I have shot 500s extensively, most of said shooting being at targets but I did harvest a deer with one in '03. I fiddled around with different loads and bullets for a while, but always came back to the Cor-Bon 440 grain as a favorite. My current handload duplicates that loading using a CastPerformance 440 grain gas-check flat-point bullet. I can't say what an equivalent rifle loading would be, but am thinking a heavy 45/70.

There is truly something about the 500 with a 440 grain flat-nosed hard-cased bullet that is tough to describe. Shooting them at not only game (just one instance for me, but anecdotal accounts from others as well), but at targets, fruit, rocks, 2x6s, etc., demonstrates to me a true degree of knock-down power which is pretty unprecedented and exponentially more impressive than, say, a 44 Magnum or 454 Casull. It just flattens, clobbers, stuff. Seriously.