I can't imagine what it would take to break a .500 Smith, but someone figured it out!!

http://www.gunauction.com/buy/12523192

My first thought was to lop off the barrel to a more manageable length and have at it, then I read a little more and saw the cracked frame!! Ouch!

I remember one of the gun writers blowing up a 500 S&W with Bluedot not long after they came out.

You just never know what some people are thinking when they sit down at the loading bench.

Single use only.

The bulge in the barrel indicates a barrel obstruction to me. Everything else is consistant with overpressure that comes with that.

If you had a round with no powder, how far down the bore would the large rifle primer drive the bullet?

(500 S&W uses large rifle primers)

LOCKING UP THE GUN.

nm

to drive the bullet into the barrel.

Nope, it will stop in the barrel cylinder gap keeping the cylinder from opening. You can drive it back into the case with a rod in the barrel pretty easy.

Years ago I had a percussion cap drive a Lee REAL bullet into the barrel of a Ruger Old Army. There was a problem with contamination of the not factory approved powder load by the lube used on the cast bullet. My guess is that there was enough powder ignited that it contributed to help drive the bullet past the forcing cone. This was followed by a full charge of non factory approved powder that did not suffer contamination from the lube and drove into the rear of the first bullet at non factory approved pressure and velocity levels causing both to "exit stage left" - right out the side of the barrel. Sometimes I wonder what the guys at the repair center thought/said when they unwrapped it prior to replacing the barrel. It was as good as new when they were done, but got sent down the river in exchange for more modern armament.

Anyway, a primer only would probably only drive it far enough forward to block the cylinder. If there was a tiny amount of powder ignited it could drive it further into the barrel and cause a bore obstruction situation. There's a good reason why one should examine carefully a sixgun (or any gun) after not observing the effects of a bullet leaving the barrel upon firing or observing an out of the ordinary recoil (or lack thereof) upon firing.

I ended up driving the slug back past the gap with a brass rod.

lead bullet. Heavy crimp, rolled into a 45% Mountain Molds crimp groove. Noise seemed limited to the hammer fall. Bullet moved forward about .050" but not enough to tie up the cylinder by entering the B/C gap.

I would guess this is likely due to the large volume of the 500L case and the extra mass of the 480gr bullet, coupled with entering the cylinder throat.

Slow hand I should apologize, I misunderstood what you were asking. When thinking of a handload going "bad", I thought you meant something like happens when a box of ammo is left on the dashboard of a pickup for a long time during the summer. When it gets shot it is way hotter (higher velocity and pressure)than when loaded. I see now, you were talking about a contaminated power charge not pushing a bullet past the of the barrel. I sorry, that was my misunderstanding.

how in its present condition is it worth more then 500 bucks. Id be hard pressed to give you 500 for a good one.