Okay, mcb. I was apparently a little confused. The article was "To Africa With A .500 S&W" by Mark Hampton, in the Jan/Feb issue of American Handgunner. There at least two other articles about the S&W 500 in this issue. I'd scan it for you, as the one you're interested in is only two pages long, but I don't have access to a scanner at the moment.

Thanks Raygun, I was able to find that article on:

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0BTT/1...1/article.jhtml

Interesting read, I was impressed with the penetration achieved. I'm still not sure I would want to be that close to a critter know to enjoy rearranging a hunter’s anatomy with only a revolver even one as big as 500 S&W, but if I had a PH backing me up I would probably give it a try.

Thanks
mcb

mcb:

Just to clarify things a bit, the .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum, in its most powerful load (the 440-grain/28.5-gram Hard-Cast (i.e., lead-alloy) bullet, at an advertised muzzle velocity of 1625 FPS (495 MPS), with an advertised muzzle energy of 2580 FP (3498 joule). This information is taken directly from COR-BON Ammunition's Website, Cor-Bon Ammunition.

That load is only slightly less powerful than one of their .45-70 U.S. Government hunting loads, which fires a 405-grain/26.25-gram Flat-Point Penetrator bullet (also a hard-cast lead alloy projectile) at an advertised muzzle velocity of 1700 FPS (518 MPS), with an advertised muzzle energy of 2600 FP (3525 joule).

In terms of muzzle energy, the .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum is fully the equal of the .45-70 U.S. Government and the .308 Winchester/7.62X51mm NATO (150-grain/9.72-gram bullet at an advertised muzzle velocity of 2820 FPS (860 MPS), with an advertised muzzle energy of 2648 FP (3590 joule), at least in terms of factory loads.

(Ballistics information for the .45-70 load also comes, as noted above, from Cor-Bon's Website. Information on the .308 Winchester 150-grain hunting load comes from page 58 of CARTRIDGES OF THE WORLD, Seventh Edition, Copyright 1985 by Frank C. Barnes and DBI Books, Inc.)

--Foreigner