearm in his life, certainly not in handgun form, and if he did wouldn't mention so for fear of diminishing the omnipotent long guns he so dearly loves.
The hot 500 simply knocks your socks off. Case closed. It has taken game in all 50 states as well as Africa, and not a creature exists that will not drop instantly from one shot. The 460 is actually a 454, and it is being loaded for longer range shooting efforts. And I'm here to say that it's gain twist rifling actually works, and combined with 80 or so ounces of gun makes recoil not all that much worse than a decent 454 Casull offering. Not that Dick Casull's baby is tame, but I've fired far worse kicking guns than the 460.
Corbon loads it's 200 grain 460 to 2300 fps, and men as well as gun writers have proclaimed that dead-steady at 200 yards is what to expect and I have no reason to doubt them. It'll never be the handloaders delight that it's bigger bro the 500 is, but hunters will probably favor it over the half-incher especially since the kick is far less pronounced.
But once the smoke clears and sometime in the not too distant future when S&W makes the big bad 500 with the same gain twist, then who knows.
Since the indoor ranges will of course NEVER allow big guns inside, and the fancy outdoor ones in this neck of the woods are fearfull that even the SIGHT of a mans gun will send soccer husbands running for their life, it isn't easy taking out some borrowed blasters for a day of fun, so we'll be scouting the area for other places to play.
With hotter loads.
Times like this make me almost wish I'd stayed religious.
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