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Re: .500 S&W vs .50 Beowulf primers

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 4:45 pm
by Morne
Mr. Glock wrote:Slightly off-topic, I noticed on the Trail Boss package that it is for lead case bullets. Is there some reason you can't use it for thinner copper plated lead bullets?
There are examples online of people loading the 335-gr Rainer bullets with up to a full case-load of Trail Boss (non-compressed, about 12.6-gr of powder) for this easy plinking load. Since I have plenty of Trail Boss and these bullets it is a no-brainer to try it.

Re: .500 S&W vs .50 Beowulf primers

Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:36 am
by The German
I think when they constructed the .500 S&W Magnum cartridge, they assumed that nobody would be stupid enough to shoot it out of a handgun :shock: WRONG :oops: :D

Happy Thanksgiving - let me know when you are in the Cincinnati area and want to plink with a 500 a bit before buying one.
Morne wrote:....
But the .500 S&W uses Large RIFLE primers! That's right folks, a round designed for use in a PISTOL uses RIFLE primers. Just weird.
...
Thoughts? :?:

Re: .500 S&W vs .50 Beowulf primers

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 2:50 pm
by Sevens
...haha, ,I must assume that you were kidding... but for clarity, the .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum was developed quite specifically for the X-frame S&W revolver.

There are some words in the handloading business that should be erased from history, stricken from the record and deleted from the vocabulary...
These words include but are not limited to:
--"pistol" and "rifle" and "magnum" when it comes to naming and classifying primers
--Hodgdon "Clays" series of powders... Clays, International Clays and Universal Clays was a horrible naming concept from day one
--I wanna list more but am pressed for time

Both of these merely cause confusion, especially to folks somewhat newer to the handloading scene. Confusion is never helpful in these endeavors.

The .454 Casull round was, if I remember correctly, the first big bore extreme handgun cartridge that actually made the jump from wildcat to mainstream and the .454 Casull had itself a little "growth period" where primer size and type was not yet standardized. We are stuck with terms that say "rifle", "pistol", and "magnum" in primer labels and none of them are helpful. We do NOT specifically use "magnum" primers in "magnum" named loads and it's horribly obvious that we use rifle primers in many handgun applications and apparently, in .50 Beo, we also use the opposite. And if a green and enthusiastic handloader were to accidentally switch up the "Clays" series of powders, he could actually experience a catastrophic failure.

Re: .500 S&W vs .50 Beowulf primers

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 3:58 pm
by The German
Yes, was joking :D

Out of all of them, I personally think the "clays" name and opportunity for a big mess is unbelievable and quite irresponsible from the manufacturer. They knew about it for many years and clearly simply do not care a lot about the issue.