king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated Magazine Dec/Jan 2008 - Coyote Crazy! - Index

B y
now, many of you will have
heard about the mighty .500
Smith and Wesson magnum
- the handgun that Dirty Harry
could only dream about. But, have
you heard about the .500 Smith and
Wesson rifl e? That’s right - rifl e.
H&R has come out with a version of
their Handi Rifl e in the mighty .500.
I hadn’t heard a thing about it until
I was wandering around a local gun
store a few months back and saw one
on their rack. My fi rst thought was,
“I have GOT to have one of those!” I
was ready to buy it there on the spot,
but then I remembered that H&R has
26 HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
SHOOTING
The Mighty .500 S&W
The rifl e that Dirty Harry could
only dream about.
a program called the “barrel accessory
program.” The barrel accessory
program allows you to send in the action
and fore-end of one of H&R’s rifl es that
you already own and they will fi t another
barrel to your rifl e. I have already done
this a couple of times with one of H&R’s
Ultra rifl es that I bought originally in 25-
06, then sent in and had a .223 and 20gauge
slug barrel added to. Take out one
screw from the fore-end and open the
action and the barrel tips right off. It’s
a great program and I don’t understand
why they don’t advertise it better.
I went home and looked up the
cost of a .500 barrel and, for a measly
$80.00 plus the cost of shipping and
insuring, H&R would fi t my rifl e with
the new barrel. I also had them include
a set of open sights (they come standard
with the new barrel) and a scope rail.
While I waited for H&R to send
my gun back I bought some brass, dies,
and bullets and loaded up fi fty rounds of
350-grain Hornady XTP’s over a charge
of 40-grains of H110. A nice mellow
load to start out with, I thought. (I have
to interject here that the fi rst thought that
goes through your mind when you hold
one of these bullets in your hand is almost
always, “That is one big bullet!” A 44magnum
looks almost tiny compared to
the .500.)
After waiting about a month, I
got my rifl e back from H&R and headed
to the range to try it out. The fi rst thing
5GUNS/OPTICS5
Bry Buttars
I noticed was the open sights. They
were very bright fi ber optic sights,
but I had to hold the rifl e so high up
on my shoulder to line them up that it
was not a natural position. I fi gured
I’d try it anyway and lined up on the
target and squeezed the trigger. When
I fi nally quit screaming in pain and
crying (OK, the scream was more of a
groan, but the crying part is too close
to true to deny) and my brother and
son got done laughing at me, I had
to step back and reconsider what had
happened. Even with what I thought
was a medium velocity load, the rifl e
kicks. A lot. And with the gun held
so high on my shoulder it was a pretty
painful experience.
Not to be beaten by a piece
of wood and metal, I mounted the gun
properly and held it nice and tight in
the pocket and tried another shot. It
still kicked, but was manageable. The
only problem was that with the gun
mounted properly, I couldn’t use the
open sights. I had brought along the
scope rail and a scope to put on it so
I decided to try it out. I mounted the
scope, bore-sighted it and threw it up
for another shot.
When I got done seeing
stars, I realized that in my haste to
see how the rifl e shot with the scope,
I had forgotten to really hold on.
The scope hit me hard enough that
my fi rst reaction was to check for
blood and ask how many stitches
I was going to need. Oh, and don’t
forget the raucous laughter coming
from the peanut gallery again. I was
proving to be great entertainment
to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
After the scope incident, things went
better for me. I fi red about ten rounds