I like the 6.5 inch 500 for bear country carry. I’m looking into the performance barrel shorter barrel or 3.5 comp Model. Are there any weight or bullet types that key hold or otherwise don’t run right? My 10mm doesn’t like anything above 200 grain so that’s why I ask. I also have heard of bullets jumping the crimp with the 340pd. I don’t want to risk keyholing, or cylinder lock up on a bear gun. Has anyone gone expansion or max penetration tests with different billets for a 500? I would like to load my first two with expanding and my last 3 with the deepest penetrating I can find.

You shouldn't have slugs keyholing as long as you drive them fast enough to stabilize. Just use good reloading data like that provided by Hodgdon and Accurate Arms. All their data will stabilize the slugs shown.

You must use gas checks on lead slugs if you want to drive them fairly hard.

There's never a penetration issue with proper slugs in a .500 Mag. 440gr hard cast have broken the front shoulder of cape buffalos and nearly existed the a** end.

Boutique ammo such as that from Buffalo Bore or Grizzly etc are usually good products. Handloading is, however, the way to go. Don

I hunt bear and have taken quite a few. Two with handguns. First, in my experience you do not want expanding bullets. You want penetration! A 500 enters its target at the diameter that hunters want their .30 caliber to expand to! 50 caliber is big enough that any non-expanding bullet that will break bone and pass through vital organs will kill. The problem is that if the bear is bigger they don't always go down easy. I shot a 7 footer with a .375 H&H in the front shoulder the bullet passed diagonally through, broke the back hip and exited. The bruin sat back from the impact and took off. Didn't go far but the point is bears can be tough. So use the bullet your 500 shoots well with and that you can shoot well with also. I have had 2 S&W X frames in .500 S&W Magnum one 8 3/8" with a Leupold 2x and a 4". Both shot ok but just a little big for me. I still have the 4 incher. My choice for backup in bear country is a 3" 629-6 44 mag. Why the 44 over the 500, I can shoot it faster!

old 1911 fan

I notice that you can get hard cast coated bullets in .500 cal. And Old 1911 Fan has real experience and I tend to agree with him. There's big game and huge game. I don't know of any hunter that uses expanding bullets on huge dangerous game. Beside penetration being the key, the performance of expanding pistol bullets is unreliable.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I have been using a 275g Impala CFN it is a brass bullet which is light recoiling and very fast it is made by Impala in South Africa. they are quite popular in Europe in rifle calibres for hunting moose. have some sort of cutting band to inflict damage. Tried to hunt a eland last year but could not get a standing shot will try again this hunting session it was effective on smaller game like your white tail size stopped them in there tracks

So pretty much these should run with the 700 grain hard caste underwood? I just wonder if the 700 or faster 440 hardcast penetrate more and by how much.

Please no- 700 is beyond the function limit required in 500 S&W.
Anything bigger than 500 grains is a waste and has no value. A 440 grain hard cast bullets with a large meplat will produce 2 hole in the largest bear. The 700 grain bullet does not stabilize well at distance from all S&W but the John Ross version.

You don't need to drive the 400 of 440 past 1400 fps and recoil should be reasonably for bear defense.

If you are actually hunting brown bear I would opt for a monolithic bullet. My preference would be Northfork CPS or CEB Raptor.

I used a CSP in 460 S&W with 3 shots with complete penetration in 800Lb griz and one going 32", that was with a 260 grain bullet.

You have to be proficient if you plan to use a handgun for bear.
That means practice- would highly recommend you hand load as previously mentioned.

As an avid handgun (460 and 500) hunter who loves chasing bears I would say make sure of what ever you choose make sure you can shoot it well and fast.

be safe
Ruggy

Underwood is good ammo, but quite stout. In agreement with Ruggyh, 440 grain is about all you need. As others have said, reloading is almost a requirement for the 500 S&W. You'll go broke buying factory ammo if you do any appreciable amount of shooting with a 500.

Absolutely and as anyone who reloads for the .500 knows, you can tailor the power of what you make from really fun Trail Boss loads at the bottom of the power range to beastly and everything inbetween. Don