Spectre, armor clad,
Intercede my far-off foe:
Beware the PHANTOM.


500 PHANTOM
The Ghost from the Machine....

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This is a story of hope, tragedy and devotion, a story about faith and desire… OKAY, I can’t keep this up any longer... the real truth IS that this is a story of greed, power and the quest for the biggest damn bang I could cause... this is the story of the 500 PHANTOM.

Born the son of a poor sharecropper, I was hanging out at my local gun shop one March afternoon and across the room I spy a used AR-10 sitting in the rack. I have a few AR-15’s in the safe at home and I’d always thought about making the move to the full-size Stoner creation. So, I approached the counter with a look of disinterest on my face (never let the gun salesman know you’re interested, once they smell blood, they are relentless) and asked, “Hey, is that an AR-10?” To dispense with any additional drama, I bought the AR-10 and instantly thought about what I can do to increase the cool factor of my new “big-boy” version of the AR-15.

Armalite AR-10A4

Let me back up for a minute. I have an affinity for non-.223 uses of the AR-15 platform. I have an upper receiver in 300 FireBall, 7.62x39 and 475 TREMOR, all bores larger than the .223. So, the logical twisted conclusion is to seek something for the AR-10 that’s bigger, louder and more powerful than the .308 Winchester.

HAVE I LOST MY MIND???

My choices were pretty good… all the .308 based rounds (223 Middlestead, 25 Souper, 260 Remington, 7mm-08, 338-08, 358 Winchester) and all the other cartridges with the same rim size. Some people were starting to chamber the Winchester Short Magnums in the AR-10, simply machine the bolt to .555" and you’re off to the races. After some research I found people were having trouble feeding cases with mags loading with more than 5 rounds of WSM. That was unsatisfactory!! The AR-10 is a semiautomatic firearm with 20 rd magazines available and it would be sacrilegious to not use the entire capacity.

My final thoughts revolved around the fact that none of the above choices were BIG enough!! The only way I could make this a worthwhile quest was to go all the way to 50 caliber. Therefore, I sought the guidance of the King of The Big Bang, Marty ter Weeme of Teppo Jutsu. Marty is the evil genius behind the 458 SOCOM and was the obvious choice to help me with my project. With my initial contact, I actually expected Marty to have a ready-made solution for my questions, but I got lucky and he didn’t... Lucky you ask?? Right, that meant I had the chance to witness and participate in the process of designing the proper way to make an AR-10 rumble.

Actually, to say Marty had no initial answers was a lie, he had been working on a 50 caliber cartridge called the 510 PHALANX, a Teppo Jutsu product based on the 585 Nyati case (which, for those interested in the history of cartridges, is based on the 577 NE). But the problem was that no suitable, high quality brass was available. So, it was back to the drawing board to find a case that will properly single stack in the mag – the reason the WSM’s were limited to 5 rounds was they are slightly too narrow and are caught between a proper double stack and a true single stack.

[PAUSE IN THE STORY] - It's starting to sound stupid always saying "Marty this" and "Marty that", so from this point on to make the story flow more smoothly, I'm going to make it sound like I was actually involved in the design process - just be aware, when I say "we" or "us", it really means 95% Marty, 5% Joe - [/RESUME STORY]

While we knew the case that best fit the AR-10 mag was the 585 Nyati, we examined the other large capacity cases used for big game hunting in Africa. After this fresh look at all the choices, Marty pointed out that 500 Jeffery might be the case that gives us the right dimensions.

The 500 Jeffery was a proprietary cartridge developed by Schuler in Germany for bolt-action rifles. It was adopted by Jeffery for his bolt-action magazine rifles based on the Mauser action. It has a rebated, or undercut, rim of smaller diameter (.583) than the base (.619) to fit the standard-diameter Mauser bolt face. The water capacity of the case is approximately 160 grains. In Germany, the same cartridge was loaded as the 12.5x70mm Schuler and also chambered in Mauser-type rifles. Until the introduction of the 460 Wby, this was the most powerful magazine-rifle cartridge in existence, bullet diameter is .510". Capable of pushing a 535gr bullet at 2600fps, it is bigger by 0.1" at the base than the 404 Jeffery (or the UltraMag).

This regal history and the fact that the rim was already partially rebated made it the obvious choice to be the foundation for a our new 50 caliber cartidge. Marty cranked out a blueprint for the case and we went forward with making this beast a reality.

First things first, we needed to get some custom dies in the works. Dave Davison at CH Tool and Die/4D Custom Dies was sent the drawings and a die set, including a trim die, were ordered. Anyone that's ever ordered custom dies knows they take forever to be delivered, so we had to get the order in as soon as possible.

Then we needed a high quality source of 500 Jeffery brass. Have you ever looked at the price for 500 Jeffery brass?? $83.00 for 20 at one place, $79.00 from another vendor... can you do the math? $3.95 per case and they still require being trimmed to 1.535" and have the rim rebated to .532". While this didn't deter us, it was going to be a lot of work and $$$ to feed this new gun. To further complicate the issue, Marty had some concerns about the quality of brass being produced by a few of the suppliers. This is going to be a high pressure round and sufficient web thickness was imperative.

After discussion, Horneber brass was the choice. Marty knew Dieter Horneber and approached him to investigate a bulk discount... But, we hit the jackpot and Mr Horneber suggested actually making the tooling to produce the correctly sized brass with the 500 PHANTOM headstamp... let me say that one more time, "with the 500 PHANTOM headstamp"!! How cool is that?? Immediately we jumped on the idea and asked Mr Horneber to give us a quote.

[PAUSE IN THE STORY] - I'll spare you the entire twelve pages of details, emails, receipts and records, but the entire process of wiring Euros to a German bank account was a major learning experience. Banks want to charge $50.00 per transaction to do international transfers and most of the folks in the local branches have no experience in such transactions. So, I signed up for an account with an on-line international currency exchange service and spent two days faxing signiture confirmations and answering emails with all types of questions. (XE.com) I didn't think my AR-10 was going to lead to a lesson on international currency exchange and banking requirements. But hey, I'm always willing to learn something new!!! - [/RESUME STORY]

Let's review the check list: catridge drawing, reloading dies, brass... We need a formed piece of brass to work on the reamer, so that has to wait. Let's work on gun parts!! We're gonna need an upper receiver, charging handle, bolt and carrier, barrel extension, gas tube, gas block, hand guard... and maybe a few other parts. Let the shopping begin!!

[CLICK FOR ADDITIONAL PHOTOS/INFORMATION]
[Many of the pics have comparisons of AR-10 to AR-15 parts]

From Armalite:

J.P. Enterprises:

From Brownells:

Before I shiped all the parts to Teppo Jutsu, I opened the J.P. Enterprises Recoil Elimanator to accept the .510 bullet.

J.P. Enterprises Recoil Elimanator being opened
up from .280" to .562" - yes, I know they don't
recommend it... but, it's looks awesome!!!

Ok, the parts have been received and, in addition, the barrel from PACNOR is at Marty's shop waiting for a reamer. We selected a .510 bore, 8 groove, 1x9 twist barrel to from PACNOR; the barrel will be left at 24" to optimize the velocity potential of this virgin chambering. All we need are some formed cases to have the reamer cut by Dave Manson of Manson Reamers. So... we wait...

TIME PASSES.... (about two weeks)

It's the first week of July and some good news. CH4D shipped a set of test dies to Marty. These inital dies in 7/8"x14 stock were cut for Marty to proof the demensions. The final dies will be machined into 1.0"x14 blanks due to the size of the case. The base dimension is almost 5/8" and CH4D wants to use stock large enough to accomidate this monster. A few pieces of 500 Jeffery brass were shortened, formed and trimmed to create the first two living, breathing 500 PHANTOM cartridges.

[CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE]

(L to R) 500 Jeffery, Shortened, Formed, Trimmed,
Seated 700g Hawk Spz, 308 Winchester

(L to R) .308 168 gr in sabot, 500 gr. Hawk, 570 gr. Barnes XLC,
700 gr Hawk, 650 gr. GI M2 Ball, seated, 308 Winchester

Top, DPMS LR-300 mag with 700 gr. Hawk.
Bottom, AR-10 mag with 168gr. .308 in sabot....

My first thoughts when I saw the photos: "HOLY SH*T!!!"

With formed cases in hand, we contacted Dave Manson to talk about a reamer and headspace guages. Dave suggested holding off the reamer until we get some brass from Horneber to make sure the reamer dimensions exactly match the cases; wise man say, "Measure twice, cut once." While that sounds like the intelligent, adult thing to do, it really stinks to have to wait even longer to get this thing going... for crying out loud, I have the patience of an eight year-old and I want my new toy, NOW!!! But, we know that this is the right thing to do, so we'll calmly sit upon our hands and wait for our vendors to supply the missing pieces.

AND AGAIN, I REPEAT - TIME PASSES.... (about 1 week)

Well, it's only been a week and I've had a slice of good news. My order from Hawk Bullets has been shipped and it includes some of the 500g Spz as shown in Marty's photos. I will have some bullets to play with... mmmmm... precious bullets...

Back into "waiting mode"...

MORE OF THE SAME - TIME PASSES.... (about 5 weeks)

YEAH!!! A little brown envelope arrived today in the mail - return address: CH TOOL & DIE CO.... The dies are here, the dies are here, the dies are here... It's the third week in August and we have everything except the brass!!! And, you already know this, but we need the brass to cut the reamer and we need the reamer to cut the chamber...

[Head back, screaming into the air] Where are you brass????

THE STARTS AGAIN - MORE WAITING.... (about 7 weeks)

WE'VE HAD A BREAK THROUGH... received word that the brass is in the production schedule and should be here any day now. To celebrate the impending arrival, Marty "dry-fit" some of the parts and put them on my AR-10 lower to see how things look...

2 WEEKS LATER....

TA-FREEKING-DA.... it's 10:00 at night, the second week of November - e-mail from Marty, "BTW, I got a call that a UPS package was dropped off for me, they neglected to tell me it was from GERMANY!!... they are sweet..."

Finally, the brass has arrived and we can once again initiate forward progress. Need a reamer, a scope, a bipod... anything else?


Pics of the brass and some loaded ammo.... this is the first look at the "real deal".

Loaded rounds with box o'brass... anyone brave enough
to guess what the first 100 pieces of brass cost??


(L)168g HPBT Sabot, 48.6g A2400 (YIKES!!)
(R)750g Hornady A-MAX, 26.0g Re-7, seated to 3.34"


More Loaded Rounds



Strap on your seatbelts folks, because the reamer arrived and the barrel has been chambered. The reamer (w/ head space guages) showed up right before Christmas and Marty has been busy putting things together.

[CLICK FOR ENLARGED/ADDITIONAL PHOTOS]

Reamer from Dave Manson (with headspace guages)
and sample round with Barnes 575g X bullet.



View from the barrel extension of
the chamber with a round inserted.



Bolt face after maching work to open
up from .473 to .555 (WSM bolt face).



Enlarged ejection port.



All the pieces ready to be assembled and test fired.


Adjustable gas block accessable through handguard.


My new baby....


I'm such a proud papa....


I can see you.....



It's alive and breathing... here is some load data - updated everytime I get to the range.
Some loaded rounds ready for the range....