The .500 S&W Special is a cartridge made by Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson is the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States. The corporate headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson's pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world...

 for use in handguns. It was designed by Cor-Bon

Cor-Bon

Cor-Bon is a brand of small arms ammunition produced by Dakota Ammo Incorporated. The company, based in Sturgis, South Dakota, was founded in 1982 by Peter Pi....

/Glaser

Glaser Safety Slug

Glaser Safety Slug is a frangible bullet made by Glaser Safety Slug, Inc., a small American ammunition company based in Sturgis, South Dakota . The company was founded in 1975 by Armin Glaser the same year as the Glaser Safety Slug was developed by Jack Canon.-History:The original round was a...

 (at Smith & Wesson’s request) in 2004. It is a shorter version of the .500 S&W Magnum

.500 S&W Magnum

The .500 S&W Magnum is a fifty-caliber semi-rimmed handgun cartridge developed by Cor-Bon in partnership with the Smith & Wesson "X-Gun" engineering team for use in the Smith & Wesson Model 500 X-frame revolver and introduced in February 2003 at the SHOT trade show...

 with a drastically reduced load, much as the .38 Special

.38 Special

The .38 Smith & Wesson Special is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & Wesson. It is most commonly used in revolvers, although some semi-automatic pistols and carbines also use this round...

 is to the .357 Magnum

.357 Magnum

The .357 S&W Magnum , or simply .357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, Colonel D. B. Wesson of firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson, and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wesson's earlier .38 Special cartridge. The .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in...

. However, unlike the .38 Special and .357 Magnum, the .500 Special came after the .500 Magnum.

The purpose of the .500 Special is to be able to shoot less punishing loads, with a muzzle energy closer to that of the .44 Magnum

.44 Magnum

The .44 Remington Magnum, or simply .44 Magnum, is a large-bore cartridge originally designed for revolvers. After introduction, it was quickly adopted for carbines and rifles...

 cartridge, in firearms chambered for the .500 S&W Magnum. It is possible that firearms chambered for the .500 S&W Special only will be developed.. Smith & Wesson has been urged by John Ross

John Ross (author)

John Franklin Ross is the author of the underground bestselling novel Unintended Consequences, author of a regular column on the Internet, and was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in 1998 in Missouri's 2nd congressional district...

 to produce their largest "X-Frame" in a shorter version to handle this cartridge. Ballistics are slightly superior to the .480 Ruger

.480 Ruger

The .480 Ruger is a revolver cartridge, introduced in 2003 by Sturm, Ruger and Hornady. This was the first new cartridge introduced by Ruger, and was at time of introduction the largest diameter production revolver cartridge, at .-Design:...

.