This post is a bit much for me to stay silent. I’ve been shooting a 20 shoulder degree .500 Schüler (Jeffery) for well over 20 years. IT HAS NEVER ONCE HAD ANY FEEDING PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER. It has fed 535 gr, 570 gr, 600 gr both handloads and factory ammo with soft, solid, and monometal bullets with ease.
By this you mean in destructive power or akin to firing 4-5 shots of the 500 ne?
Then with that super-small sample you don’t have an informed comment. I’ve shot several .500 Jeffery’s over the years including the Blaser R8. NONE had any feeding issues.
I'm glad someone brought this up,...becasue it's for sure true. I have had the same experience. 570 and 600gr Woodleigh, as well as the 570 gr Hornady did not work well in my rifles. My rifles were a Sterling Davenport Standard Mauser 98 with the center feed conversion, and a GMA that was built on the action Roden designed for the 500J. The heavier projectiles are a little longer if I remember correctly, and because they must achieve a pretty sharp angle coming out of the magazine they would at times bind and dent the brass just below the shoulder, sometimes the 570gr Woodleigh would scrape off part of the lead on the mouth of the chamber. The 500 Jeffery is one of those calibers that the rifle needs to be built from start to finish to work with certain bullets. I can only speak from my experience....I never had a single issue with 535gr, Woodleigh softs or solids, or Barnes 535gr solids. And just because the 500 NE and teh 500 Jeff share a diameter, don't assume the NE bullets are going to function in a 500 J bolt gun.
.500 NE 570 gr at 2150 fps for 5,800 ft-lbs
It is not for sure true. My .500 was also built by Sterling Davenport and have had no such problems.
In capability? What do you mean by that? There is no splitting hairs between 8,000 vs 5,800. And if you’re now wanting to induce shooting speed of a double vs a bolt, take a close look at the R8 speed with 2 down and 1up.
I'm glad for you, that is very fortunate and adds a lot of flexibility to your rifle. You should post some videos of you shooting the 570gr load at 2500 fps, we all love these sort of things.
Yes, I know it
Yes, I know it
This cartridge might be picky to feed well in a classic bolt action rifle. There was a man in the country who built African rifles but for them in .500 Jeffery, he sent them in Belgium to master gunsmiths who knew how to manage the feeding and therefore, to get a reliable rifle.
But if I buy this caliber, it will be with another Blaser R8. Yes, I'm a Blaser man and I took the .458 Lott after an elephant hunting where my PH used a R8 in this caliber. He convinced me to buy the same one and I love it but I keep thinking about the .500 Jeffery.
We like or we hate Blaser, but from my experience with many calibers, everything feeds flawlessly through this rifle, even big flat nose bullets. I have never used it, but I know a little bit a man who has a R8 Professional Hunter in .500 Jeffery and he uses it from time to time in driven hunt. It's a bit overkill for boars and roe deers but he loves it. He never had a jam with several ammunitions and I think several Blaser owners in this forum can vouch about it ?
Mine is built on a Brno ZKK62 action no feeding issues or case capacity issues with any of the heavier bullets
I must say you will be looking very far and wide for someone else than @DWB who can work a bolt fast and hard, so far he has had no feeding issue with his 500 Jeff built by a proper smith and on a magnum action. His 450 Rigby and 404 Jeff from recolection has had feeding issues that has been sorted over the time. But then again gun companies could easily hire @DWB to stress test their feedings in actions and will easily find out if it works or not.
