Printable View
Hey all.
Found a nice clean looking S&W 500 with a huge (8-10 inch) barrell at a cousin of mines pawn shop. I can get it for around 850-900 bucks. Is this a good price? Its a monster gun. Im a big guy and its big in my hand. Do these pack a lot of kick or are they pretty accurate? I guess any lowdown is wat Im looking for. Tnx, HG
Anyone....anyone??? Bueller????
Can’t really speak to the price. It doesn’t sound too bad, but there are many versions of the .500 with barrels between 8” and 10” and the price depends on the version.
I have three of the things: a 4”, a 5” JRS, and a 6 ½” PC Hunter. All are very accurate. If you don’t reload, and use full power loads, recoil will be fierce. I use padded bicycling gloves with mine. They take the bite out of the recoil. I also reload for mine on my Dillon. I mostly shoot wimpy stuff. I have a 2x Weaver scope in QD Warne rings for my PC Hunter. Even I, despite the recoil, can shoot 2” groups with it at 50 yds from a rest. It is probably more accurate than that. Shooting lead ammo with the scope quickly fogs the scope objective due to the muzzle brake, so that could be something to watch out for.
Buffalo Bore sells a “reduced power” load for the .500 that is a 440 gr. LFNGC bullet loaded to “only” 1325 fps. Power is over 1700 ft. lbs. With gloves recoil is pretty reasonable and accuracy is limited only by your ability to absorb punishment. If you load your own, this load is easy to duplicate, and if you feel you want more, it is very easy to achieve. The full power load is 1625 fps/2579 ft. lbs.
Looks like a decent price to me. It's way under MSRP (see here: Smith & Wesson Model 500 Specs & Photo – GunsGunsGuns.net | GunGunsGuns.net), and significantly less than the new 500s I'm seeing on Google Product Search. It also appears to be a little less than the used 500s I'm seeing on GunBroker.com. I guess it depends on just how clean it is.
In what way is that better than a good shotgun? I'm sure it's fun to shoot but I just wonder what it's really good for. I'd like to shoot one once just because but when you get to that size IMO you might as well carry a good pump shotgun.