280PLUS
Member
for those of you boycotting s & w, uh, sorry
anyhoooo,
I did in fact take me a trip up north a little farther to visit the s & w factory in loverly downtown springfield, mass. With brother Steve, his new F-250 and my 16 y.o. son Dave. I think the brother is getting on in years cause he sure does drive like he is. He wasn't even making the speed limit!
So it was a bit of a, shall we say, strenuous endeavor, which included a scenic tour of springfield as we searched for the correct entrance to the plant. We've been there before but its been a while.
The place was jammed with cars, I mean jammed. LEO vehicles, gov't vehicles, civilian vehicles. All from many states. Some big competition is going on, not sure what.
Much to our relief, however, there's STILL plenty of open ports.
So I goes in, and I starts perusing the cases for the object of my quest, the Holy Grail of all big bore revolverdom, the big Kahuna itself, the brandy new 500 Magnum .50 cal revolver.
Well, I'm not finding it, so I'm going back and forth making sure I didn't miss it when one of the guys asks, "Can I help you with something, sir?"
To which, with my best wry grin, I replied, "I was looking for that new .50 cal, but I don't see it."
Well, there were about 10 peeps in the store and suddenly all eyes are on me and it's real quiet, just like in the movies.
"It's over here," he says, and he motions me over to the cash register. "Can we shoot it?" I asked. He looked down a little and shook his head, "Naw, we can't let anybody shoot it." "WHAT!?" I exclaimed. And he proceeded to tell me that it was only a prototype and there are only 12 in existence. They are not in production at this time and he couldn't tell me when, if ever, they would be. But I could hold it. Well, ok, twist my arm.
So I go over to the case, it's a single glass case just a little bit bigger square than the cash register on top. Maybe 20" x 20". In this case is one gun, thats all that would fit. The thing is HUGE!! It happens to be the compensated model. It is so big it looks more like a comedy prop gun the clowns might use. It weighs 72 oz., thats over 4.5 pounds! The cylinder is easily 3" in daimeter and 4" long. That is one big chunk of steel! So he takes this bad boy out and hands it over, it's actually not to bad to steady and hold on target for a few seconds, the balance seems nice and I could hold it steady with no problem. The grip seemed way too big for my hand and I'm picturing this as a gun only Andre' the Giant could wield with any true effectiveness. To add to it's comical look the trigger and hammer are sized for the normal hand so the proportions of the gun look very strange.
It is currently the largest handgun in existence. The counter guy said he shot it first with some 225 gr rounds that "weren't bad" but then he loaded 1 - 400 gr round and 1 - 450 gr round succesively in the cylinder, fired the 400 gr , put the gun down and didn't want to fire the 450 gr. He said the 400 was enough for him. I'd say he was late twenties, 6ft, 200 lbs, not a little guy.
All I can say is that after hefting it up and down and aiming for about 3 minutes, my arm was starting to ache fer cryin' out loud!
Honestly, looking at that thing, I mighta just been a little bit happy underneath my disappointed looking exterior that I didn't actually get to pop that thing off. I asked him if anyone had tried it one handed yet, he said no.
I can always go back again if they get it on line...
anyhoooo,
I did in fact take me a trip up north a little farther to visit the s & w factory in loverly downtown springfield, mass. With brother Steve, his new F-250 and my 16 y.o. son Dave. I think the brother is getting on in years cause he sure does drive like he is. He wasn't even making the speed limit!
So it was a bit of a, shall we say, strenuous endeavor, which included a scenic tour of springfield as we searched for the correct entrance to the plant. We've been there before but its been a while.The place was jammed with cars, I mean jammed. LEO vehicles, gov't vehicles, civilian vehicles. All from many states. Some big competition is going on, not sure what.
Much to our relief, however, there's STILL plenty of open ports.
So I goes in, and I starts perusing the cases for the object of my quest, the Holy Grail of all big bore revolverdom, the big Kahuna itself, the brandy new 500 Magnum .50 cal revolver.
Well, I'm not finding it, so I'm going back and forth making sure I didn't miss it when one of the guys asks, "Can I help you with something, sir?"
To which, with my best wry grin, I replied, "I was looking for that new .50 cal, but I don't see it."
Well, there were about 10 peeps in the store and suddenly all eyes are on me and it's real quiet, just like in the movies.
"It's over here," he says, and he motions me over to the cash register. "Can we shoot it?" I asked. He looked down a little and shook his head, "Naw, we can't let anybody shoot it." "WHAT!?" I exclaimed. And he proceeded to tell me that it was only a prototype and there are only 12 in existence. They are not in production at this time and he couldn't tell me when, if ever, they would be. But I could hold it. Well, ok, twist my arm.
So I go over to the case, it's a single glass case just a little bit bigger square than the cash register on top. Maybe 20" x 20". In this case is one gun, thats all that would fit. The thing is HUGE!! It happens to be the compensated model. It is so big it looks more like a comedy prop gun the clowns might use. It weighs 72 oz., thats over 4.5 pounds! The cylinder is easily 3" in daimeter and 4" long. That is one big chunk of steel! So he takes this bad boy out and hands it over, it's actually not to bad to steady and hold on target for a few seconds, the balance seems nice and I could hold it steady with no problem. The grip seemed way too big for my hand and I'm picturing this as a gun only Andre' the Giant could wield with any true effectiveness. To add to it's comical look the trigger and hammer are sized for the normal hand so the proportions of the gun look very strange.
It is currently the largest handgun in existence. The counter guy said he shot it first with some 225 gr rounds that "weren't bad" but then he loaded 1 - 400 gr round and 1 - 450 gr round succesively in the cylinder, fired the 400 gr , put the gun down and didn't want to fire the 450 gr. He said the 400 was enough for him. I'd say he was late twenties, 6ft, 200 lbs, not a little guy.
All I can say is that after hefting it up and down and aiming for about 3 minutes, my arm was starting to ache fer cryin' out loud!
Honestly, looking at that thing, I mighta just been a little bit happy underneath my disappointed looking exterior that I didn't actually get to pop that thing off. I asked him if anyone had tried it one handed yet, he said no.
I can always go back again if they get it on line...
