Lumpy wrote:If you really want the biggest hand cannon out there, why not go for the S&W .500? But it seems to be relegated to the novelty gun niche, while people who are seriously into big bore revolvers like the .460. As far as I can tell the .460 has two things going for it: higher muzzle velocity and accepting a variety of rounds. Is that the big draw?
Just out of curiousity, do you have any sales figures to support that viewpoint?? The DE 50 has been around for nearly 30 years, and they just keep selling in 50AE year after year. It's pretty much the same for the 500 Smith, with I believe 4 or 5 barrel lengths to choose from.
As far as the 460, it is notable in that it is the fastest production round ever sold in a pistol, which is remarkable because it has to compete against the .221 Remington Fireball and the 256 Win mag in the Ruger Hawkeye. No small task for a big 45 caliber pistol. As far as being able to take game at 200 yards, the 460 has the edge over the 500 with scoped guns, but the 500 still has the knockdown and stopping power that people fishing and hunting in Alaska want.
As far as the old multiple caliber argument goes, I smell fish and today ain't Friday. Are you REALLY gonna shoot a 45 Long Colt in a 460?? What in God's name for, unless you want your friends to call you a pansy?? Slightly less pansyish with the 454 Casull, but again why do you want to?? Less power and worse trajectory with those short rounds in that humongous long cylinder, so you're giving away part of those two cartridge's performance just to shoot them in the 460. And let's not trot out the old "save money" red herring, because you wouldn't buy a 460 to begin with unless you wanted the incredible performance that went with it, so if you really wanted to save money you would have just stuck with your 45LC or 454 to begin with.
As far as I'm concerned, they both have their niche, the niches are somewhat different, and you can pick whichever one you want. As far as popularity, I don't know which one is leading right now, and unless I see some hard sales figures from S&W I'm not going to believe that either has a large edge over the other.