sslater,
Curious that you mention the "double ignition" in the 500. I actually experienced the phenomenon with my Hunter. Although S&W customer service refused to acknowledge a global problem with the design, I was instructed to send my gun back for testing and possible "adjustment". In my case, it wasn't that the trigger was pulled twice -- the cylinder actually unlocked and rotated to the next live round during the recoil phase of the first shot. Something I would have said was impossible -- but it did happen to me on three occassions (with witnesses) before I sent the gun back for service.
After four weeks, it returned with a new hammer, hand, locking lug and lug spring. No other mention of a similar problem with other guns...or if they had been able to recreate the problem with my gun.
Unfortunately, I did suffer a cut above my eye prior to sending the gun back to the factory. I was shooting the gun from a rest -- with a scope attached. When it went "boom-boom" in short order, the scope contacted my sunglasses -- which contacted my eyebrow enough to cause a small cut.
Well, facial cuts bleed -- alot -- the poor girl at the range office thought I had been shot in the head when I went in to get some paper towels from the rest room...
After that session, it went in the box -- with the spent casings still in the cylinders so the smith could see exactly where the problem occurred. As I said, the gun came back "fixed" -- but without explanation if the double ignition had been recreated.
With that said, the repaired early production 500 has been flawless since. I took a large trophy hog in the Everglades with one shot this past spring -- he didn't even run, just dropped in his tracks. So, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up the 4" version as it was introduced after the bugs had been worked out of the early examples.
Cor-bon has now introduced a 500 "special" load with reduced ballistics.
