Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Range Report: S&W 500 Magnum

Describing a morning spent shooting a S&W 500 is a losing proposition. If I say the thing didn't bother me all that much I'm boasting, if I declare it unfit for human consumption it's wimping out.

Temperature 86 degrees, humidity @ 78%.

First off, the gun was quite accurate. Yes it kicks but you already knew that. Since I'm a firm believer in progressive resistance exercise there's no doubt in my mind that there'd come a time when I could double-tap with the sucker, but not now. At 25' offhand, Winchester 350 grain Super-X hollowpoints, product code X500SW, returned an approximate 3" group while skimming along at 1400 fps. The 400 grain Supreme Platinum Tips, product code S500PTHP, were slightly farther apart but those babies were cranking 1800 fps so it could have been me evincing surprise at the recoil.

Corbon 500 grain HP's, Code HT500SW, @ 1500 fps returned the least recoil of all the rounds tested, but it was hard keeping them on paper. Anything over 4" @ 25' isn't worth writing home about so either the rounds were off spec or the gun just didn't like them.

Buffalo Bore's 400 grain JFN , Item 18A, @ 1675 fps were nearly as accurate as the Winchester rounds but were shot last and by then I'll admit to a certain degree of fatigue as we were shooting other guns as well and it was time to go to the bench.

25 yards, sturdy bench hold:

Winchester Super-X: Right on the money smack-dab 2"
Winchester Platinum: 3.5"
Corbon HT500SW: 4 (1 called flier)"
Buffalo Bore 400 grain JFN: 4.2"

The gun needs some wringing out and I want someone else to shoot while I spec out the holes, but the above numbers aren't bad at all allowing for the fact that the platform is one I am unfamiliar with. Different furniture, handloads as well as other off the shelf ammo, and practice will most likely make perfect.

Here's the S&W link .

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