I just left Sportsmans warehouse here in Idaho Falls where they wanted $54.95 for a box of 500 Mag factory loads.
I haven't been into reloading for 30 years but at this point I guess I'm thinking about getting back into it.
Question:
Discounting the start up costs, what will it cost me to reload for my 500 Mag?

watssm - Since I haven't purchased components recently and prices have surely increased, I can't give you an exact number, and frankly a lot would depend on bullet selection, but I suspect it could be done for around $ .50 per round or less, compared to the $3.00 per round for that factory stuff.

Lead bullets would be least expensive, followed by plated like berry's. Full jacketed like Hornady XTP's and Sierra JSP's would be most expensive. If you can find some Berry's 350 gr plated ( I think Graf & Sons had some last time I checked but they are discontinued from Berry's), I think they are great for paper punching at moderate velocities ( 1200 fps or less - Great w/ Trail boss & Titegroup)

While reloading will definetly be less expensive, the even bigger benefit, in my opinion, is tailoring cartridges for your use and recoil sensitivity.

I use the following powders, in order of "power factor":

Trail Boss - Feels like shooting a .38.
Titegroup - Still tame, slightly more snap.
H4227 - Magnum, but not the hottest
H110/Lil Gun - Magnum. Hottest loads.

Bullets are available from 275 grains to 700 grains.

Good luck !

P.S. Aquiring my first 500, got me back into reloading too.

If you were going to research component pricing, I'd reccomend Powder Valley and MidwayUSA.
If you can find Powder and Primers locally, it will save you hazmat charges to ship.

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JD 500

last I bought .16 ea lead .68ea jhp plus .75ea. brass plus primer,
plus powder at about 22.00 lb.
this thread will prob. get moved to the reloading section. as it should
hope this helps.
vic3620

Here is how I estimate my reloading cost for the 500:

50 brass for $25 ($0.50 each)
250 Leadhead's 440gr cast bullets for $85 ($0.34 each)
3 boxes of 100 primers at $3.00 each ($0.01 each)
$20 for a pound of powder, 40gr per charge ($0.11 each)

That's $133 for 250rds, or about $26.60 for a box of 50.

Your next batch of 250 would only be $108 for 250rds, since you'd have the brass already. That would come out to $21.60 per box of 50.

If you look around and buy in bulk you can get your cost to less than $20 per 50 pretty easy.

+1 on what JD 500 and others said....

I both reload and cast for my 500. Discounting the cost of brass, I reload for .25c to .30c per round. Finding free lead supplies is a key...

I don't know how much equipment you still have but if you're starting from scratch today you can count on about $200 to get you started. If you load for many other calibers, as many of us do, all the better to make the investment worthwhile.

All,
Thanks very much for all this info. Gives me a great place to get started!

If you cast your own the price will be under $0.30 a shot - If you purchase your cast bullets the price will be less than $0.40 a shot. Just make sure you measure your cylinder throats, so you can either make or purchase the correct sized bullet. Most Smith's probably like the 0.500" diameter a little better than the 0.501 diameter. But then again, it may not matter the way some of us shoot at 50 yards.

I never tried to figure up the cost, I just know it is a lot less for me to reload the 500 Mag, then but it already loaded. I have been reloading for the 500 Mag as soon as I was able to get the components to load for it. I had the reloading supplies before I got the gun actually. I got my first 500 Mag, it was a BFR in 500 Mag. They beat S&W out to the market place with the 500 Mag, and as soon as S&W released the 500 Mag's I got 2 of them.

As for loading, I only use H 110 powder, Winchester Large Rifle primers, and Montana Bullet Works or Ranger Ricks hard cast bullets.

I have killed deer, black bear and hogs with my 370 gr. load. My favorite load in my 500 Mags now are 440 gr. hard cast bullets from either Montana Bullet works or Ranger Rick. I don't see a need for anything heavier.

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Endowment Life Member NRA

Components for the 500 vary amoung shooter's and what they have tried and found successful. LilGun does well with heavy bullets but at a price - the price is heat. I wouldn't recommend a steady diet of LilGun in the 500 or any other revolver. In addition to the already mentioned powders, one could try N110 and N120 (Vihtavuori Powder) and the Winchester Large Pistol Primer. The velocity difference between the WLP and the rifle primer will vary between 10 to 35fps, with the rifle primer being faster with a greater pressure spike. I've found the Smith cylinder throats to run a little tight - one had 0.4985" throats and another had 0.4995" throats. The BFR 500JRH throat ran 0.5050".

.500 S&W Loading Data

After loading 44mag and 500 with H-110/WW296, I'm going to switch to H322 for the 500. Leadhead's hard-cast bullets have been good shooters for me.

Better read JR's disclaimer real good - he had custom molds made up for the short shank heavy bullets - you can't just purchase these from cast bullet makers. Using a slow burning powder such as H322 I would definately use a rifle primer.

All my 500 brass is R stamped and I use Winchester LR primers in them. Mr. Ross' data for the 500+ grain bullets is where the shank length and case capacity become critical. I'm going to try a couple hundred rounds of 465 gr GC lead over ~50gr of H322 powder trying for minimal to no compression. I've been loading the same bullet with 30.5 grains of H110 and it shoots well but I find myself tensing up and anticipating the blast. Pigs don't care how big or fast the bullet was if it misses, I'm working on accuracy.

I bought some from Cabelas for $30 a box or so. I bought enought to shoot for a while. I save my brass and may reload later.

I find that the 500 is one of the calibers where handloading pays off the most. Esoteric, unusual, or heavy magnum calibers where production isn't at high volume levels by the manufacturers (as opposed to stuff like 9x19, 45acp, 223, 308, etc. where reloading can still save a guy some money, just not as much per round fired) are where huge savings can be had. I think I once figured out that I could load a 440gr. CorBon (my favorite 500 commercial loading) factory duplication load for about .75, whereas the factory stuff was almost $3 per bang at the time, so the savings was enormous.

Absolutely and when you've tired of beating yourself up with heavy loads, you can switch to moderate round with Titegroup or Trail Boss or do that in reverse order. Don

based on the handload cost calculator at handloads.com i am able to load the 500 magnum for .48 per round as follows-

brass.......................0
powder....................$17 lb (44.28gr each)
primers....................$35 k
bullets.....................$19 per 56pcs

total cost per round.....48 cents

even if you figure the initial cost of the brass it's still under $1 per round!

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s&w 500 magnum, "sweeeet"!!!