doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT Shooting a 475 A&M

I wear a PAST pad when benching anything over .22-250.
One can focus totally on breathing and squeezing, because there is no discomfort.

Hello everybody:

This is an update of my experience shooting the 475 A&M.

I made 3 shots, two of them with a "reduced" charge (458 Lott power, 500 grains bullet @ 2,250 fps). I can not say that the kick was pleasant, but completly tolerable; then I shot a full load with a 600 grain solid bullet at 2,500 fps: I inmediately lost interest in shooting another one! The kick is "brutal" to say something.
Of course my son, that is 20 year old, shot about 10 times with both charges and return home very happy for the experience.
I am very happy also for the oportunity to shot such a big cartdige (many thanks to my friend Eric).

I think Stanton is completly right: for what I can saw in the videos we took and for the comments, our "heavy weighted" friends were hited worst than my son and myself that are "light weighted" and more "flexible".

Overall a great experience, thank you for all your comments and advise!

Best,

Jose

I had wondered if you gave it a go. Good for you and thanks for the follow up comment.

Years ago, for a African hunt which never happened, I shot a lot of 375 and 458 in Winchester model 70’s. So much 458 that I developed a flinch that became so bad I had to stop all shooting for over a year. Then it was waiting for me when I returned. Ended up shooting .410 using my left shoulder, for several years. It was five years before I could shoot right handed without flinching, for the most part. I still will flinch once in a few hundred times. At my peak it was three out of four shots. And that was 40 years ago so when the chance comes along to shoot a doomsday stomping rifle I am not tempted.

"The gun-nerd site Forgotten Weapons has offered up a glimpse of the bane of 19th Century elephant hunters: the dreaded 4-bore. It chucks a one-inch quarter-pound ball (1,750 grains). Frederick Courteney Selous used a 4-bore muzzleloader in the 1870s. It got the job done, but Selous complained that the brutal recoil upset his nerve. It’s certainly a flinch-inducer."



From recall, he killed a lot of elephants with a four bore...then accidentally double loaded a barrel. He developed a flinch he could never quite get rid of.

My son in Alaska was urged to carry a big bore revolver with recoil so heavy you couldn't control it and still not enough thump to stop a black bear let alone a Brown or Grizzly. I got him to carry a Glock 19, with 15 9mm penetrating rounds. Controlled firepower baby....15 rounds in 1.5 seconds has to be better. Maybe you'll luck out and hit a vital. A guy in Alaska makes a 147 grain 9mm penetrating round for such an event.
https://www.wideopenspaces.com/alaska-man-kills-charging-brown-bear-with-a-9mm-pistol/

I killed a Brown bear, with a .270, 30 plus years ago. Was hunting moose and came across a Brown bear with inflamed hemorrhoids. At least that is what it seemed like at the time. He charged and I responded. I killed the bear at less than 20 yards, with a single shot from my .270. Went right into his left eye and into his brain. Lights out. I was 100% lucky. Being a young fool, from back east, I had my scope cranked up to its highest power when I was walking through the bush. You try finding a Brown bear at 100 feet that is charging you, with a scope cranked up to high power. It was all a blur until I recognized an eye ball. Then I shot him. It took me ten minutes to stop shaking enough, to light a cigarette. I had no choice but to shoot him. Buddy was off looking for a Brown bear, I was after a moose. He claimed this one on his tag. Funny thing is my buddy recounts the story and he is now the shooter, not me. Wish he had the nightmare I had for a few days. Being close to becoming bear scat is not fun and unless you see it for yourself you just can not believe how fast a brown bear can move. Never did get that moose. That 9mm might slow him down but i would rather skip ever finding out myself and hope you boy does as well.

It seems that all conversations in Alaska (per son...never been there) is about bears and fish. The violence and utter suddenness of a bear attack apparently is astonishing. That's why the 9mm carry. At least you might get it out and put a few shots in. (A guy was killed by a black bear where he stayed last summer - he was walking around with nothing but a knife and all Alaska was armed). The story of your Brown-bear attack though is what it is all about. great tale....and sorry for the trembling hand the next day with the coffee. Felt kind of like that once 55 years ag0..oh well.

I am personal friends with a lady from Alaska that hunts and guides other hunters in the bush. She kills bears with pistols, intentionally. Her name is Brenda Crim. She stated that all her bears (five at that time.... four grizzlies, one black) had been killed at twenty yards or less. I asked her if that had been intentional. She said she stalks to within that distance before shooting. I asked her why and she said because it is imperative to put the bullet in exactly the right spot. She has three pistols .......... her first was a .44 magnum. Her second was a .454 Casull. Her latest is a .500 S & W. Brenda is 62, a pretty, petite lady that you would never expect to do this, upon meeting her. She has a bush plane drop her off, alone, in the wilderness and return for her some week to ten days later.

My wife asked Brenda if she ever got scared of being killed by one of those grizzlies. She just smiled and said "Honey, it's Brenda 5, bears 0. If the bears score one point, I'll be telling the story of my demise in heaven. At least I'll have an interesting story to tell, and not that I died flat on my back in some nursing home."

Brenda is the real deal, and a fascinating person to talk with. http://www.akmissions.com

IDK, but if a little lady like Brenda can learn to handle the recoil of a .500 S & W most any motivated man could too.

Back in my 20s I taught about a dozen women to shoot handguns.
The majority handled full house .44 mag by the end of the first session.
I always started with .22, of course, and simply moved up in power to .22 mag, .38 spl wadcutters, etc., thru .45 acp and finally .44 spl and mag.
I never told them what they were shooting, just handed them a different handgun; at the end they were uniformly stunned that they had been happily DA shooting a .44 magnum.
Women generally have no preconceived notions about guns and don’t imagine themselves to be instant Dirty Harry, so they listen and learn.

I think it was Elmer Keith who remarked big bullets did not make up for bad bullet placement. He was a big bullet, big bore handgun aficionado. There was a story of a lady who killed an extremely large grizzly bear with a .22 LR. Seems the bear was about to get into her laundry hanging outside when she saw him. Shot him right out the window. Head shot went right into the brain, dead bear. Don’t mess with a lady on laundry day.

My shot was 100% luck. Think about hitting a silver dollar, moving right at you, at 30 yards, in a bears eye location, with the head moving all around, with a rifle sighted to shoot an inch high at 100 yards. I’d bet on the bear nine times out of ten. Ten out of ten times except I got lucky. The other mistake was to be so under-gunned. That was of a misspent youth reading Jack O’Connor writing about how wonderful the .270 was. Being young and impressionable off I went into the Alaska bush with my mighty .270. In hind sight I was more Elmer Fudd than anything else but a least I was luckier than Wiley Coyote. My gun was a Model 70 not one made by Acme Co..