Originally posted by Shuffler
Seen that vid many times before.... but it said on the others that it was a S&W 500.
While the video is pretty blurry, closely looking reveals that it was clearly a major caliber double barrel action rifle, probably chambered in the .600 Nitro Express Elephant hunting round, and has had the barrel sawed off and been converted into being a pistol.
This has got to be the most stupid and useless handgun ever created in history. Party because the handgun is so much lighter than a normal elephant rifle, I estimate that the free recoil energy of the gun must be somewhere around 300 ft lbs of recoil energy. The gun would be moving back at a velocity of about 60 feet per second, which is why you saw it flying out of the man's hands.
In comparison, a typical .30-06 hunting load produces about 14 ft lbs of recoil energy when shot from a rifle, and a max load on a .375 H&H Magnum ( popular for hunting big game in Africa ), is about 39 ft lbs of recoil energy when shot from a rifle. Note the .30-06 shoots a 150 grain bullet, the .375 H&H shoots one twice that heavy at 300 grains in weight, and the .600 Nitro Express shoots a 900 grain bullet, which is 6 times heavier.
Here is some background info on the .600 Nitro Express cartridge and rifles made for it:
http://www.african-hunter.com/HatariTimes/the_mighty__600_nitro_express.htmSIG 220
