In 1935, Smith & Wesson brought forth the first Magnum sixgun and cartridge combination, the .357 Magnum. It was hailed as "The World's Most Powerful" based on its 158 grain .38 caliber bullet at 1400+ feet per second. Elmer Keith, testing it for the American Rifleman that year, came to the conclusion that paper ballistics to the contrary, his .44 Special loads of 250 grain bullets at 1200 feet per second were really the world's most powerful.

By 1956, Keith and like-minded sixgunners finally convinced Smith & Wesson to correct their original mistake and really bring out the world's most powerful gun and cartridge combination and the .44 Magnum was born. Now we really had the true world's most powerful and everyone would be satisfied. Right? Wrong!

Dick Casull had been working with magnumizing the .45 Colt from the early 1950's and the introduction of the .44 Magnum did not detract him one bit on his way to the true world's most powerful. His continued experiments finally resulted in the factory production of the real world's most powerful cartridge and revolver in 1983 as the .454 Casull took over the title. Surely, we had now reached the pinnacle of power and the quest was ended. Wrong again.

In the early 1980's, a young gunsmith in Cody, Wyoming began experimenting with the .45 Colt in custom sixguns and decided more was needed. To John Linebaugh, three things were important in a cartridge and those three things were caliber, caliber, and caliber. Bigger is better, and heavier, fatter bullets would allow handgun hunters to take those difficult angling shots knowing that the heavy bullet would deliver needed penetration.

While Keith and Casull had the .44 Special and .45 Colt to work with, Linebaugh had no handgun cartridge case to use. A quick look at the dimensions of rifle brass yielded the perfect candidate for his .50 caliber cartridge. The old .348 Winchester measures .535" in diameter at the base tapering to .485" at the shoulder 1.630" away and the rim thickness is a revolver usable .070". The .50 caliber revolver cartridge was a wildcat reality.

Settling on a length of 1.410", Linebaugh trimmed .348 Winchester brass to length, reamed the inside of the newly formed neck and the .500 Linebaugh was born, albeit also known as the .50 Magnum and .51 Magnum along the way. Factory brass is now headstamped ".500 Linebaugh" and is generally available, along with .500 revolvers, from Linebaugh Custom Guns (PO Box 1263, Dept AH, Cody Wyoming 82414. Phone 307-645-3162.)

Early .500's were built on both Seville and Ruger Super Blackhawk Single Actions, but all current .500's built by Linebaugh are on the Ruger Bisley. The .500 is also available from Bowen Classic Arms (PO Box 67, Dept AH, Louisville Tennessee 37777. Phone 615-984-3583) on either the Bisley or the Redhawk.

The .500 Linebaugh offers the shooter a five-shot revolver that utilizes 400 to 440 grain bullets of .51 caliber at velocities approaching 1300 feet per second. Reloading is easily accomplished using RCBS dies which are available from the RCBS Custom Shop. Loading is easy; case forming is not. The best way to go is to purchase .500 Linebaugh brass from Buffalo Bore. If one chooses to do-it-yourself, .348 Winchester to .500 Linebaugh case forming dies are available from RCBS that provide for trimming to length and inside neck reaming.

Bullets for the .500 are have been available in the form of excellent double cavity moulds from either LBT and are still so from NEI. LBT offered a 400 grain bullet in their #512.400LFN and 440 grain #512.440LFN, LFN standing for Long Flat Nose. NEI's offering is #420.511, a 440 grain Keith style bullet.

For those that do not cast their own, two sources of cast bullets are available to my knowledge: Cast Performance Bullet Co. has LBT designs and BRP has the NEI .440 grain Keith bullet in their lineup of hard cast bullets.

In working with the .500 Linebaugh, I use both the 400 and 440 grain LBT bullets as well as the NEI 440 grain Keith semi- wadcutter. All bullets are cast hard with three parts lead to four parts type metal and are sized at .512". They slip through the RCBS sizing die very easily as these bullets are designed for minimum sizing.

Casting bullets for the big .500 requires a lot of molten alloy as I run two double cavity moulds at the same time and they empty the Lyman Mag 20 melting pot quickly. Patience is also required as it takes extra time for the sprue to harden on these large bullets. One could easily run three moulds at the same time to avoid waiting time for cooling.

Recoil for the .500 is heavy once 400 grain bullets exceed 1200 feet per second and 440's go over 1100 feet per second. If one is a seasoned sixgunner along the lines of the .44 Magnum or .454 Casull, the .500 should be manageable with practice and working up to the top loads. Mathematically speaking, full house loads from either the .454 Casull or .500 Linebaugh recoil twice as much as .44 Magnum loads. This is not felt recoil and does not take into account grip shape, shooter attitude, etc.

Top loads for the .500 are normally achieved with WW 296 and proper primer choice is absolutely critical. I have found only one primer that will ignite these large doses of WW296 in cold weather and that is CCI's #350 Magnum Pistol Primer. Other pistol primers tried resulted in bullets stuck in the barrel, large amounts of unburned powder clogging both barrel and cylinder and one memorable round that read a whopping 90 feet per second over my Oehler Model 35P.

For use in cold weather, I would forgo WW296, normally one of my favorite powders, and stay with #2400, Blue Dot, and H4227. All of these seem much easier to ignite in the big .500 case when the temperature drops.

Favorite loads for the .500 include the LBT 400 grain bullet over 10.0 grains of WW231 for a very pleasant shooting 850+ foot per second practice load, and this is the type of load that the majority of shooting with the .500 should consist of. For the heavier 440 grain bullets, I drop the charge one grain and still get 800 feet per second. These may be labeled "practice" loads, but 400 to 440 grain bullets at 800 feet per second could still be very practical close range deer hunting loads. Moving up the line to 900 to 1000 feet per second, 26.0 grains of H4227 or 21.0 to 22.0 grains of #2400 gives excellent results.

For full power loadings in the 1100-1300 feet per second range, the 400 grainer performs the highest velocities for me with 31.0 grains of WW296 for 1201 fps and 28.0 grains of #2400 for 1277 fps. Recoil is starting to get stout at this level.

The .500 really sits up and sings with the 440 grain bullets as this seems to be the optimum weight for case capacity and bore diameter. LBT's 440 grain bullet goes 1171 fps with 29.0 grains of WW296, 1179 fps with 26.0 grains of #2400, and 1123 fps with 20.0 grains of Blue Dot. All velocities are measured from a five and one-half inch barreled Bisley .500.

Switching to NEI's beautiful 440 grain Keith bullet, 29.0 grains of WW296 gives 1256 feet per second, and for a little less recoil but still plenty of power, 28.0 grains of H4227 comes in at 1102 fps, and 25.0 grains of #2400 gives 1114 fps. All of these velocities may sound mild to those used to .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, and .44 Magnum velocities but remember we are talking 440 grain bullets compared to

158, 210, and 240 grain bullets respectively with the standard Magnum offerings.

What does the .500 offer to the shooter? It is not a silhouette gun. It is not a target gun by any means. It is certainly not what is usually thought of as a personal defensive weapon. It is pure and simple a hunting handgun and if one was suddenly faced with an angry lion or big bear, I could think of no other handgun I would rather have in my hand than a .500 Linebaugh Bisley.

Linebaugh's philosophy in building handguns is to offer power, practicality, and portability. As he says: "a handgun that can be carried comfortably on the hip all day and easily placed under a pillow or bedroll at night" In the .500, Linebaugh has reached the outer limits of power combined with practicality and portability. I'm almost ready to say that the ultimate most powerful revolver has finally been attained, but I know if I do I will find someone out there that is working on some future contender. For right now at least, the .500 is King.

HIGH PERFORMANCE LOADS .500 LINEBAUGH

FIREARM: BISLEY 5 1/2" BRASS: .500 LINEBAUGH

PRIMER: CCI #350 CHRONOGRAPH: OEHLER MODEL 35P

TEMP: 35 DEGREES GROUPS: 5 SHOTS @ 25 YDS, BRACED STANDING.

ES = EXTREME SPREAD IN MUZZLE VELOCITIES