Handguns

When S&W's massive X-frame Model 500 was introduced several years ago, it was as a primary hunting handgun, an 8 3/8-inch-barreled big-game getter that, like as not, would be scoped. Naturally, a four-inch model soon followed, prompting the question Why would anyone want a four-inch .500 S&W?

Well, a four-inch is a hell of a lot easier to pack than the 8 3/8-inch original, which brings us to the difference between a primary hunting handgun and an emergency backup tool. The four-inch could fall into either category (for pure backup, try the 2 3/4-inch with the red or bright-yellow rubber grips; it's designed to stop big bears from blending Alaskan fishermen, campers and hunters with the topsoil).

I shot (targets only) the original long-barreled model when it first came out, and that was the last thing I'd had to do with the .500 until a recent bison hunt at Oklahoma's Chain Ranch.  Most other guys were using Cor-Bon 325-grain DPX ammo out of scoped 8 3/8-inch guns. Deciding to try something different, I went with the iron-sighted four-inch using the Cor-Bon 500-grain hardcast loads.

A preliminary zeroing session with the ported four-inch and Cor-Bon 500-grain hardcast ammo proved that the weight difference between the short- and long-barreled versions of the X-frame (72 1/2 ounces vs. 56 ounces, both unscoped) did make a difference in terms of recoil (I won't belabor the fine points of "perceived" vs. "actual." We're talking plain old recoil here). I shot it out to 50 yards, which is about as far as I'm comfortable shooting at game (even bison-size) with an unscoped handgun. Despite the pounding I took, my 50-yard groups were considerably better than "minute of buffalo."

The next day, after a long stalk, I knocked down a nice bull at 40 yards with two quick shots. He tried to get up, and I was obliged to shoot him twice more. A later examination at the local skinning shed told the tale. We discovered that the second bullet had hit close enough to the spine (I'd shot high) to temporarily stun him. The first had drilled through the lungs but had not caused the type of damage that an expanding bullet would've. Others in our party who'd used the lighter, speedier and more destructive 325-grain DPX reported quicker results, which leads me to believe that super hardcast bone-breakers may not always be the answer. They pretty much behaved like a solid, and while many hunters with a lot of African experience swear by them, I think that something that upsets and expands is needed for quick kills if you're trying for a lung shot.