General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: With the destructive power of guns increasing year over year something HAS to be done [View all]samsingh
(18,416 posts)the .44 Magnum cartridge was designed in the 1950s and produced since the late 1950s. It improvement was to load to higher pressures for greater velocity (and thus, energy).
From Wikeapedia: The .500 S&W Magnum is a fifty-caliber (12.7 mm) 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 show.[6] Its primary design purpose was as a hunting handgun cartridge capable of taking all North American game species. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.500_S%26W_Magnum
see the Evolution of the Handgun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.500_S%26W_Magnum
Looking through this information, we can see various design changes that provide additional functionality, features and capability.