- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
When I was in Tanzania I asked Mark Sullivan why he was packing his .577 instead of his beloved .600. He told me his Marcel Tyes .600 had developed a nasty habit of doubling. His .600 loads chronographed 2050 fps with a 900 gr bullet from a 26" barrel. I told him the loads were probably too hot, but he didn't seem convinced that was the problem as he never had ejection problems. Anyway the gun was back in Belgium getting tweaked.
Based on the velocities from big bore powerful handguns I wouldn't be surprised to see 1500 fps from a .600 pistol loaded with handful of fast burning powder. Why would anyone do that to themselves though?
My load data for the round looks pretty tame in comparison to Sullivan's. On average 150-160 grs of powder kicks out a 900 gr bullet at about 1900 fps from a rifle barrel. The data I have is for slow burning powders which might reflect the mild velocity. I would be inclined to work up a load with 3031 which seems to be very good in straight wall cartridges, the largest I've used being the .500 NE with a 570 gr bullet at 2150. Undoubtedly faster powder is how Sullivan gained another 100+ fps. For the revolver load, 30-35 grs of Unique would be interesting.
HMMM, a revolver that weighs 2 pounds less than a double rifle in the same caliber, which to buy??
Stuart
(Obviously I've never actually tried it!)
