I have a friend who has a bull lose on her land. The owner of the bull said it has been lose for 6 months and is unfriendly. Th eowner has hunted the animal without sucsess....its on my friends land every evening and we have permission to kill on sight. My question is at what distance can the .500 cleanly put the animal down...it goes close to 1500 lbs. I have a remington 300 ultra mag i will take but i would love to put it down with the .500 thoughts on a reasonable distance. Btw its the 8 3/8 barrel.

Shoot no further than you are accurate on a 9" paper plate. I would expect the bull to be butchered so have a plan on where you will aim. Thinking a head shot...

Has anyone tried the heifer in heat trick?
That should bring him in close.

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Inconsistently consistent

With the right bullet ie; a hard cast bullet of at least 350 grains or more, the 500 will easily out penetrate the 300 on an animal, and penetration through the vitals from any angle is what is needed on such a large animal. If you can hold well enough to hit the vitals, the caliber will do it as far out as is reasonable to attempt with any handgun, scoped or not.

i'd still prefer to be as close as possible to make certain of a clean hit where intended.

Only as far as you are capable of putting that bullet into the vitals. Shot placement is EVERYTHING. That is a big animal and I would not want to be close to it if it gets wounded or have to track it into the thick brush.

OMG. The chance to shoot such a wonderful and powerful beast, with a .500mag no doubt, and have a bunch of yummy meat? I'm jealous. I bet the mean bulls taste even better than the nice ones.

The .500mag is very effective out past 100 yards, even near and after 200 yards it still has about 1,300 ft/lbs going give or take some. But stalking/tracking skills are always more important. My dad and I have gotten quite close to many different game and that is the name of the game, to get as close and intimate with the game you are hunting. Long-range shooting and sniping is for paper targets and war. But you just want this thing dead and gone so if you can accurately shoot the .500 at long distance by all means take the shot.

That's it exactly, the gun will cleanly take the bull at ranges far greater than the vast majority of handgun shooters can accurately place the slug. That of course includes me.

I'd repeat myself here but Dick Metcalf of Shooting Times shot a big cape buffalo with the original 440 gr hard cast at 1625 fps. Broke the front shoulder, carried bone chips through the body and was found under the skin on the rear of the animal. 5+ feet of penetration. Bull ran a short distance and died. Don

Thanks for the info guys. I will go spend some serious time at the range tomorrow and find out what my capabilities with this tool are and go from there. I am an avid hunter so i completely understand the importance of shot placement with any tool used. Just wanted to make sure that the tool itself was capable.

Good luck and I hope you post the results with photos!

Yes! Take some photos. This is especially cool dangerous game hunting because you can eat it, too. Sounds like an adventure to me!

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Proud anachronism

MAN UP! Wear running shoes and stalk close enough to give him powder burns when you put a .22 rnd in his ear.

Live life on the edge.

LOLOLOL!

Seriously, only shoot as far as you are comfortable with. I agree on the head shot and save the meat.

You carry a pistol when you might run into a dangerous encounter you don't expect. If you know there's trouble ahead, you take a rifle (and a few friends with rifles).

For something big (1500 lbs), dangerous, and probably close, I'd take a 45-70 carbine and Buffalo Bore ammunition, or a 12 ga with slugs. It's better to ruin meat on the animal than get gored and trampled.

Personally, I'd use the .300 Ultra Mag and set up a 200 yard or less head/neck shot. I'd also make sure a front end loader was available for gutting and loading for the trip to a butcher for processing.

Should not be problem with proper shoot placement.
Bison below was 1600 lbs -Barnes 275 grain Bullet
5" John Ross PC S&W Revolver

This is an old one. Two duck hunters noticed, the cows could get down to the pond and the ducks would not fly. The hunters could only get half way and all the ducks took flight. They went back to the house got an old cow hide and threw it over their back and headed toward the pond. They got 3/4's of the way to the pond and the ducks were still swimming around. Suddenly the head of the cow told the rear of the cow, brace yourself here comes the bull and he has love in his eyes.