56hawk

I shoot matches from time to time with a 500 S&W. Everyone gets a kick out of it. Steel will be fine if it's poppers. Try shooting a plate rack and you will likely break the plates off at the pivot.

Mainly I shot it in Production because I thought it was funny that it's Production legal. Also my club has yearend belt buckle awards and I have been competing in Production and Limited this year. Got the speedloaders from this company: http://www.5starfirearms.com/05X-500-Speed-Loader-p/xf50005000.htm Made the holder myself though. And I was pretty happy to not shoot a strong hand weak hand stage. lol

As far as the steel goes, I'm shooting lead bullets out of the 500 S&W and plated out of the 50AE. They are both only doing 1200 fps. Of course that's with 340, and 335 grain bullets. I think Open guns are harder on steel. And yes my hand is still a little sore.

Overall I finished 39th with the Desert Eagle and 49th with the 500ES out of 51 shooters. With the Desert Eagle I was 15th out of 18 in Limited and with the 500 I was 12th out of 12 in Production. Would have placed higher with the 500, but minor powerfactor scoring didn't help.

Since it was my clubs last match of the year, I decided to make it a 50 caliber match. Shot first with a 500 S&W and then a Desert Eagle 50AE. Both guns are pushing over 400 power factor.

This club doesn't use practiscore: http://www.uspsa.org/locate-uspsa-clubs-results.php?clubcode=CN18 I don't know where you get the classifier scores from though.

Strange, when I put in zhunters number it works but when I put in mine all I get is a blank gray box. I shoot at a bunch of different clubs. Most use practiscore, but one doesn't.

When I put my USPSA number in it doesn't work. Is it because I have a Life membership? Otherwise I really like the layout. It's nice seeing all the different divisions at the same time.

Here is an Army study: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/750379.pdf Apparently the problem with aluminum is that it can ignite when it fails. This causes the chamber erosion that some people are seeing.

Not exactly the same shape, but I have seen this with everyone who shoots hollow base bullets. Leaves a gray donut around the bullet hole.

Why don't you just download the newest free version? SketchUp 8 is really old.

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, I would bet that it would work just fine. I've loaded a lot of rounds with H110 (identical to 296) and have more or less figured out it's limitations. The main thing I have noticed is very inconsistent ignition when loaded below 30,000 psi. Mainly noticed this in 454 Casull and 500 S&W with lighter weight bullets. While not reduced loads, I have even loaded 458 Lott and 460 Weatherby with H110. Started with a QuickLOAD calculated 30,000 psi and worked up to 57,000 psi in the Lott and 83,000 psi in the Weatherby. If I had a bolt gun to test it in I would try some 223 loads. Don't think I would want to start off in a semi auto though.

I don't really like it. It's just that without it I have a hard time seeing the dot in bright sun. If I could shoot indoor or at night I would use a 6.

I went the other way and put a 12 MOA dot in my guns. It wasn't the size, but the brightness I cared about. Some of the clubs I shoot at have West facing bays. If you have to shoot into the late afternoon the lighting can get to the point where you can barely see the dot. Going to a 12 MOA solved that problem. If the small dots were brighter I would rather use a 4 MOA.

I think it's really hard to beat the Lyman Reloading Handbook. I really like it because they pressure test almost all of their loads, and they use powders and bullets from a lot of different manufactures. Usually I compare any of Lyman's data to the website of the powder manufacturer I'm using for that load. Alliant, Hodgdon and Vihtavuori all have their data online.