50 cal smith

There's been a lot of rumor about this for the last 4 or 5 months. Right now, it appears that they are leaning toward stretching John Linebaugh's Maximum by just a tad (so they don't give him credit for it, I would guess). At any rate, Lloyd Smale has a thread a Graybeard about it.
http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3784

Now, I've shot the 500 Linebaugh quite a bit and it isn't the most fun thing in the world to do. John L and Hamilton Bowen both recommend the standard Linebaugh loadings to the Maximums. Bowen won't make them anymore because he absolutely will not test fire them.

I tend to agree, its going to be a handfull. I have trouble with my smith 629 4in with a 300g or heaver in 44 mag. The smith grip configuration just is not confortable to shoot with heavy loads, it makes a great gun for rapid firing or a second shot but tend to get me in the web of my hand between the thumb and hand. I would rather fire a full house load thru my FA454 or the Reeder 500 Linebaugh than deal with the smith loaded up heavy. I have been trying to work up some 525g loads for the Linebaugh gun and have been discourged by both the gunbuilders as well as the bullet maker from doing so as their opinion is that the 525g bullet is just to hard on the gun as well as the shooter. I believe smith may be exceeding the practical limits for a revolver, particulary with a case that is going to favor heavy bullets.

The .50 S&W comes fairly close, within about 350 fps, of the .50 Alaskan. And brother, let me tell you, the .50 AK in a 12" Encore with the biggest gawd-awful muzzle brake SSK has ever made still has tremendous amount of recoil to it. I too am anxious to see this new frame S&W has for the .50 S&W, but since it is a .500 bullet and not near as versitle as the .50 AK, I'll be content to just look at it.

Bigbore
You would be right about that, can't even image firing a 50 Alaskan thru any type of handgun. Making the bore 501 instead of 512 is going to slow the reloaders down for a while, till Bearclaw works up some suitable hardcast, folks are going to have to settle for the rather limited selection available for the 50AE. Makes more sense now why the published data is for lighter weight bullets.

found this picture over on Gary Reeders web site. he is geared up to offer the round in 2 of his offerings. The case is slightly longer than the 500 max but is bored 501 not 512. No one seems to be offering reloading dies or bullets yet, only corbon factory ammo which could get pricy. 500 Linebaugh is over 2 bucks a pop from Bufflo Bore. In any case the S&W sure makes my 629 4 in look like a popgun

More info and an image of the 500 S&W beside a 500 Linebaugh at http://www.shootersforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4763

Hi, Gents:
Here's pics of the S&W .500, in hand. Both sides, much better pics than the one above.
http://www.smith-wessonforum.com/ubb/Forum13/HTML/005068.html

Bye
Jack