I also have a .500 Merkel and find it shoots extremely well. I have only shot it off hand at 50 yrds and it cut a nice 2.5 inch group of both lefts and rights using superior ammo. It does kick a mite, but not bad. Seems like 570 gr woodleighs with 110grs of IMR4831 is a good load. I also just came accross a bullet mold from Buffalo Arms that throws a 600 gr, .512 bullet from pure linotype. I plan to work up a load with XMP5744 with it for those pesky baboons and plinking.-Rob