.500 barrel blank...found one, 510 whisper in the works

yodave

yodave

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Who all makes .500 barrel blanks? I got a hankering to make up a .50 WSM but I need to source a barrel first......850 grain cast bullets at 1000 fps in a sporter type bolt action rifle has been on my mind all day...........:dancingbanana::dancingbanana:

As soon as I know where I can get the barrel I'll get the reamer ordered from PT and G and have it ordered to my other pile of goodies...........and I have enough brass to get started...........once I get a couple dummy rounds put togeather I can decide on weather I want a short action or a long action for this one........
 
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Ron Smith can make .500 bore/.510 groove barrels. Other wise you'll probably have to order out of the USA or special order with a Canadian importer.
 
Blastattack said:
Ron Smith can make .500 bore/.510 groove barrels.
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Now there is something I didn't know. I have been dying to build a 510 Whisper. Got to shoot one suppressed when I was down at one of the silencer shoots in the US a few years ago. VERY COOL round. I actually have a compete round but never figured out where to get a barrel.
 
Lothar Walther barrels can be obtained from Blue Mountain Sports. I am building one up on the 338 Lapua/50cal with the intention of using cast gas check bullets. The longer case will feed better I expect than a shorter case. I expect to get up over 2400 fps with a 650 grain cast gas check bullet. I was looking at the 500 Alaskan I think its called based on the 460 Weatherby case and thought why not use the 338 Lapua case? Several actions available now and lots of brass.
 
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there is a .510 browning aircraft barrel at Gunco in ottawa . a gunsmith could cut the .50 cal chamber of and make your barrel out of it.
 
A fellow smith put me on to some .50 barrel blanks at Saskatoon Gunsmith Shoppe, www.gunsmithshoppe.com I checked with them they said they had some 28"ers. I wanted something that would finish at 32", so I did not inquire as to bore diameter or twist. Good luck.
slowfire
 
Dave, make that rifle heavy :). I shoot .50 cal 700gr cast bullets at about the speed of sound in an 11lb rifle. Mine are loaded with 100gr of FG black powder which adds a bit to the recoil. It's fun, but not for 50 rounds at a time :).

What twist rate are you planning? With 850gr bullets you will need a tight twist. Mine is 1:26 which is marginal for my bullet. Some go with 1:22 for stability to 1000 yards. You might need a tighter twist yet. The moulds may be an issue as I believe that most mould makers cannot go much longer than 1.5" due to the dimensions of their mould blanks. My longest bullet is 1.51".

Chris.
 
I have the 850 grain mold and the gas checks.....have to modify my lube sizer for the bullet length as they are pushing 2 inches in length......
I have read between 8 and 10 twist for jacketed bullets in this round but I just want to shoot cast for obvious reasons.

I want to get the rifle up to 25 pounds but I was told yesterday that I only want a 16 inch barrel, I have a couple hundred WSM cases I have picked up so going the whisper route with expensive 338 lapua brass is not a viable option.......

And for those of you interested in this, I was also told to base this on a long action due to the OAL with the heavy bullets.......
 
What about going with 50-70 brass? Seems to me that by the time you form that WSM brass out to suit that there isn't going to be much shoulder left to worry about in any case. So the only thing you give up is the switch over to a rimmed case instead of the WSM's rimless case.
 
gunlaker said:
Dave, make that rifle heavy :). I shoot .50 cal 700gr cast bullets at about the speed of sound in an 11lb rifle. Mine are loaded with 100gr of FG black powder which adds a bit to the recoil. It's fun, but not for 50 rounds at a time :).

What twist rate are you planning? With 850gr bullets you will need a tight twist. Mine is 1:26 which is marginal for my bullet. Some go with 1:22 for stability to 1000 yards. You might need a tighter twist yet. The moulds may be an issue as I believe that most mould makers cannot go much longer than 1.5" due to the dimensions of their mould blanks. My longest bullet is 1.51".

Chris.
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Its looking like a 15 twist as I am going to reverse engineer around the bullet and velocity. 16-18 inch barrel length looks to be optimum on this as well, the downside to the shorter barrel is obviously going to be a weight issue. I can always add a muzzle break I guess......but with 5 tons of lead laying about I figure I can always start drilling out the stock and adding some weight here and there so long as I can maintain a happy balance front to back.......

I might need 40 or 60 MOA base/ring configurations as well, that will be determined later obviously. Running the numbers through the calculator it looks like there is only a 12% loss in bullet velocity at 1000 yards with a muzzle velocity of 1050 fps.........
 
yodave said:
Its looking like a 15 twist as I am going to reverse engineer around the bullet and velocity. 16-18 inch barrel length looks to be optimum on this as well, the downside to the shorter barrel is obviously going to be a weight issue. I can always add a muzzle break I guess......but with 5 tons of lead laying about I figure I can always start drilling out the stock and adding some weight here and there so long as I can maintain a happy balance front to back.......

I might need 40 or 60 MOA base/ring configurations as well, that will be determined later obviously. Running the numbers through the calculator it looks like there is only a 12% loss in bullet velocity at 1000 yards with a muzzle velocity of 1050 fps.........
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According to all the various online stability calculators, you should be able to readily stabilize a .510m, 850gr bullet travelling at 1000 fps in a 1:20 twist barrel. However, a faster twist will never hurt.
 
It sounds like a cool project for sure :)

Those big subsonic bullets hold thei velocity quite well. I saw published velocity numbers ( done by military radar) on a .50-90 and .45-110 projectiles out to 3500 yards, and they still had a pretty respectable velocity.

Chris.
 
I had some time to kill today so I modified this piece of 270 WSM brass to accept my 850 grain cast bullet.......I am thinking about going with the 7mm WSM brass as it is a hair longer....unless someone with more sense then myself has reason to talk me out of the 7mm brass
IMG_2958_zps2c353f55.jpg

850 grain cast, minus the gas check and lube obviously, 270 WSM brass, unmolested, and finally my mocked up cartridge..........
 
7WSM has been discontinued....

Until the component shortage in the US sorts out, stick to the 300WSM as that is still in production from several sources.

That is a crazy looking slug..... AWESOME.

Any guesses on how much powder you can stuff behind that monster?

Jerry
 
case capacity is going to be around 30-40 grains of powder with a 647 grain 50 BMG bullet, so I'll be a little less with the heavier cast, however I only want to push this one to the limit with trailboss.....

That's a bummer about the 7WSM brass, I was hoping to make my cases 50mm long, with a .50 cal bullet and a 50mm case length I figured the cartridge name of 50/50 chance would be fitting, as there is a 50/50 chance that this might work out in the real world..........
 
yodave said:
I had some time to kill today so I modified this piece of 270 WSM brass to accept my 850 grain cast bullet.......I am thinking about going with the 7mm WSM brass as it is a hair longer....unless someone with more sense then myself has reason to talk me out of the 7mm brass
IMG_2958_zps2c353f55.jpg

850 grain cast, minus the gas check and lube obviously, 270 WSM brass, unmolested, and finally my mocked up cartridge..........
Click to expand...

Yodave,
With enough mandrels and steps, you could open up the 300WSM neck and shoulder and get approx. .4" more case length. That should be a very good thing for powder capacity.:D
Never mind the .060" ( or so) difference in body length of the now unavailable 7WSM over a .270WSM case.

NormB
 
Just noticed you're cutting at the shoulder, thought you might be opening up full length WSM case. Seeing as you are cutting anyway you should be able to use any RUM case and cut where ever you like........... 50mm, 60mm.............
 
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