The .500 Wyoming Express or .500 WE is a "big bore"
handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...
cartridge.
Freedom Arms
Freedom Arms is a Freedom, Idaho and Wyoming, Freedom, Wyoming–based gun manufacturer , firearm manufacturing company, known for producing powerful single-action revolvers. The company was founded in 1978 by Wayne Baker and Dick Casull to pr ...
introduced the cartridge in 2005 for their
Model 83 .500 WE
Model 83 .500 WE is a single action revolver manufactured by Freedom Arms chambered for the .500 Wyoming Express round. In the 1986 film '' Armed and Dangerous'', John Candy
John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994) was a Canad ...
revolver.
[The .500 Wyoming Express from Freedom Arms](_blank)
by Jeff Quinn, November 7, 2005
Like most handgun cartridges of this size, it is used almost exclusively in
revolver
A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...
s. It is designed mainly for hunting and wilderness defense against medium to heavy North American game.
Overview
The .500 Wyoming Express is dimensionally similar to the
.50 Action Express but can be loaded to a higher power level and utilize heavier bullets, due to its greater maximum chamber pressure and longer cartridge overall length.
Unique among handgun cartridges, it is a
belted round, which allows for a heavy roll crimp to be employed without compromising headspace, as with the .50 AE. Though not as powerful as the
.500 S&W Magnum, the .500 Wyoming Express is available in more compact revolvers, and for those capable of mastering its heavy recoil, it is adequate for harvesting any North American game animal at short to moderate range.
[The .500 Wyoming Express](_blank)
by Brian Pearce in ''Guns & Ammo'' Handguns Conceptually similar cartridges include the
.500 Linebaugh,
.500 JRH,
.475 Linebaugh, and
.454 Casull. However, the .500 Wyoming Express is somewhat more powerful than these rounds. It is ballistically comparable to the
.500 Maximum,
50-70 Government
5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number.
Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs.
Mathematics
5 is a Fermat pri ...
, and
.50 Beowulf cartridges, which are usually chambered in substantially larger firearms.
While .500 Wyoming Express brass was out of production for several years, it can be formed from .50 AE through a multi-step swaging process. Brass formed in this manner is currently available from TII Armory, as well as loaded ammunition.
See also
*
List of handgun cartridges
This is a list of handgun Cartridge (weaponry), cartridges, approximately in order of increasing caliber.
Table of handgun cartridges
Other cartridges used in handguns
Although not originally designed for handguns, several rifle and shotgun ...
*
12 mm caliber
This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the to range.
*''Length'' refers to the cartridge case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Instances
* Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design
* Specia ...
References
External links
Freedom Arms website.500 WE page
at Freedom Arms website
{{DEFAULTSORT:500 Wyoming Express
Pistol and rifle cartridges
Magnum pistol cartridges