The old saying in regards to a personal defense weapon about “better to have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it” applies to more than just the typical scenario you read about in magazines. Combat or defending yourself against an armed attacker doesn’t always involve knives and guns. Sometimes, the attacker’s weapons come in the form of teeth and claws. That’s when one of the .50 caliber hand cannons can mean the difference between life and death.
Hunting guides in grizzly territory typically carry a rifle capable of stopping a bear bent on destruction. Rifles are heavy and unwieldy, though, especially when working with horses or slogging through muskeg. After several years of off-and-on development, Magnum Research’s Biggest Finest Revolver (BFR) chambered in .500 JRH provides a powerful, easy-to-carry alternative. When I first called Magnum Research about the .500 JRH, I asked who the typical buyer was. “Most of the .500 JRH revolvers are going to Alaska,” Jim Tertin said. “They’re really popular with the grizzly bear guides.”
I realize that even the most powerful commercial handgun cartridges can only approximate the muzzle energy of a .308 Winchester loaded with a 180-grain bullet, but a 400-grain-plus bullet making a half-inch hole packs some serious wallop. Another simple comparison would be to a 12 gauge shotgun shooting 1-ounce slugs. At the .500 JRH’s hottest loadings, it will surpass the energy of a 12 gauge slug with ease, and the weapon can ride on your hip.
The history of the .500 JRH goes back nearly three decades. Named for the cartridge’s designer, Jack Huntington, the big .50 started “about 1993,” Huntington said, “when were building small-rimmed Freedom Arms handguns. Well, as is usually the nature of inventors and gun makers, we can’t leave well enough alone. Wayne Skaug, my apprentice, and I designed a cartridge in .50 caliber that would work in the Freedom Arms M83 format revolver.
“I said I bet we could get a .50 caliber to fit in the Freedom Arms cylinder. We made dummy rounds and they would fit, but they sat in the bottom of my tool box for years. One day, I got a call from Kelly Blost with Laser Cast Bullets about that cartridge I designed. He wouldn’t tell me about it, but he sent me a package with some prototype .500 S&W rounds. I got a hold of Bobby Hayden at Starline. He was also monkeying around with a cup former that would form a .500 JRH. He sent me a lot of test brass about 2003 when we started this. In 2005, I actually took that cartridge (the .500 JRH) and some rounds to Safari Club, and showed it to Jim Tertin. When Freedom Arms came out with the .500 Wyoming, the .500 JRH went to Jim Tertin at Magnum Research. When the .500 S&W came along, I decided to build a gun, and that’s how it began.”
At the .500 JRH’s hottest loadings, it will surpass the energy of a 12 gauge slug with ease, and the weapon can ride on your hip.
Huntington told this writer about his success on truly big game animals with the .500 JRH. Starting with the ever-plentiful Texas feral hogs, he stepped it up and bagged tough-to-kill nilgai, too, with end-to-end penetration. “It also accounted for Bison and hogs elsewhere,” Huntington said. “The end-to-end penetration and locomotive effect a 440-grain .500 diameter long flat-nose design bullet at 950 feet per second is far beyond anything I would have guessed. The 435 grain at 1,350 feet per second is very impressive as you would expect. We’ve pushed 350 grain hollow points to 1,450 feet per second and 420-grain lead bullets at 1,414 feet per second.
SPECIFICATIONS
| Manufacturer | Magnum Research |
| Model | BFR “Hammer” |
| Caliber | .500 JRH |
| Bore Diameter | .501 |
| Twist Rate | 1:20 |
| Overall Length | 11 ¼ ins. |
| Weight | 3 lbs., 4 ozs. |
| Height | 6 ins. |
| Width | 1.75 ins. |
| Trigger Pull | 3 1/2 Lbs |
| Number of Shots | 5 |
| Sights | Factory Black Fixed Front/Rear Adjustable |
| Price | $1,050 |
“The ammo for the .500 JRH is available from Grizzly Ammo, in a mid-range 950 feet per second and high speed at 1,350-plus feet per second. Of course these revolvers with 5- to 7-inch barrels are actually hand guns that pack as easily as a .44 magnum, but hit second only to the Smith & Wesson hand carbine, the .500 S&W Magnum. On the debut shooting of the .500 JRH, we crushed two Bison with one shot each. The 440-grain LFN bullet launched at 1,350 feet per second found the onside shoulder blade, broke it and angled upward, shattered the spine and excited. This of course dropped the bison in its tracks.”
Curious about this hot, heavy-hitting handgun, I asked Jim Tertin about it while I was finishing another article on Magnum Research’s BFR in .45 Long Colt/.410. At the time, Magnum Research was building the .500 JRH in their custom shop on the same short-frame revolver upon which they were building their .454 Casull and .475 Linebaugh revolvers. Shortly thereafter, Magnum Research did a run of BFR revolvers that mirrored the short-barreled version shipped to me earlier.
Gun Details
One of the more traditional revolvers designs, Magnum Research’s Biggest Finest Revolver (BFR) is also known as “The Hammer.” The BRF follows the pattern of Samuel Colt’s Model 1873 Single-Action. It differs from the original design most obviously by its shear size, and it incorporates modern safety features found in other manufacturers’ revolvers. All of the “BFR” handguns are massively built marvels. Chambered in such heavy hitters as .45-70 in the longer-framed versions, the solid construction of the BFR tames the .500 JRH with ease. This .500 JRH revolver is brushed stainless steel construction. The barrel length is listed at 5 ½ inches on the stock model. The actual measurements on the gun tested show that it is 4 inches from the front of the frame, and 4 5/8 inches from the start of the forcing cone. The barrel is stress-relieved between the machining processes and the rifling is cut.
The BFR’s lock mechanism is very similar to a Ruger Blackhawk’s design. The BFR’s hammer spring is a coil type, instead of relying on flat or leaf springs found on the Colt Peacemaker. Early model Blackhawks still operated the same way as the Colt: the hammer was half-cocked to load and unload, and that the firearm was not safe to carry with all six chambers loaded due to the hammer resting upon the sixth chamber. In 1973, Ruger introduced the New Model Blackhawk, designed to eliminate accidents occurring from the hammer jarring against a cartridge loaded in the sixth chamber. The New Model Blackhawk did not require the hammer to be half-cocked for loading and unloading, and employed a transfer bar mechanism that prevented the cartridge under the hammer from being fired without the trigger being pulled. The Magnum Research BFR also incorporates the transfer bar safety mechanism. The BFR even incorporates a Ruger marked adjustable rear sight.
The overall length of this revolver is 11 ¼ inches, while its height is 6 inches. The total width is 1 ¾ inches to accommodate the cylinder to harness this powerful cartridge. The trigger pull on this handgun is excellent. It is smooth, crisp and breaks consistently at 3 ½ pounds. The total weight for this version of the BFR tipped the scales at 3 pounds, 4 ounces.
At Home on the Range
When it came to shooting the .500 JRH, it’s not exactly easy to pick up a box of ammo and head to the range. When I spoke to Jack Huntington about loading for this behemoth, he said that I would be quite safe using .475 L Linebaugh loading data for comparable bullet weights to start. I could have begun testing by purchasing 400-grain Grizzly Cartridge Company loads from Midway USA, but chose otherwise.
I like the challenge and process of loading for near-wildcats, so I collected a supply of .500 S&W Magnum brass from Starline and Hornady and began the process of trimming them down. I used a Hornady Lock-N-Load Case Prep Center to cut 200 cases to 1.395 inches and clean up the case mouths. These cases were primed with Federal 215 Large Pistol Magnum primers.
Selecting projectiles, I acquired a supply of Hornady .500 300-grain FTX polymer-point bullets, and the 350-grain XTP Mag hollow points. This revolver begs to be fed a diet of cast bullets, so Lee Precision’s 440-grain flat-nose got the nod. This bullet is sized to accept a gas check, but I decided to do my initial testing without it. The second cast bullet added to the test was Lyman’s 375-grain semi-wadcutter. The Lyman is a single-cavity mold, while the Lee is a double-cavity. I wanted a hard bullet for testing, so I made a lead alloy of 50 percent linotype and the rest clip-on wheel weights. This produced a bullet that filled the molds well and dropped with a hardness of approximately 13 Brinell hardness. The Lee 440-grain bullets got a coat of Lee Liquid Alox, and then sized through a Lee .501 push-through sizer die. After that, they got another coat of Alox. The 375-grain Lyman bullets were cast from linotype, and sized through a Lyman .501 die set in a RCBS LAM-II sizer. I used Carnuba Red bullet lube for the Lyman bullets. After cooling, the harder linotype bullets actually weighed 356 grains on average, and their measured size was .500.
To raise the accuracy during testing, I mounted the supplied Magnum Research Weaver-style scope base. The BRF is drilled and tapped to accept the base. A Bushnell Elite 2-6x long eye relief scope was mounted in Millet rings. Five shot groups were fired at 25 yards for accuracy, and velocity data gathered with an Oehler 35P chronograph set 15 feet from the muzzle.
Four powders; Trailboss, H110, Tightgroup and Lil’ Gun provided a broad spectrum for starting loads. The Hornady 300-grain FTX bullets were loaded with 8.0 grains of Trailboss, which produced an average velocity of 712 fps, and a standard deviation of 15 fps. The best 5-shot group measured 3.117. A much hotter load of 29.0 grains of H110 drove the same bullet at 1,387 fps. The best 5-shot group measured 1.511 inches.
Moving to the 350-grain Hornady, I chose to try a starting load of 32 grains of H110. This produced 1,328 fps on average, and a standard deviation of 14 fps. Accuracy was respectable, with a 1.786-inch group as the best.
I wanted a plinking load with the 440-grain Lee cast bullet, so I started with 6.0 grains of Trailboss. This produced an average of 598 fps and very little recoil. The best group with Trailboss measured 2.5 inches. Moving up to 8.0 grains of Tightgroup, the velocity rose to an average of 806 fps. The best group measured 2.988 inches. Upping the charge to 10.0 grains of Tightgroup edged the velocity up to 897 fps. The load produced an unstable load, with several bullets key holing.
Moving up in power, I wanted to start edging toward a load that could be considered bear medicine. Loading the Lyman 375-grain atop 29.0 grains of Lil’Gun, this produced an average of 1,312 fps, and a 17 fps standard deviation. This load’s best 5-shot group measured 2.110 inches. Elevating the power, I stoked cases with 34 grains of H110, which produced an average of 1,517 fps, and an 8 fps standard deviation. The best group measured 2.676 inches.
After this stage of the process, I will narrow my choice of loads for plinkers and hunting loads. I removed the scope and replaced the iron sights and spent some time learning where each load printed on paper in relation to the “zero” load. You might be surprised to learn that the low velocity loads printed higher than the high-velocity rounds.
A handgun isn’t complete without a rig to carry it. I chose a Bob Mernickle Field Carry holster in mahogany brown and a matching belt. I’m right handed and carry a rifle in the same hand, so a left-side cross draw makes perfect sense. The angle of the holster can be put in two positions, with the diagonal as the preferred. When riding mounted or sitting in a vehicle, the revolver rides in a position that is comfortable and easily accessible.
PERFORMANCE
| Bullet | Powder | Velocity | S.D. | Accuracy |
| Hornady 300-gr. FTX | 8.0 gr. Trailboss | 712 | 15 | 3.117 |
| Hornady 300-gr. FTX | 29.0 gr. H110 | 1,387 | 12 | 1.511 |
| Hornady 350-gr. XTP | 32.0 gr. H110 | 1,328 | 14 | 1.786 |
| Lee 440-gr. Cast | 8.0 gr. Titegroup | 806 | 6 | 2.988 |
| Lee 440-gr. Cast | 6.0 gr. Trailboss | 598 | 7 | 2.536 |
| Lee 440-gr. Cast | 10.0 gr. Titegroup | 897 | 2 | N/A “keyhole” |
| Lyman 375-gr. Cast | 29.0 gr. Lil’Gun | 1,312 | 17 | 2.110 |
| Lyman 375-gr. Cast | 34.0 gr. H110 | 1,517 | 8 | 2.676 |
If you are looking for a reasonably compact handgun that can easily terminate the biggest animals on the North American continent, or provide a reasonable close-range stopper on a close-range bruin, Magnum Research’s BFR in .500 JRH is a fantastic choice.
You Might Also Like:
10mm Auto in a Revolver? You Bet!
Smith & Wesson Model 648 22Mag Revolver Reintroduced
Ruger-5.7
Christensen Arms Ranger .22
More About Jay Langston
Subscribe to Jay’s Newsletter