si-----------

Awesome video.

500 S&W. For when you absolutely must penetrate three cape buffaloes standing end to end.....

That's interesting and entertaining, and there's no doubt about the 500's power, but that was a poor test. Bullet design and weight and velocity all come into play and they gave no info for load (other than bullet weight) or velocity.

There's a forum member here who is away during the summer (he works the pro racing circuit, but he'll be back soon) named Flat Top. He and several of his friends around the country have run some tests with their Redhawks .44 firing Beartooth Bullets 400 cast bullets @ 1,000 fps, (I know he has pictures of it, but not sure about video). They penetrated 13 one gallon jugs of water, which is quite a bit better than what the 500 did in that video.

I'm not saying that the .44 is more powerful than the .500 by any stretch, but that tests like these need to be done when comparing calibers, by bringing the best each has to offer to the table (no pun intended) like the tests done by John Linebaugh at his seminars.

I am betting that the 500 S&W will, or already has done well there too.

Linebaugh Seminar Penetration Tests

I was struck by the same thing as Gun 4 Fun. It is not an apples vs. apples test. There has been some much more objective testing done, as between heavy handgun and rifle loads, and while I know the .500 would be quite competitive, and still might be "King," with the right bullet and load, the .454 would at least give it a run for the money, bullet designs being equivalent.

I don't know all the reasons why some rounds penetrate so well but some of it is strange.

It seems that with the really big bore revolvers in the Linebaugh tests using newspaper, 450-500gr slugs don't penetrate a great deal better when they go from say 1000fps to 1500-1600fps. Why, I don't know.

In the case of water jugs, my own experience was shooting gallon milk jugs. Shot 6 with my .500 Mag using a 385gr hard cast at 1800fps, pretty stout. Went through all of them but more impressive is that I'd estimate the geyser at 25-30ft high and it soaked the sand a stepped off 30ft either side of the jugs and got me wet 10ft back from the jugs. Don

Well Don,
I guess that now you know to stand back at least 30 feet when shooting water jugs

I found it odd that the 9mm and 45 ACP went deeper than the 44 and 454 at the end of the video where they show the depth with the yellow marker.

That was fun. Don't laugh, but Mythbusters tested the penetration into water of various rounds. They were shooting into a swimming pool. All I remember is the very fast, high power stuff was like hitting concrete when it hit the water.

mos def. i saw that episode. something with the exchange of energy from the fast loads stops em and fragments almost immediately while slower pistol rounds actually kinda dive in and almost 'swim', atleast for a short distance.

You know what they say about experience being the best teacher, right? Don

Unfortunately, I do all to well

Cool video--I gotta try that--maybe I'll use old watermelons or punkins' instead--whatya think ?

Steve

A lot of it has to do with bullet design and I doubt the 500 was shooting anything other than a Hornady 350gr HP. I believe in the video it did say FMJ but I've never seen one in 350gr. Most times people are just misinformed or use the wrong terminology. It could just be me too.

Anyway, I had a long drawn out post about the penetration of the 500 with some of the test I've done but it got to wordy. I'll just say that I've put 300gr slugs from my 500 through a 1/2" steel plate. The 454 can't touch that.
And the 460 will easily drill through 1/4" thick angle.

Very cool video....had to crank it up as loud as my laptop would go!!!!!




No need to overthink this video....it's just fun to watch. It doesn't have to be a perfectly designed experiment in physics to bring a grin to your face.

I seriously doubt that 500 was a hollow point round. The whole point of hollow points is to expand and make a bigger hole while optimizing penetration. This means bigger holes and less penetration. From what I've seen this change is especially dramatic in water.

People always bring rifle rounds into the "debate" when I say that my 9.5" Ruger Super Redhawk .44 Magnum punches clean through steel targets at 25 yards, maybe 1/8" thick I don't know.

At closer ranges, shooting say a home intruder with a 30-06 or even a .300 Win Mag FMJ, the high velocity slug will no doubt make a mess of him, but it will punch through him like butter. Rifle rounds really shine at longer ranges, not handgun ranges. A .44 Magnum, .454 or a .500 will hit him and dump all that energy a lot faster, still probably go through a human body but the wound channel would be a lot more greivous.

I have personally seen an insurgent take a 5.56 ball to the shoulder at about 75 yards, pat at it like he dropped a hot ash on himself and literally just run away. If he had taken a .500 S&W or .454 to that same shoulder I think he would have been knocked to the ground, and would be losing pretty good quantities of blood if the hydrostatic shock didn't just destroy his internal organs instantly. The supposedly "higher powered" 5.56 just zipped right through him with seemingly little damage.

Interesting, but I got the biggest kick watching the guy fall over when he fired the magnums.

Everyone is correct. Big bullets with their wider flat nose dump energy almost immediately and are best at knocking things down leaving a big hole. Penetration is not their thing.

A little off topic here:

Years ago (about 1978), We had a camp in the woods, and an informal range set up.

At 110 yards (physically measured), We had a 1-1/2" thick steel forged plate standing against a tree stump.

We used to shoot everything that We had at that plate, 38spl, 357 magnum, 41 magnum, 44 magnum, shotgun deer slugs 12, 16,&20 gauge, 30-30 rifle, plus 30-06 150 gr rifle cartridges included.

Nothing would penetrate that steel, as it was similar to military armor plate; that is, until the new Remington Accelerator cartridges for 30-06 became available. They were loaded to (I think) 4,100 fps, with a 55 grain 22 caliber bullet nestled inside of a plastic sabot.

The first Accelerator, fired from a Remington Woodsman 742, penetrated and opened a hole on the backside of the steel plate. Subsequent rounds of Accelerator ammo, fired at that same steel plate, duplicated the penetration experienced by the first round.

Wonder how the 454 Casull and 500 S&W would fare on a steel target such as the aforementioned?

I get a kick out of folks who say those test dont' show the true picture. Of course they don't, but they do a couple of things well. They are fun to do. They can show comparitive differences. They can "slow down" the magic of the shooting experience so you can see what is going on for those of us without high speed cameras. I did a little test like this but used slightly smaller contestants. You might want to check out this thread:
KTOG Forum - playing with .22's :-) (now with pics)

Well, I did a little testing of .22's today. Using milk jugs (58) at bad breath range.
The players:
Naa mini revolver combo, billed as a 1 1/8th inch barrel, but 2.5 inches from breach to muzzle.
Heriatage Rough Rider combo, billed as 6.5" barrel, again, breach to muzzle 8 inches.
NEF single shot youth rifle (.22 & .410) break action, 20inches breach to muzzle
Henry Lever .22mag, 20.5 inches breach to muzzle.

Ammo:
.22 short Remington Golden bullet 29 gr. box claimes 1095 f/s & 77 ft/lbs
.22 long rifle Federal bulk pack 36 gr.
.22 long rifle Remington Yellow jacket HP TCHP 33 gr. 1500/165
.22 mag winchester FMJ 40 gr.
.22 mag winchester JHP 34 gr.
.22 mag Remington Accutip V 33 grain.

Like the guy on the Box 'o Truth says, Shooting stuff is FUN.
Lop

A couple of years a go I bought a 500 S&W Handi-Rifle on a whim, mainly because it was cheap. Since, me and my buddies have had more fun with it than any firearm we've ever had. I'm 48 and they are in their 60's.....lol. All I ever shoot in it is hard cast lead gas check bullets with great results. I've shot a wide array of things with it and the awesome power of a 350gr slug hitting something at 2180fps is something to see.
A 5 gallon bucket full of water with a closed lid is my favorite thing to shoot. The lid will go 30' in the air.

Doubt that it would be impressive, sheer velocity is the king of steel penetration assuming the slug isn't something like a frangible. That's why main battle tanks use sabots at very high velocities, velocity allows the sabot to rip through thick tank armor.

Speaking of sabots, I'd love to see someone develop a workable sabot for the .500 Mag, a 75gr sabot would rock. Not much practical use for it but it would be fun to play with. Don

DUH, of course, the sabot material itself is stripped off by air drag leaving the hardened penetrator (APFSDS, Armor piercing, fin-stabilized discarding sabot) to fly along.

My comments regarding the .500 Mag, of course assumed a reasonably tough projectile, PC would probably preclude a tungsten let alone a DU penetrator. But as previous posts have inferred, a .17 Rem with a tiny slug will pentrate far more steel than a.30-30 simply because of velocity even though it has a very fragile slug. Don