Loaded up 50 rounds last night for the SSK 13" 50 Alaskan Encore. These are 655 grain FMJ slugs that do about 1600 from the 13" tube. Recoil is noticeable but not insane. Really fun loads to play with though. Will be out shooting in a little over a week so I'm getting a few items loaded that I've been neglecting. The ammo on the left in the pictures is a 240 XTP in a 44 magnum. I know a lot of us have seen these loads before but figured I'd post for the few that may not have seen a 50 Alaskan loaded with BMG bullets or have never had the chance to fire one of them. Neat little toy. The really fun ones are the APIT rounds. Pretty cool to watch the tracer light up out of a handgun and then burst into a big flash on impact a couple 2-3 hundred yards away.....

OH. MY. GOD. A beautiful sight, but OH. MY. GOD.

Where can I get one?

Keep us posted how these work, Glenn!

Whit, they work great! JD throats the barrel just for these and the 750 AMAX. That is a crazy looking piece of ammo when its loaded. Just the projectile is 2" long! Used a few in it years ago when I still have my BMGs. Been shooting one version or another of these type slugs in this barrel for about 10 years with a hiatus in the middle when the barrel was still in MS....

You can get the barrel from SSK. Wicked looking for an Encore. For hunting with this barrel this coming year, I bought some 500 grain Woodleigh Weldcore slugs. They are MEAN looking! The meplat is huge..

This is the barrel..

Just for my own edification what load are you using in that barrel that produces 1600 fps with that bullet?
I assume you have actually chronoed that load to make sure it actually does get 1600.
What is the twist rate too if you don't mind?

I have chrono'd it years ago. JD's notes are with a 12" barrel and even though this one is only 1" longer at 13.25" plus the brake obviously, I'm getting 1577 in my notes. I think that was around the time I moved to KS so it was several years ago. I'm using RL7 to get it. This load was really close to what JD had on the sheets. NOW, the Barnes loads were way off on my barrel. I'm going to be checking the Weldcore loads soon so I will see how close those are to the data soon......Twist rate, I don't know off the top of my head, never really cared to be honest...why do you ask, do you have a barrel like this and getting slower number?? I'll chrono this load when I shoot in a couple weeks and see what I get then. We shall see how consistent the powder/primers are I guess. I wouldn't think they would be too far off but I'll check just for fun. Never really cared about the total velocity to be honest because once it gets moving, its shoots really well. I was surprised in the early days at just how well this gun did at longer distances.

Glenn, I knew you would like the Woodleigh bullets. They are heavy, jacketed bullets with an extremely wide meplat.

What's not to like

They look different that I expected to be honest. It looks like they made a nice bullet and then cut the nose off and left it where you can see the cross section. Neat idea and just looks cool!

"Twist rate, I don't know off the top of my head, never really cared to be honest...why do you ask,"

Yes I do ad mine is 13 inches. Mine has a really fast twist so I can shoot sub-sonic.
I have hit slightly over 1500 with a 700 gr bullet. Actually around 1530-1540.
I have some IMI new 650's but never chronoed them.
I use RL7 and WLR primers when I do shoot it.

Just wondering because I find the velocities quoted by most people to be optimistic to sometimes a large degree.
Of course components change which contributes to the discrepancies.

I gotcha. I looked this afternoon and these are loaded about 1.5 grains below the old load. So I doubt they break 1450 but I'm going to check them just for grins. I remember folks saying they were getting 1700 plus with these awhile back when this one was ordered. I was never able to reach that by a long shot with what I considered reasonable loads for me. I think they were guessing honestly.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!! I have GOT to get one of those!!! I wonder if MGM can make one. This would be a GREAT addition to the 460 barrel I have from MGM. I don't think the 460 would get shot much if I had one of these though.

That is just.... WOW!

SOOOOO many ideas in my head right now...

I can't quit looking at the picture! I gotta quit typing now so I can go back and drool some more.

now thats just cooooooooool!!

MGM can & will make a 50 AK barrel for you. When this round is loaded to Max, it is not for the faint of heart. I have several pics from the Sixgunner of guys shooting 650 gr. bullets out of their 50 AK encores. The guns are almost at 90 degrees, & yes, they all have Super Arresstor brakes.

What, exactly, does this 50 AK do to an elk?

The 50 Alaskan was a round designed to be used on Griz & Brown bear. It is a great round for Buffalo too.

Nothing that a good 44 or 45 wouldn't do

Now Glenn, don't you go talking someone out of a gun purchase using "need" as rationale...

Those big AK's look NASTY. Shoulda bought GAsixgunner's when I had the chance. Or then again, probably a good decision that I passed!

Just to put things into perspective.....

.475 Linebaugh on the left, .50 Alaskan on the right......

HOLY CRAP!!!!! Glenn, don't you dare try to talk me out of this one!
Once I crease my forehead, I'll listen to ya though.

Whit, is that the old BRP 435 in that 475 load?? If so, that's the first cast bullets I ever loaded in my 480 Ruger

I won't ever talk you out of buying a gun. I was just making a point that the 44 and 45 do just as well. With the right loads, which the ones in the picture are not them for hunting, the AK is a bad machine with more pop at extended ranges than the 44/45 and scoped, its extremely accurate. The 450 grain Barnes I was shooting this year at pigs was traveling along at just a little less than 1600 fps, can't remember the exact velocity but I'm thinking it was around 1560-1570. What I found interesting about that load is that with 2 additional grains of powder, the velocity didn't change so I went back down to the original charge and called it good. Those Barnes Originals are very soft and pressures come up pretty quickly so I'm going to move on to other slugs for a while. May work better with the higher load in a rifle but in the short tube, it just didn't matter. you could definitely say I reached the point of diminishing returns. I do know though that the 300 grains original Barnes in this 50 Alaskan at max load will nearly evaporate a grey squirrel at about 30 yards. The 450s popped that hog really hard but the ones I've shot with 475s, 44s, and 45s of various calibers put the hogs down just as quick. BUT, the shot was just under 140 yards on that hog and short of my 454, I wouldn't have taken that shot with the other sixguns in the conditions that I was dealing with that day. As I mentioned, I have high expectations for the Woodleigh slug and if I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure that's a 500 grain slug. With that bullet, JDs loads show a top load of 1574 fps with a 12" barrel. So I'll work with it and see what I can actually get, but in the field, that 500 grain bullet at 1500 will work wonderfully on anything I will likely encounter. If you are serious about finding a 50 Alaskan, I recommend keeping an eye open. I've seen about 3 of them sell in the last couple of years and one on Gunbroker went relatively cheap not too long ago. This is an SSK version and probably the direction I would go again if I were to order one tomorrow. I've never received a SSK barrel that was not accurate so I stick with them.



Here is another like Whit's picture. Left is a 475L and the right is a 500L.

Here is one of my youtube videos where we shoot the .50 B&M Alaskan
which is built on the same case but necked down 11 thousandths.

50 B&M Alaskan

That's the way I am with the MGM barrel. Granted, I've only had one, but it is my 460, and it is MUCH better than MOA at 200 yards. I am one that thinks like you do: If it works that well, then stay with it!

Until I get a bad barrel from MGM, I'll stick with them.

I think I'll do like ya mentioned, and watch gunbroker for a bit also. If I can find a smokin deal on a TC barrel, I'd take it.