Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch – Superb Field Revolver

Description

The Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch is the most powerful production revolver in the world, cut down to a length you can actually wear. A four inch barrel gives up some velocity compared with the long guns and gains a 500 that rides in a chest holster through a working day in the backcountry.

Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch Why a Short Barrel on a 500

The eight and three eighths and ten and a half inch Model 500s are hunting instruments, built to extract every foot per second the cartridge can produce. The Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch answers a different question: what if you need this much power available while your hands are busy with something else?

Four inches keeps the revolver balanced rather than muzzle heavy, makes it practical in a chest rig, and lets you move through brush without the barrel catching everything. Velocity drops, but 500 S&W Magnum has so much in reserve that what remains still exceeds anything else you can hold in two hands.

That is the entire case for this configuration. In bear country a gun in a chest holster is worth more than a more powerful one in a case, and this is the version that gets worn.

The Cartridge and the Frame

Five hundred S&W Magnum is a rifle cartridge in a revolver cylinder. It launches bullets from 275 to over 700 grains and produces muzzle energy exceeding many centerfire rifle rounds, which puts it in a category no other production handgun occupies.

The X-Frame is the largest revolver frame Smith and Wesson builds, designed from scratch in 2003 specifically to contain this cartridge. Every ounce of that mass exists to absorb recoil, and it is what makes the 500 shootable rather than merely survivable.

Two muzzle brakes are included, one for jacketed bullets and one for lead. That is a genuinely useful inclusion, since lead fouling behaves differently in a brake and having the correct device fitted keeps the system working properly. On a short barrel the brake does a great deal of work.

Capacity is five rounds with adjustable sights, in a revolver that is double action and single action. Be aware that a four inch 500 produces a genuinely extraordinary muzzle blast; hearing protection is not optional at the range and is worth thinking about in the field.

Carrying and Shooting the Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch

A chest holster is the sensible answer for this revolver. In the backcountry a chest rig keeps the gun accessible while wearing a pack, clear of a hip belt, and out of the way when you sit or kneel. It is the configuration essentially every serious user of a short-barrelled 500 settles on.

Work up to the Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch deliberately. Even experienced big-bore shooters find the first cylinder memorable, and the correct approach is a firm two-handed grip, a stable stance, and a small number of carefully fired rounds rather than a long session. Fatigue and flinch build quickly with a cartridge this energetic.

Confirm your carry load and where it prints. A few carefully fired rounds tell you what you need to know, and there is no benefit whatsoever to shooting fifty full-power 500s in a session from a barrel this short.

Maintenance Notes

The muzzle brakes on the Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch collect carbon quickly and should be removed and cleaned on a schedule rather than left in place indefinitely. Use the brake matched to your bullet type, since lead fouls differently from jacketed, and keep the threads clean and lightly lubricated so the devices continue to come off easily.

Keep the cylinder face and the forcing cone clean. A cartridge producing this much pressure and this much fouling makes regular attention there more important than on a milder gun, and build-up can eventually affect both function and accuracy.

Check that the ejector rod stays tight every single time you clean the revolver. Recoil of this magnitude will back out fasteners that would stay put on any other handgun, and a loose ejector rod locks the cylinder closed at exactly the wrong moment.

Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch Specifications

• Manufacturer part number: 163504
• UPC: 022188635041
• Caliber: 500 S&W Magnum
• Capacity: 5 rounds
• Barrel: 4 inches, stainless steel
• Frame: X-Frame, stainless
• Sights: adjustable
• Muzzle: two muzzle brakes included, one for jacketed and one for lead bullets
• Action: double action and single action

Why Buyers Choose the Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch

This is the 500 you can realistically carry all day. For guides, hunters and anyone working in bear country, a wearable 500 is a genuinely different proposition from a hunting-length one.

Recoil is severe and the muzzle blast from a short barrel is extreme. This is not a revolver for a shooter who has not worked up to it, and nobody should make it their first big-bore handgun.

Ammunition is expensive and heavy, and it is not stocked everywhere. A short barrel also loses meaningful velocity, so if maximum ballistic performance is the goal rather than carryability, the longer models are the correct choice.

Who Should Buy It

The Smith Wesson 500 Magnum 4 Inch suits guides, hunters and backcountry workers in bear country: anyone who needs the most powerful production handgun made available on their chest rather than in a case, and experienced big-bore shooters who value carryability.

Learn more from Smith and Wesson, or browse the rest of our firearms selection.

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