Thread: 500 BPE load advice

Advice wanted from anyone actually using a 500 BPE or 500/450 BPE or experienced with something similar like a 50-120 or 50-140 Sharps ?
Or knows someone reliable who has the same and shoots it regularly

I'm nearly ready to let rip with the Hollis Martini 500 3" BPE
Will be sizing my 450 grain .515 down to .510 which will give me around 2 thou tightness in my Henry Rifled barrel.

I have a FFFG on hand as a starting point and Triple 7.
But might need to get some FFG

Should I make a card punch and make up some grease / card cookies ?
Light BP load and dacron under the grease card cookies ?
Do I need card and grease cookies at all if I use a well groove lubed projectile ?
Dacron to keep the reduced black powder loads agains't the primer ?

I'm reluctant to use trailboss with this huge case because I have been advised that the usual 70% might not apply to such a big long case !

As this cartridge was developed during the 1860s my expectations are very modest.
I will initially be happy to get the 450s safely out of the barrel at above the speed of sound.
Secondly if I can get the 450s safely doing around 1500 fps I will be delighted.
And thirdly if I can get it to shoot minute of small bard door I will be ecstatic

On that size cartridge you'll need about 120 grains of FFG, not FFFG, Put it in through a long dropper. slowly. You will struggle to get in in without crushing, use a beer coaster wad, grease cookie and another beer wad then the projectile. You'll be under disappointed compared with smokeless. REMEMBER NO AIR GAPS IN THE SHELL or you will be impressed, if your still alive!!

777 comes with warnings not for cartridge rifles in red letters. I have used it in 310 and 38/55 and can still count to 9 and a half but wont use it in anything larger. Seems ok in a 58 muzzle loader though. 3f is too fast burning in that big cartridge but might be ok for reduced loads with greased pinex wads making up the extra space.
Black powder in fg would be the best choice after looking in my old cartdidges of the world book.

I have just finished turning a depriming punch for the 500 cases
Tapered to the internal dimension.
Will harden and temper both ends and it should work just fine

This might help.

@john m
Thanks for that
I will print it all out and digest
The library of options is growning

But it looks to be safest to go with FFG and dacron filler and cards and take my time to see what the old rifle is capable of

So I have made a barrel block and put the barrel on to the action properly.
Nice fit

Primed a case and it fires just fine.
But the primers back up a bit
The punch works great.

So the rim on the 500 nitro case is 0.9mm think and the rim on an original 500/450 round I have is 1.5mm thick.
So I'm picking that there is 0.5mm of head space there extra due to the very thin nitro case rim.
The breech block to barrel looks good

I could make up a 0.5mm washer up from shim material
Or find a .5mm x clip that would fit into the rim groove
Or see if Bertram makes the same case with the thick rim

All good problems as its nice to put it completely together and make even a small bang because it's been a long long time since this last had a case in it

500/450 1.5mm rim
500 nitro 0.9mm rim

I made a set of five 0.3mm washers the exact right size to shim inside the rim.
Snip edge with punters and it slides down the taper of the case and clips in to the groove

Cases for perfectly now and primers dontback out when fired

Now i need to make a case flaring punch and a 1/2" was cutting punch

Is it ok to use cork tile punched out as big fuller wads with light loads when there is a lot of space to fill ?

On a straight case cork would be ok, you can use something like wheat millet, ground wheat, I use to but worry about moisture absorption.
But ok if your not storing and the birds will love it! I haven’t used Dacron as it melts? But others do?
I’ve also used 3 ply bog paper, it’s cheap and is compressible?

I use 5 cork tile wads in my 450x3 1/4 bpe nitro for black loads. Kynock had cork or felt wads in there smokless ammo.

Originally Posted by john m

I use 5 cork tile wads in my 450x3 1/4 bpe nitro for black loads. Kynock had cork or felt wads in there smokless ammo.

@john m thats good news about the cork tiles.

I will go to the workshop this evening ( if I haven't drunk to much ) and make a was punch out of an old Rifle Barrel section
Bore it to .510 and sharpen the outside shoulder with the compound slide on the lathe.

I did make a neck sizing plug to bump up the neck to be able to seat the projectiles

And finally have a proper dummy case to work with

I used 50/140 loads in my old girl a bit to, I did have some 50/140 cases but can't find them now & that would of fixed your head space problem to, I think, can't remember the exact base diameter now !

Any way some 50/140 loads

425 GR. LY #515141 Hodgdon H4831 .512" 3.800" 118.0 2079 22,800 CUP 125.0 2209 26,300 CUP
425 GR. LY #515141 Hodgdon H4350 .512" 3.800" 105.0 2033 21,600 CUP 114.0 2242 26,700 CUP
425 GR. LY #515141 Hodgdon Varget .512" 3.800" 95.0 2127 23,600 CUP 102.5 2294 28,100 CUP
515 GR. LY #515142 Hodgdon H4831 .512" 3.750" 112.0 1956 23,200 CUP 118.0 2085 27,500 CUP
515 GR. LY #515142 Hodgdon H4350 .512" 3.750" 101.0 1916 22,000 CUP 108.0 2091 27,200 CUP
515 GR. LY #515142 Hodgdon Varget .512" 3.750" 87.0 1958 24,000 CUP 95.0 2088 27,900 CUP