This barrel has been around for a while. It has been with my brother the last few years and he finally had a chance to take a deer with it last year so I got it home recently. Last Friday, I took a few minutes to get it all back together in its final form and back on its home frame. Look forward to working with it again. Been about 4 years since I actually used it. With the big 650s and such, its really fun until you start getting silly with the loads but with the 450 Barnes originals, its an absolute hammer for hunting. Shoots very accurately and is just fun.

Anyone else use these anymore? If so, got a favorite load or story to share?

That's nice, Glenn!

I'm going to start playing with my .50 Alaskan again soon. I recently put an optic on mine to get some weight into it to tame it a bit. I want to work on some reduced loads that will be a bit easier to control. I am interested in what loads you come up with, Glenn. Here's a lousy picture of my .50 AK with the optic mounted.

You know the first thing I thought of when I saw the optic.....that's about 4" less time that you have to move your head

I will have to dig out all of my old load data if I can find it. I'm probably going to start back down the path of the SSK load data sheet. Do you have that one? If not, I can email it to you. It has some nice and tame loads up to insane ones I think from a handgun

I have one that looks exactly like yours except for the scope. The one on mine is silver. I shoot mainly cast in mine. The load I hunt with uses a 435gr CP bullet @ 1400fps. That's about all I'm willing to shoot out of a tree stand. Another load uses a 525gr CP @ 1600fps. That one gets old real quick shooting from the bench. I have friends that want to shoot this gun but I refuse to let them because if loaded "up" the gun could hurt someone less experienced.

I had a silver one on it but swapped it out. I remember the first time we shot it, we were using the original Encore grips. In the early versions, the rubber was surrounded by a rigid plastic molded piece. It sliced the snot out of my brother hand that first day. We found the full rubber version soon after. I haven't used it with these grips yet so I guess we shall see how it works out....

You are right, the recoil goes from ok to very wicked pretty quick on these things. I can only imagine what its like on the revolver. I was at our gun range the day that Rob shot Whit's gun into the linebaugh paper column. I knew at that point, I wanted no part of it! Rob shoots fully loaded FAs and they barely move his enormous hands, that Alaskan was the first one I have ever seen that left an impression on my buddy

I have some 440s I was thinking of trying in this one for hunting. 1400 sounds much better than the loads on the top end of the load data SSK sent out with the barrel!! There is one at 1900 fps with a 12" barrel using 4198. I bet you could beat that with RL7 if you were really wanting something to beat you! Have you killed much with that load?

GS

This is the gentleman, event, and incident that Glenn is speaking of. Rob does have big, strong mitts, and this is the only revolver that has gotten away from him. It's brutal to say the very least.

Haven't hunted with it much. I have found that RL-7 and 5744 are 2 good powders. I'm not trying to sound macho but I really like the big guns. I have a 411 JDJ, 416 JDJ, 475 JDJ, 475x2 JDJ and 475 FA that is a MNP Stalker. The only thing close to the 50 is my FA with a load that shoots the 425 CP @ 1425fps. I also have a couple 454s and a SSK 45-70 that shoots 400 Speers @ 1600fps, but they're pussycats compared to the 50 with top loads. The Alaskan with top loads are my recoil limit. I can shoot them but feel it the next day.

The 50 Alaskan is amazing. I did a video on it (actually I guess it is a take-off even a bit bigger) and you can see it here:

50 B&M Alaskan

Good heavy-duty handgun, Glenn IMO!

I'll check that out from the computer tomorrow Gregg. Thanks. I think the B&M Alaskan is just the 50 Alaskan squeezed to .500 because of bullet choices and maybe better function in a lever gun originally. Other than that, they are pretty similar in performance from what I can remember. I was just looking at them about two weeks ago for a lever gun project. The .500 killed it for me. Call me strange but I want it to be the full .512

Neat gun but maybe not very practical. But as far as a hammer in a "handgun" it's tough to beat!

Yes please! Thanks, Glenn!

A couple years ago, I spent an afternoon shooting J.D.'s along with Blackie Sleeva on Blackie's Ohio farm. We shot 650's, 750's and 800's including some tracers, out to about 600 yards or more. That afternoon taught me all I needed to know about the cartridge ... mostly, that I didn't need one!

Oh come on now, I know you'll be waiting patiently at the back of the truck this year just waiting for me to unbox it so you can try and ding the 1125 yard buffalo target :). You can't fool me! Haha

You are right on.

All I can say is you guys have more "heart" then me...