S&W 500 to a 50 Alaskan ?

[Default]

 Had this rolling around in my head but dont have reload data on the 50 Alaskan ,

   Anyone else flirted with this thought ? Or have the bullet specs used in the 50 alaskan versus the 500 smith ?


    Default

[quickdtoo]

Won't work, the .50 AK uses .510" bullets, the 500S&W uses .500", you'd need to do a .500 Martin with cu$tom dies.

Tim

http://www.singleactions.com/500Martin.pdf

[Default]

Well hell ,

  Just throw that out of my head then ... But deffinately had me interested in a 500 again if even for one night heh



     Default

[quickdtoo]

I don't wanta discourage you on the .500, but it certainly doesn't have the following and glowing reputation of the 45-70 which is a must have chambering in an H&R, IMHO. 

Tim

[tykempster]

You say you want more power?  *cough*45-120*cough*

If you wanted that 500 Smith, could you just screw out 500 S&W dies?

[quickdtoo]

The .500S&W already has a long throat, the round on the left in the pic below shows the 700gr RR bullet seated to reach the lands in my rifle.

Tim

[Bayou Stalker]

Dang Tim!  Who needs a rifle?  Just put some corn and the base of your ladder stand and drop the entire cartridge on the deer from about 20 feet up.  Game over.

[quickdtoo]

The recoil from those puppies at over 1400fps is over 50ft/lbs, so you be sure and hang on good in that tree in case you decide to shoot it instead of dropping it. 

Tim

[tykempster]

I meant using the 500 Smith brass and sizing it by screwing the 500 S&W die way out.  Instead of buying those "cu$tom" dies. 

[quickdtoo]

What brass did ya have in mind? The .50 AK uses 348Win brass, there are some inconsistencies in the dimension on Steve's pages, but you get the idea. 

Tim

http://stevespages.com/page8d.htm   (fixed)

http://www.z-hat.com/The%20Fifty.htm

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/anderson/50_alaskan.htm

[tykempster]

Just standard 50 AK brass then sizing it with a 500 S&W die that was unscrewed as the handle the extra length.

Is the 50 AK even a cylindrical cartridge or am I thinking of some other lengthened 50 caliber cartridge?

[quickdtoo]

Did ya click any of the links I posted?   

Tim

[cwlongshot]

Those first two links show a large FORBIDEN moniker....  What kind of link have you posted there Timmy? 

CW

[quickdtoo]

Worked for me before, Steve musta blocked the direct links!!  You'll have to click on each cartridge to see them.

Tim

http://stevespages.com/page8d.htm

[NFG]

This conversion keeps coming up and I think it would be a good one as long as you reload for the receiver pressure specs, although I think it will cost you more in powder than you might receive in velocity than just sticking with the original S&W round.  The 50 Marlin/50 AK has almost twice the case capacity as the 500 S&W which means having to fiddle with powders to get the right powder/pressure ratio, which also means more recoil because of more powder...it gets a bit inefficient quickly.

CH4D will make you a set of dies for about 160 bucks.

As Ty says...*cough*45-120*cough* will get you much more than most people want at both ends and a cheaper price all the way around.

STILLl...a 50 cal bullet is bigger than a 45 cal bullet and sounds even bigger when you say it....F I F T Y   C A L I B E R   A L A S K A N....sounds bad doesn't it.  ...doesn't matter if the bullet is 0.500" or 0.510" in diameter...it will still knock the bejezus out of anything it hits. 

[AtlLaw]

..doesn't matter if the bullet is 0.500" or 0.510" in diameter...it will still knock the bejezus out of anything it hits. 

Ol' Long Tom has me thinking a 50/140 Handi!     Gotta finish my 45/120 first though... 

[NFG]

Yeah, AtlLaw...that one two.  ...  There are several BP cartridges that will work including using the 45-125 Win Express case slightly blown out.  Many of the bigger cases can be made by some of the custom case makers at at price if they can't be found at Buffalo Arms.  RMC, Rocky Mountain Cartridge, LLC, who makes the 3.5" and 3.85" 12 GAFH cases probably could fix you up I would suspect...9 bucks a pop....I cringe just thinking about buying only 10 of those 3.85" beauties. 

I think using BP would be a better way to go tho' with this rifle platform.  Check out Hodgdons powder site...it has loading data for the 50 AK rifle and 500 S&W pistol...adding 15 fs per inch to the pistol data will give you rough equivalents. I'm guessing the pistol data was developed in 8-10" bbls.

Basically boils down to how much futzzing around you want to do with the reloads.  Using any case longer than about 2.5" and I think you will hit the receiver/shooter max zone...pressure - velocity - recoil- etc...with smokeless powders, long before you hit the max the case and caliber is capable of. 

Still...the bigger the better....