50 Alaskan Encore Project

I just put in my order yesterday for a custom Encore barrel chambered in 50 Alaskan (.510 bore), tight 15 twist rifling, 13" long, and threaded with beowulf threads. My plan is to be able to shoot 650gr up to 850ish gr bullets including bmg bullets at subsonic speeds suppressed. It will be the king of "quiet" thumping. I'm hoping a healthy load of Trailboss will get it where it needs to be speed wise. If not, I will have to play with some different pistol powders. I got this barrel in pistol length so I can shoot it as a pistol when desired, and after my encore tax stamp gets approved, I can use a rifle stock. MGM said they should have the barrel to me in roughly 4 weeks. I'm excited!

Good Lord! You, sir, are a mad mad scientist.

650 - 850 grain bullets being pushed by Trail Boss? Won't that take about a bucket of powder per round?

Ha ha, it only has to go about 1000 fps? I'm not sure really which powder will work best, I will have to see if anybody has done it before and has recommendations on powders and starting loads. I did find this, however, and was wondering if military pulled bullets need to be run through a sizer before shooting:

pulled 50bmg bullets

I can say, for that price, those bullets are probably worth trying out--even if I have to run them through a sizer.

Man, we are WAY outside my level of knowledge. Can you run jacketed bullets through a sizer, and if so, will it cause issues with the jacket?

By the way, I seriously think Doc should have you on the show. He could title it something like "Doing Things With Guns No One Else Has Ever Even Considered."

Ha ha, that would be fun. I believe that if you run jacketed bullets through a sizer, you just have to lube them like you would a brass case. A little imperial sizing wax on the outside and I would think it would be fine.

Corn - ?how to you resize 50 BMG bullets. They are jacketed, and usually with THICK jackets.

I just lube em up and push them through a lee .510 push through sizing die.  LEVERAGE...

Speaking of which, I just got my new barrel from MGM. It looks nice. Now I need to find some time to work on loading.

Going to try to load some of these tonight. I will try to do a few different loads, 647 gr bmg jacketed bullets, as well as a 650 gr cast bullet.

You gotta let us know how this works. Even at 1,000 fps, a bullet that big yields muzzle energy of 1,444 ft-lbs and should be a pretty heavy recoil.

Someday, years from now, when you're written up in American Handgunner for this, I will say "I remember when he first mentioned that idea on a forum."

I have about 60 rounds loaded to test tomorrow morning pending good weather. I have 2 different bullets with 3 different powder loads for each--I will test them out and report back. My biggest worry is bullet stabilization at that slow of speed. Them BMG bullets are LOOOONG.

I ended up testing 32, 33, and 34 gr of RL 7, but those seemed to be just slightly too fast. The bullets were flying out about 1100 fps up to 1250 fps. I need to knock the load down just a tad or switch powders. --Sure packs a thump though.

?And just how bruised IS your shoulder.

Hands... not shoulder. I haven't gotten the tax stamp for my Encore yet, so I shot this one in "pistol" form. I admit, my right hand was a bit sore afterwards--but it was still really fun. Everyone had a great time shooting AND watching people shoot it.

The really big question will soon be, now that you've made it happen, where does this round fit in your arsenal?

I'm thinking large reptile defense, like Raptor-defense.

Hunting dinosaurs I guess... I still need to get the speed down a bit to below 1050 fps and then try it out with the suppressor once I get that tax stamp approved.

Cornmastah wrote:Hunting dinosaurs I guess... I still need to get the speed down a bit to below 1050 fps and then try it out with the suppressor once I get that tax stamp approved.

Oh . . . of course. Because it's one thing to create the world's most crazy-large handgun, but the project isn't fully completed until it is suppressed.

Out-freaking-standing.