Subsonic 700 grainers in 500 S&W - starting load

[mpkunz]

I need a starting load for 700 grain cast lead boolits in a Handi-Rifle chambered in 500S&W. Goal is to work up a subsonic load for use with suppressor. Anybody have a starting point they care to share ? Actually, a max power load I can work backwards from would also be welcome. TNX.

[HammerMTB]

At the bottom of this page are some loads for the 500 with a 700 gr boolit

Looks like there's one at 1036 FPS, which should be just right for sub-sonic @ sea level, and another at 982 FPS, which should give you some cushion below the sonic zone.
Also, if you want to reduce loads, you can do that here My only caution is that some powders do not respond well to drastic reductions, so be sure of your load before you test.

[mpkunz]

Perfect. Thank you.

[olafhardt]

I have used 6.4 grains of Unique behind a 365grain Lee modern minie in my Handy. Rifle. It goes right through 3 gallon jugs of water. When the minie is reversed the entrance hole was bigger. The report was quite mild as was recoil. I feel that the reversed minie helps deal with excess case volumn since I seat them flush. Deep seating the 700grain would also limit space.

[mpkunz]

I have used 6.4 grains of Unique behind a 365grain Lee modern minie in my Handy. Rifle. It goes right through 3 gallon jugs of water. When the minie is reversed the entrance hole was bigger. The report was quite mild as was recoil. I feel that the reversed minie helps deal with excess case volumn since I seat them flush. Deep seating the 700grain would also limit space.

Olaf, have you done a test to see how deep the penetration is before the bullet stops ? I have a 44 rifle I shoot 460 grainers with, they come out at 980 fps for my standard subsonic load for suppressor use, and they consistently make it into the 8th five gallon pail of water.

I haven't finalized my design for the 700 grainer. I'm hand turning all my initial test slugs in the lathe and when I arrive at a good seating point I'll commit to making the mould.

[olafhardt]

mpkunz, I originally bought the 500 handy to make a quiet, low recoiling, walking arround rifle that would shoot all the way length wise through a pig. Every light load I have tried seems capable. The 6.4 grains of Unique is the lightest I have tried. I only took six gallons of water to the range to test the minie forward and reversed. I will one of these days take lots of bottles and the chrony. Of course I take the chrony with a grain of salt since I shot it with a 38,

[mpkunz]

haahhahah, mine has some scars too. I wrote to them, they sent me a replacement lens for about $10.

There is a post on one of the "sniper" forums (fora) showing a solid copper slug, nose drilled to accept a 177 bullet backwards, with grooves similar to "dum-dum" bullets. Even the copper peels into a perfectly symmertrical banana when hitting a deer. Gotta find that for you. That's my goal, except in lead.

[mpkunz]

Here they are http://lehighbullets.com/products.asp?cat=26

Pricey as all get out.

[olafhardt]

haahhahah, mine has some scars too. I wrote to them, they sent me a replacement lens for about $10.

There is a post on one of the "sniper" forums (fora) showing a solid copper slug, nose drilled to accept a 177 bullet backwards, with grooves similar to "dum-dum" bullets. Even the copper peels into a perfectly symmertrical banana when hitting a deer. Gotta find that for you. That's my goal, except in lead.

The modern minie when reversed has a huge conical cavity. I have a couple of sacks full of 3/8" steel balls I bought from MSC years ago for some project. One of these days I am going to epoxy some of these in the minies and try them out. One of the old Africa hands (John Buhlmiller?) lamented the fact that there was not a true 500 caliber rifle that he could slice off chunks of 1/2 copper rod for boolits. If one only seated these rodlits just far enough to not fall out one could put a lot of powder behind them. It might require a lenghtening the throat. A slower powder than is normally used in the 500 s&w might be called for. You may already be considering this with your 700 grainer. The cartridges fired out of a handi don't have to withstand recoil of previously fired cylinder mates.

[thehouseproduct]

Here they are http://lehighbullets.com/products.asp?cat=26

Pricey as all get out.

I have some I'm hoping to try out of my 300 Whisper.

[mpkunz]

I have some I'm hoping to try out of my 300 Whisper.

I've been waiting on 300 brass from Midway since early June. The date expected in keeps getting moved out. I finally bought 100 rounds of very pricey loaded ammo just so I could do some shooting and have brass to reload.

Got my 247 grain mould working. Looking forward to getting these out to the range and seeing how far out I can arc them into a target. I finally spent the bux and took a course on long range precision rifle shooting right here in PA. It was awesome. By the end of the first day I was using the scope to accurately measure range and was putting .308's one after another on the 1000 yard 16" target, as well as scoring first round hits on a numerous other targets at unknown ranges.