I still want to get another New York State Black Bear. 62 years old and every year I get more respectful of how these animals will hang on to life and fight for their own life till their last breath. My 2 bear rifles are a Colt Sauer .458 WM Grand African and an NEF Ultra Handi-Rifle in .500 S&W. I have been gravitating to heavier bullets in the .500 S&W. Two loads I have previously worked up for the .500 group 1 inch at 50 yards are:
My first load with the .500 uses a 250 gr. Lee R.E.A.L muzzle loading bullet sized to .502” and shoots at a clocked 1885 fps with 35.2 grains WC820 and BPI Original ballistic filler to case mouth rim before seating the bullet to a 2.005” OAL. Recoil is mild; accuracy great and this essentially SWC design delivers 1,016 foot-pounds at 100 yards. This energy makes the load a 100-yard deer load.
My second load with the .500 uses a RCBS 50-340-SWC plain base bullets un-sized at .502” at a clocked 1700 fps with 30.2 grains .H. LilGun and again with the BPI filler. Recoil is more than mild but shoot able with the 9.5 pound weighted stock Handi-Rifle. This load delivers 1,037 foot-pounds at 160 yards and 1,344 foot pounds at 100 yards making it a reasonable 100-yard Bear load.
My new mold on the way is the Lee C501-440-RF. I have gas checks for the bullets and will try near the Lyman starting pistol load for this bullet, 27.4 grains H. LilGun with a velocity for pistols projected at 1456 fps. I generally get an additional 100 fps above pistol velocity projections so I calculated for 1556 fps from my rifle. That velocity yields 1,013 foot-pounds at 390 yards. Yes, 390 yards! This is way more energy than I need for anything and likely have abusive, flinch inducing recoil.
Link to info on this mold:
So I have calculated for an energy level of 1,500 foot-pounds at 100 yards making a 100-yard Bear load. A muzzle velocity of 1,413 fps will yield 1,502 foot-pounds at 100 yards. Charge reduction software says 26.4 grains will achieve the 1,413 fps I desire for a 100 yard, 1,500 foot-pound Bear load for the .500 S&W in my Handi-Rifle. This load with 1,500 foot pounds at 100 yards should not have substantially more recoil that my 340-grain RCBS bullet that has 1,500 foot pounds at 65 yards. So, my usual practice is to clock a load slightly higher than I want and get chronograph numbers very close, but high so I can then use charge reduction software to get near to as exact as the 1413 fps muzzle velocity that I'm targeting for the Lee 440 gr GC bullet in my rifle. Has anyone tried the .501” Lee 440 grain gas checked SWC in a rifle? Gary