Calling 500 NE owners with chronometers!

[Noah Hutchens]

Hello! As the title states I am looking for owners of 500 NE rifles for a proposal from me.

I have some 500 NE ammo that l purchased from a company now called 406 Ammunition out of Montana. They have had the ammunition in their warehouse since ~2016 when they bought out/merged with a company called Proloading who was also out of Montana. I was told the load data was lost when they moved the ammunition from the original shop/warehouse to their new one, but completely assured me that it is 100% factory professionally loaded ammunition within safe specifications.

The information I have for each type is this:

500 NE Jamison Brass, 570 Grain Barnes Flat Nose Solid

500 NE Jamison Brass, 450 Grain Woodleigh

What I am proposing/asking is this:

I send 8 rds of ammunition, 4 softs and 4 solids, to be chronographed to see what FPS they are at. For this, the recipient would keep the fired brass for their own use and in addition I could pay them a fee for their services if they so desired. Also, if desired by the recipient I can send an additional round of each for them to deconstruct before shooting the others if they felt it necessary, or they could deconstruct all the rounds to check powder measures on each and reassemble before shooting, either one works for me.

If anyone has any questions or is willing to help please let me know! Thanks!

PS I know the 450 grn woodleighs are very odd for 500 NE, I will most likely be pulling all the bullets and powder out of them and have them reloaded for 570 grn soft points, I am just still curious on the chronograph of them.

 

[High Country Hunts]

Couple of things to consider:
- pulling ammo and inspecting powder for volume/weight provides no indication of over pressure under pressure whatsoever as one would consider an unknown powder if someone else has reloaded regardless of custom shop reloaded.
- muzzle velocity from rifle to rifle is varied and can be significantly different from one to another. Example a tighter barrel spec will produce more pressure and more velocity. Results will be inaccurate. Also barrel length.
- asking someone to test unverified 500NE ammo is a bit like asking someone to test unknown gas in their race car - and to see what happens ? The question might be asked why not chrono yourself ?
- if you reload pull the whole lot - work up a load that is within spec and regulates.
- within spec accuracy over velocity is what counts.
- tipping old milk down the sink won’t destroy the porridge

 

[Tdsmith517]

You can buy a new Garmin Chronograph for like $400. You are probably going to want one for your reloading work anyway. Then you can shoot your own ammo through your own rifles for the best results.

 

[Noah Hutchens]

Couple of things to consider:
- pulling ammo and inspecting powder for volume/weight provides no indication of over pressure under pressure whatsoever as one would consider an unknown powder if someone else has reloaded regardless of custom shop reloaded.
- muzzle velocity from rifle to rifle is varied and can be significantly different from one to another. Example a tighter barrel spec will produce more pressure and more velocity. Results will be inaccurate. Also barrel length.
- asking someone to test unverified 500NE ammo is a bit like asking someone to test unknown gas in their race car - and to see what happens ? The question might be asked why not chrono yourself ?
- if you reload pull the whole lot - work up a load that is within spec and regulates.
- within spec accuracy over velocity is what counts.
- tipping old milk down the sink won’t destroy the porridge

I understand pulling the bullets and inspecting the powder weight does nothing to determine if it is a safe shooting load, however if they were all matching to the same specs I figured it would add some confidence.

I can’t chrono myself because I don’t own a 500 NE. If I did I obviously wouldn’t have posted this thread.

As I said I’ve been completely assured by a reputable ammunition company that the ammunition is safe to shoot, if that’s not good enough why trust any ammunition company that’s not Hornady or federal etc! I’ll go one step further, and if anyone messages me and is willing to chronograph the ammunition for me I will sign legal documents stating I will fully reimburse them the value of their double rifle in the event of anything going wrong.

 

[Tdsmith517]

Are you planning on having your rifle regulated to this load? Or did you just buy it for the brass?

 

[Noah Hutchens]

Are you planning on having your rifle regulated to this load? Or did you just buy it for the brass?

Preferably regulated to the Barnes Solid load since I have 900 rds of it. Obviously I won’t have the rifle regulated for the 450 grn Woodleigh bullets, however I finally looked in Graeme Wrights book he does actually have load data for 450 grn bullets.

Same thing on the 470 ammo I bought which was 500 grn Barnes solids and 500 grn Woodleighs. I have ~800 of each but I’m going to have him regulate it for the Woodleighs and see how the Barnes bullets shoot in it afterwards and then determine what to do.

However, for the 500 NE I paid $5.50 a round And for the 470 NE I paid $6.00 a round, so seems to be the same or a little less than the price of the brass so it wasn’t a loss either way.

 

[deewayne2003]

Preferably regulated to the Barnes Solid load since I have 900 rds of it. Obviously I won’t have the rifle regulated for the 450 grn Woodleigh bullets, however I finally looked in Graeme Wrights book he does actually have load data for 450 grn bullets.

Same thing on the 470 ammo I bought which was 500 grn Barnes solids and 500 grn Woodleighs. I have ~800 of each but I’m going to have him regulate it for the Woodleighs and see how the Barnes bullets shoot in it afterwards and then determine what to do.

However, for the 500 NE I paid $5.50 a round And for the 470 NE I paid $6.00 a round, so seems to be the same or a little less than the price of the brass so it wasn’t a loss either way.

Well said, the cheapest I’ve seen Jamison .470 new brass on gunbroker is higher than what you paid for the loaded ammo.

 

[Noah Hutchens]

Still looking for a willing participant! If you are interested please PM me.

@deewayne2003 graciously did the same experiment on 470 NE ammunition I got from the same company and I have detailed data and notes from his testing I can share if someone has a 500 NE and is interested in helping me out to give some peace of mind.