S&W 500 cases sticking

[E357]

My friend just got a 3 inch S&W 500 and we took it out to a hot Florida outdoor area and shot it "all day long" - about twenty rounds each was quit enough. Gun functioned great. The next week he wanted to use it at an indoor bowling pin match - NOT ALLOWED - had to shot it at the indoor rifle range area.

Fired one shot to clear all the AR/AK guys away - worked like a charm, but the case would not extract - had to use a range rod and small hammer. Second shot - same thing. These were his re-loads (about 5 percent under starting loads in new starline cases, 325 grainers, 4227 powder, rifle primer). We both know what we're doing and were careful not to ruin the gun when extracting the cases. The loaded cartridges were a smooth "drop in" fit and the chambers were polished. After about 5 minutes we fired all five chambers and they all extracted perfectly.

My theory may sound strange, but I think the cold steel chamber coupled with the use of a very wide thick brass case has to be warmed-up a bit to function correctly. I find this strange on a gun that is marketed for use in Alaska.

All opinion are welcome!!

Elliot

 

[John Ross]

Hard to answer this one without insulting your friend's reloading technique.

I have shot over a half dozen .500 Smiths with over 2000 rounds in hot weather, cold weather, etc. and have never had any "5% under starting" load give poor extraction.

Starline brass will give acceptable extraction at 60,000 PSI. 50,000 PSI loads require one finger on the extractor rod. Starting loads fall out of my guns.

For milder loads, try slower powders like 4198, BLC-2, or H335, or use the bulky 4759. You can't get an overload with these.

JR

 

[E357]

Thanks for the reply John, Between my friend and I - we've got over 75 years reloading experience and these 500 loads were all done on a single stage. The Gun and loads worked perfectly fine when "warmed-up" just not when it was cold. Who knows - will continue experimenting and measuring - he's a master tool and die maker and has built a number of handguns from "scratch" - I mean from bar-stock steel - everything but the barrels. He loads for his 50BMG and was a weapons expert for the marines.

The ones that stuck were "mild" if you know what I mean. When the gun got hotter we shot hotter reloads fine - still everything under max. I like the 4227 but might load up some lil'gun rounds for him.

We HAVE blown up a couple of 625's when we wanted a 625 WinMag, but we figured on this and they were fired by remote control - "long string in a vise".

It's a puzzlement! I repost this on the S&W board - maybe someone from the mother-ship hangs out there.

Elliot

 

[Black Snowman]

Could it have been any product used to clean, lube or protect the gun? I've seen oily revo chambers turn hard and sticky under the heat and pressure of firing making extraciton difficult. With all the surface area of the 500 S&W something like this could be compounded considerably.

Just a thought.

 

[Chuck Perry]

I have a question along these lines also. I was playing around last night, setting up my dies for the 500. I filled the cylinder with 5 brand new unloaded Hornady cases, which I had just run through a Hornday sizing die. When extracting these, several of them slipped off the extractor star and fell back into the chambers. This happened several times. It seems like the extractor rod has some play in it, and when it moves side to side it allows the case heads to fall off the star. Anyone else have THIS problem? I've not had this happen with my other revolvers.

 

[Black Snowman]

Hey Chuck,
You aren't likely to encounter that once the ammo is loaded or the round has been fired. After resizing the brass is it's smallest possible diameter allowing the brass to tilt in the cylinder more.

Once a bullet is seated the end will expand to accomodate and remove much of the tilt. Once fired, obviously the whole round has expanded, and will pretty much eliminate all tilt unless a very light load.

 

[Chuck Perry]

That's what I was thinking (hoping ) too. I'll have it out to the range next week for the first time, see what happens.