.500 S&W forcing cone erosion

[pocher]

Hello everyone, does anyone have problems with erosion on your 500 magnum forcing cone? I didn't notice any on mine until I started shooting the light 275 grain ammo from doubletap. I sent the gun back to s&W factory, talked to their rep today. The gunsmith didn't address any issues with the forcing cone. Maybe the erosion is minor and the gun is still within spec. Anyways, I should be receiving the gun back tomorrow. Can't wait to find out if they did anything to the forcing cone. Any suggestions to what can I do to minimize forcing cone erosion in the future?

 

[rha600]

I've shot everything from 275gr federal up to 400gr Winchester and so far I've had no evidence of errosion. I did have a problem with mine in the beginning where the cyl and barrel wasn't quite lined up and it would "shave" the copper jacket off th bullets. I've probably only got about 500 rounds through my gun though. Not sure how much use your's is getting.

 

[ClemY]

Lil Gun powder is reported to burn hotter due to an increase in nitroglycerin content which causes more rapid throat/forcing cone erosion. You may want to stay away from it. Don't know powder Doubletap uses for its loads. You might want to check with them.

 

[pocher]

Thanks for the reply! I have shot about 500 rounds through mine as well. Doubletap does not give info on the type powder they use...I should just stay away from doubletap in the future. I was hoping that s&W would replace a new barrel. Since I did not specifically ask for barrel replacement when I sent the gun back to the factory, would it have made difference if I did?

 

[eldon519]

I don't have any .500 experience, but in just about any magnum revolver caliber, if you shoot bullets on the lower end of the weight spectrum with stout loads of slow burning powder, throat erosion is bound to happen. I ran into it with 125-gr loads over Blue Dot in my .357 GP100. Just stick to heavier bullets or more modest velocities for volume shooting.

 

[ClemY]

I have three of the beasts: a standard 4”, a 5” John Ross Special and a 6 ½” PC Hunter. All are a lot of fun, but at my age, I don’t mind being a wimp with what I shoot, so I shoot milder loads. I like H4227 and IMR4227 because I can use reduced loads without worry about the ignition problems you can get with 296. I also use Lil Gun. It measures very nicely and you can reduce loads slightly, but even with reduced loads it may cause accelerated erosion, so I may not be using it as much in the future.

 

[Confederate]

Guns that have a great deal of power will erode forcing cones and other areas if lighter bullets are used (or relatively lighter bullets). When I first heard about Ruger's .357 Maximum, I told a friend, "I wonder how they're going to handle the flame cutting?" It was an obvious problem even Bill Ruger's incomptent family members should have forseen. With the 500, I don't think S&W could have anticipated lighter bullets with such corrosive powders. Knowing the problem, the solution is to not use light bullets with corrosive fast burning powders.

 

[W.E.G.]

I think you mean E-rosive, not Cor-rosive.

 

[bluetopper]

You probably wouldn't have that problem if you had been shooting these.