.510 Whisper

The .510 Whisper was developed by SSK Industries to shoot .510 (.50 BMG) bullets in a suppressed rifle. "Cartridges of the World" The case is based on the .338 Lapua cut down to 1.885 inches. Neck wall thickness is reduced to 0.013 inches and a small shoulder is cut into the body for head spacing. Over all length of the loaded round is about 3.34 inches when using surplus bullets.

Overview
Despite the large bullet, this round is very quiet, similar to the noise from a .22 Short. And with a very high ballistic coefficient, the round has only lost about 100 ft/sec out to over 500 yards. This gives it more downrange energy at that distance than traditional .30 caliber rounds such as the .308 Winchester and .300 Winchester Magnum. SAKO TRG-S test rifles have achieved MOA and better accuracy with this cartridge at 600 yards.

Powders such as H110, 4227 or surplus WC820 are well suited for subsonic loads and give a low standard deviation. Necessary components such as barrels, reloading dies, etc are available from SSK. Sako TRG-S actions are most often converted to this caliber. The Thompson Center Encore is also suitable, but is rather lightweight for shooting this heavy recoiling cartridge, especially when using 950 grain bullets.

Categories
Cartridge:rifles