It is designed mainly for hunting and wilderness defense against medium to heavy North American game.
[2] Unique among handgun cartridges, it is a belted round, which allows for a heavy roll crimp to be employed without compromising headspace, as with the .50 AE.
Though not as powerful as the .500 S&W Magnum, the .500 Wyoming Express is available in more compact revolvers, and for those capable of mastering its heavy recoil, it is adequate for harvesting any North American game animal at short to moderate range.
It is ballistically comparable to the .500 Maximum, 50-70 Government, and .50 Beowulf cartridges, which are usually chambered in substantially larger firearms.
While .500 Wyoming Express brass was out of production for several years, it can be formed from .50 AE through a multi-step swaging process.