Stopping Power

A few weeks ago a friend and I went to a Shooting Range in a north eastern suburb of Columbus. He had just bought a new shotgun and I'm always up for perforating paper cutouts. We rented a few guns such as a 9mm Beretta Pistol and a 9mm Carbine rifle. We were having a great time shooting zombie cutouts and what not, and then my buddy decided he wanted something a little bigger. We went out and chatted with the staff for a while and then my buddy said "Let's try that one." I looked up and he was pointing at the largest handgun I had ever seen. Why was it the largest handgun I had ever seen? Because it's the largest handgun made.
It's a Smith and Wesson 500 and it's large enough to be a gag prop on a Quentin Tarantino movie.
The bullets for this thing are 5 dollars a pop and worth every penny.

For those of you familiar with firearms, here's a comparison of bullet size for some common calibers. The .500 is in the middle.



I was first to fire the thing:




Notice that I wasn't quite prepared for the kick. I was wearing earplugs under those earmuffs and the sound was still impressive. The concussion from the blast sent my heart bouncing off my ribcage.
Because of the shotguns and the rifle we were using, they put us on the rifle range, so the people around us were firing some pretty heavy rounds, but when this gun went off, everyone stopped shooting and looked over, asking "What is that??"
At point blank range, the muzzle flare alone could knock over a moose.

When my buddy shot after me, he had much better control. Now the perspective in these videos don't do the gun justice. The size of the thing was immense.




Some Pics:

All-Terrain Attack Transport

Behold the construction of the behemoth AT-AT.