I am thinking of building a gun in this caliber since its an interesting caliber and sounds fun to shoot and reload. I also wonder how you make the brass from 338 lapua brass and reloading data for it.
Anyone shoot 510 whisper?
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Just wiki'd it and was impressed, that is so cool. Especially how with such a high BC bullet it only loses 100fps over several hundred meters.
There's a guy on the DTA thread running the 510 Whisper and he seems to love it. He hasn't posted about it in several months. Do a search on it and send him a PM. I'm sure he would be glad to help. I think it's a bad ass round and some day I would love to get into it. Obviously you know you are talking big bucks here. Those 50cal cans aren't cheap!
I built a 510WSM, which is a similar idea but easier/cheaper to do IMO. It's a cheap/fun way to shoot milsurp 50 tips like the API. Rem action, WSM brass cut off at the shoulder, easy. I get 1700fps with the API, so subsonic is just less powder. Long range with this is fun too. Artillery type trajectories and very easy to spot impacts. I should video it sometime.
510 WSM Article - Topic
510 WSM Article - Topic
I did one of those too, and use a 975g cast bullet at 950fps pushed by trail boss. It sounds like a pellet gun going off but hits like a sledge hammer.
I've done a number of barrels for the DT SRS as well as a couple rifles based on the 98 mauser and CZ550 Safari Mag. They are great fun to shoot and allow you to use some of the more "active" bullets from pulled 50 BMG rounds. We shoot tracers, API (armor piercing incindiary), 50 spotter (requires a different throat) and ball. Tracers will light as reliably as in the full sized BMG round when using only 28.5gr of 2400 or similiar powder. API will flash on hard targets and if you're into hunting you can load up 300-800gr hunting type bullets. I've shortened the round to 1.790" for use here in indiana to comply with deer hunting regs and so far have gotten 450 gr barnes flat soft points up to 2000fps. Thats easily suitable for deer to about 300 yds. There is still room in the case and I've not finished with working up powders and loads. According to quickload I should be able to hit 2300fps with the 450 and possibly 2500fps with the 300gr flat soft point. Its a very good round with a wide range of usefulness. Brass is a pain to make up but once you have it you can shoot it for a long time....especially if you're shooting subsonics. I've got cases with more than 25 firings on them so the initial cost may seem high but over time it comes down to very low. Considering that the Lapua brass was intended for 63,000psi it should last a very long time at low pressure.
Hope that answers some of the questions
Frank
Hope that answers some of the questions
Frank
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If the S&W bullets are .510 diameter they're fine. If they are .500 then no, you can't shoot them. I suppose if you bought a barrel blank with a .500 bore you could use them but then you're limited to a smaller variety of bullet choices. The .510 selection is pretty big since a lot of the sharps rounds were that diameter, 500 Linebaugh, etc....Most of the bullet makers that do .50 cal stuff will have jacketed or cast bullets in .510 dia available.
Frank
You could shoot .500" bullets in a .510" barrel, but you will probably not get very good accuracy. The nice thing about the .510" caliber is all the cheap milsurp bullets you can get that were made for the 50BMG. Search on youtube for incendiary or tracer bullets; they are fun to shoot (but do NOT shoot them in areas/circumstances that can start a fire).
I have an older SSK .500 Whisper (pre .510)
Mostly shoot cast bullets.
Brass is made from .378Wby Mag.
Cases are shortened, formed, trimmed, and neck reamed.
Mostly shoot cast bullets.
Brass is made from .378Wby Mag.
Cases are shortened, formed, trimmed, and neck reamed.
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The Whisper series of cartridges were invented by JD Jones of SSK industries.
They are not SAMI spec and he is very protective of his designs. He figures if you want one, you have him make it.
Good luck finding a drawing.
The thing with all of these subsonic cartridges is that you generally have the same velocity across the board, so the main difference is bullet mass. Basic Newtonian physics tells us that force = mass x acceleration which can be further broken down to:
force = mass x (velocity / time)
So in a nutshell, the energy a 650 or 750 grain .50 cal bullet delivers at subsonic speeds is going to be significantly more than a 175 or 200 grain bullet at the same speeds. It's a friggin' spear chucker!
Since JD is so protective and hard to deal with others have come up with alternates to the most popular types. For the 510 whisper you can google 12.7X48 as a basic equivalent. For the 300 whisper you can see the 30-221, 300-221, 300 fireball, 300 blackout and the list goes on. JD didn't necessarily invent all these though I think the 510 whisper must be his...many of them were repurposed by him for subsonic use. The 300 whisper is a copy of an old wildcat based on the 223 and used in silhouette shooting. He just popped a heavy 240gr bullet in it and loaded for subsonic velocity.
Hope that helps
Frank
Hope that helps
Frank
I've been playing around with my 510WSM. I think that the Whisper™ has more case capacity and I've got 505gr paper patched bullets to up 1850fps in a ±18" barrel. I made some 240gr lathe turned solids and clocked them at nearly 2700fps in a 26" barrel. I think quickload's correct and you're under-utilizing the potential velocity with lighter bullets.
I want to try those Barnes Originals. 2000fps would make a fantastic mess of a pig!
Gratuitous pic
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