Off Duty, Technology - Navy Times

Emergency kit packs a .500 kick

When the folks at Smith & Wesson make an emergency survival kit, they don’t screw around. Fire-starter, saw, whistle, signal mirror, .500 Magnum pistol, compass, Mylar blankets, folding knife.

Yes, you read that right. A .500 Magnum pistol.

Other survival-kit manufacturers might be content to drop you in the middle of the woods with a compass, a knife, a boot lace and an MRE, but not Smith & Wesson. When it all goes to hell, it knows that sometimes, just sometimes, you need something a whole lot nastier than a pocket knife.

So its Emergency Survival Tool Kit introduced this summer comes with one of two revolver options. You can go for the big-daddy Model 500ES, chambered for the .500 S&W Magnum cartridge and outfitted with blaze-orange rubber grips. Or, if you want something smaller — relatively smaller, that is — you can opt for the Model 460ES, which features bright yellow grips and fires .460 S&W Magnum, .454 Casull or .45 Colt cartridges. Both hand cannons offer a five-round capacity cylinder and feature a short, 2¾-inch barrel. Unloaded, they weigh about 3.4 pounds.

The kit comes with a little inspirational reading, too — the book “Bear Attacks of the Century,” by Larry Mueller and Marguerite Reiss. When it was published last year, the book’s subtitle was “True Stories of Courage and Survival.” One such tale is that of Jim Marriott, who was attacked by a grizzly bear in the field. With just a blade at his side, he was badly mauled, and the bear walked away with the knife buried in its neck.

As it’s packaged with the survival kit, the book’s subtitle describes it as offering advice on “how to avoid them, what to do if you can’t.” But with a Smith & Wesson in your kit, the answer is obvious.

If a bear attacks and you can’t swing the long rifle around to get off a shot, that short-barrel pistol could come in mighty handy.

Think the .500 Magnum won’t do the job? Check this out: The Model 500 has been used to take down animals ranging from Nile crocodiles and hippos to water buffalo and bull elephants, according to a Smith & Wesson spokesman. (The gun maker stresses, though, that only an experienced shooter could use the snub-nose for that kind of game.)

Most hunters who carry the Model 500 in the U.S. use it as a backup weapon in bear country; one shooter logged a one-shot kill of an Alaskan black bear with the 500 in early September, the spokesman said.

“The Smith & Wesson Emergency Survival Tool Kits are the perfect choice for anyone who spends an extensive amount of time in the wilderness or for anyone requiring a defensive handgun for use in big game territory,” said Tom Taylor, vice president of marketing for S&W, in a press release announcing the kit’s debut.

“Not only does each revolver supply the power and accuracy to help defend against a possible animal attack, but each ES kit contains numerous other components that can be used in the backcountry, around the house or on a family camping trip,” he said.

The kit, housed in a waterproof case that matches the color of the pistol grips, carries a suggested retail price of $1,399 with either model of pistol, but you can probably find a better offer from a dealer. For more on the kit, check out www.smith-wesson.com on the Web, or call (800) 331-0852.