The 500 S&W Magnum will produce almost 2600 ft.-lb. with its heaviest load, and more powerful loads may well be on the way. If Dirty Harry felt that the .44 Magnum would make his day, the new 500 ...

With that background, I’d rate the recoil of the 275-gr. .500 S&W Mag. load from the compensated 83⁄8” X-Frame in the same league as that of a short-barreled, steel-framed .44 Mag. revolver.

The author's two Smith & Wesson X-Frame revolvers chambered in .500 S&W Mag. The velocity target was 2,000 f.p.s., and that is easily achieved with 300-grain bullets from the 8 3/8" revolver barrel.

By that standard, the .500 Magnum is easily twice as powerful as the .44 Magnum. At speeds of up to 2,075 feet per second, .500 Magnum is generally faster than .50 Action Express.