Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles I'll find out more about it.....

But I just put together another AR. I'm not really much into them, I had just one until I put this one together, and I'm really familiar with the M16. I just found myself enjoying things like the M1 Garand and Carbine more fun to play with.

I've put together bunches of them for friends.

But...This one is a .458 SOCOM, and I find the concept of a big-bore AR kinda intriguing.

I'll soon find out. Rifle just went together, I have both a .44 mag and .45-70, so all I need is cases and dies. They'll be here tomorrow.

Tromix mid-weight upper, Anderson lower with CMMG guts, and a Burris MTAC are some of the particulars, but we'll see how it evolves.

Very cool.

Now if someone just made the .458 SOCOM in a pistol so you could have a matching set.

The round doesn't extract well in a single shot, or any firearm that uses a similar extraction system. Rebated rim caused problems with that.

Some guys have done a bolt conversion, but I wanted an AR. I have a .45-70 lever, and the .458 will match lower-end loads.

I'm thinking one helluva pig gun. Or Bigfoot....

Anyway, I've got pounds of powder and hundreds of bullets, so when some cases get here, I'll see if it was an itch that really needed to be scratched.

Just finished beating it together. ARs kill me, you beat the damn things together with a hammer and they shoot so good...

It will work on pigs and deer well.

Although every pig I've shot with my 50 beowulf would have easily died with a 223 in them.

But the big ones are a bit of fun and a bit different.

The Beowulf was a consideration, as was the .450 Bushmaster, but I had everything with the exception of cases for the .458, so I went with that.

One thing for sure, 5.56 is cheaper to shoot, but this thing will get rid of all the 300 grain bullets I had for my .45-70 that it turned out that rifle didn't like as much as the Speer Unicor.

I want to try some 405 grain Speer FPs. Possibly some 405 grain Beartooths, also.

This thing ought to have pretty good penetration characteristics on larger game with a good LBT bullet.

Yeah, but if the hog's behind a block wall or car door, he's in for a surprise.

probably so, but every once in a while i run into a pig that makes me wonder

223, no problem. Maybe even quicker since I don't fight as much recoil.

223 to the noggin kills... very well...

Just so I understand, is that video with 223?

DJ doesn't own a 223 that I can recall.

And fwiw that pig isn't charging... lol

that's a 308, which is why i'm sorta confused. if a hog can take a shot to the head and another to the beak with a 168 grain payload, and still get up, why in the world would a 223 anchor him? and yea... the scope was on. granted i didn't earhole him like i thought, so there probably was some unexpected trajectory involved with the range. hard to tell how far they are at night, but i'm not sure anyone else would have made a better first shot.

AND... since i was the only one there, i get to call it the way i saw it, so... YES he was in full charge directly at me! if i had a 223 i wouldn't be writing this now. well on second thought, i am tough as nails, so i could have gone k-bar on him.

rio - this smiley is for you...

if you thought that was cool, watch this...

some of the bigger ones are just too dumb to know that they are dead.

They can be tenacious animals.

I fired my SOCOM over the weekend, no failures of any type and it seems like it wants to shoot fairly well. The OEM trigger is not the best for pure accuracy shooting, but I got in some good groups nonetheless. One thing about it, the big holes make the group look smaller...

The load I was firing is with a 300 grain bullet and H110. It seems that it wants to group, no nasty habits have surfaced. The 300 grain HPs feed out of a Pmag and I have tons of those, so that's nice to know.

I do have some GI mags to try the bigger bullets with, which I will eventually get around to, specifically 405 grain Jacketed and LBTs. I also have some Beartooth Piledrivers, but that may be too big, but it would satisfy some curiosity. I'm not wanting to go with a can, so sub-sonic is not an issue. I don't doubt that bullet at 1100 fps will still penetrate a bunch, though, but 1500 and some change is possible with the 405s, so....

I'll slug the barrel to figure out what size cast to use.

Just after putting it together, I had second thoughts about the collapsing stock, so it has an A2 stock on it now, waiting on an ACE skeleton. I thought I might also replace the Burris MTAC with a Leupold 1-4X20 VX-2, but the more I use the Burris, the more I like it.

All-in-all, the first outing with it was upbeat, I didn't come home having to figure a problem out and have a load that will work. I'll be changing things such as the handguards, possibly (probably) the trigger, and trying different bullets and powders. I have plenty for my .45-70 and the socom uses some of the faster powders such as 4198 for the heavies. H322 is probably too slow. I also have N110, 300MP, and Lil 'gun.

I'd think the 223 would anchor him because it would have hit the earhole..

Charging you. Yep. Thats funny. but it did kinda look that way. I've kicked a couple over the years coming my way after an arrow hit em. They damn sure where not charging. They were just going. But you are aware of that. Still looks good on film.

What shot finally killed him? Oh a shot in the brain pan did? Same result you'd have had with a 223.

By the way while we mess with each other, what bullet are you running? I don't recall ever seeing and I never asked. 168 smk? Or otherwise? When running the 308s I run 185 bergers, I really like how they work out.

you know you're killing me, right? not sure i ever hit his brain. i'm sorta squeamish and really didn't want to look at where the blood was coming from. but a 223 to the head of a hog like that would have blown up on the surface, just like they do when they hit the armor plate. ( ... still keeping it real for rio ).

i finally ran out of my remanufactured ammo and reloaded my own. been having jam problems so was using black hills 168gr match hp. yea, maybe not the best hunting bullet but i've put down enough hogs with it that i wasn't worried, plus it's all i had that was reliable. finally figured out my reloads were a bit warm. turned the gas block down and that seemed to work. i'll know for sure tonight.

fyi i do have some ar15s. i put the old night scope on one and used it when the thermal was getting a firmware upgrade. my feeling are a little hurt that you didn't remember the 223 kills i posted in the gen big game sect when rio tactfully kicked me off the forum. but no point bringing that up again... unless you just want to...

223 kill pics

ps - you may be the only person on the planet who can consistently hit a running hog at unknown speed, unknown distance, at night, on uneven ground, with 25 mph wind... in the ear. you're gonna have to come out here and show me how you do that! (bring snake boots)

DJones always good pig pics!! I guess I need to stop spending money on guns and save up for a thermal! What model do you have and I guess based on your results it "holds zero"!!! By the way which forum where you kicked off of and you have to tell me why they did not like someone with your most pleasant demeanor!!

i'm using the armasight zeus 640 3-24x, 75mm 30hz. they make a zeus pro line with more features you may want to look at. i'd also check out ir hunter line. it took me a while to give thermal a chance because i didn't think i was missing anything with nv in wide open territory. how little did i know. i see A LOT more hogs with the thermal, especially on dark nights.

i got banned from texas hunting forum years ago. i guess it built up from a few of us photoshopping each other in unflattering pics. bu mostly i feel it was ridiculous stuff. for example, a guy told me his kid asked him what i do with all the hogs. he told him i line them up and peel out on their heads. on my next pic i lined them up next to my back tire and dedicated the post to the guys kid but caught hell for it.

sometimes people ask me if i eat the hogs and i may have mentioned i piss on them so people don't give me a hard time for not eating them. believe it or not that one got me a lifetime ban. i had to crawl back apologizing to get my account turned back on.

then there's the 'you can't kill a hog with a 223' insult that drives people crazy. most folks knew i only teased the people i like. it wouldn't be fun otherwise.

then there was the time pigman posted something (if it really was pigman??) some folks said i was jealous of him. i responded that i admired anyone who could make a living killing pigs. then i photo shopped him wearing a 'djones' cap. the list goes on, but i'm in good standing there now, just don't post much anymore.

I don't need to hit running hogs. I hit them in the brain pan on the first shot. LOL

I did forget about the 223 kills! I run to fast, well you know what i mean.. I wished I could talk myself into making time to run again anyway.

Snake boots I got. Time... thats another thing

Local lady was laughing when I showed up to shoot her wild pigs with a 22... I think 8 or 9 later, and probalby half those, with a 22, she laughed no more. It was all I had the one night... worked fine, but I get close. Pigs don't bother me. I like being sneaky if possible.

No flies on the 168 smks in my books. Was just wondering. I've shot a lot of stuff with them.

I bet 185 bergers would work really well in the AR10s. But I'm partial to them from my bolt... and M1A days... though I"m trying to talk myself into 210s...
But wait... ain't I happy with a 22lr or 223. It never ends.

The best hog gun, is the one you have with you... well I'm still mad from a night shoot wiht my 590.... First round my thumb was not in the right place and the flashlight smashed it.....bastid still hurts and that was around thanksgiving.

If we had pigs here, thermal is hands down what I"d have.

A buddy bought a small FLIR, a bit smaller than the thermal imager we carry in the fire trucks. Its amazing what you miss withotu it

Even though he doens't have a thermal sight, the ability to SEE the hogs regardless lets you scoot on down and shoot em. Thermal scope would be way cool if I would spend the cash but have no need for it.

What I was amazed at though, trying to use it to find dead animals, the dang cactus at night holds SO much heat its almost a waste down where we shoot some pigs.

I almost bought a thermal ad on for my iphone to just help in looknig for wounded deer at night, but then a stray dog showed up in our life and its MUCH more fun working Tiger. Heck of a track record so far for being barely 2.

Now, I think with your piss poor luck wiht 308 you should think more along the lines of 338 barrel next or isn't there a 308 necked to even 375????

Glad you are here! Too much estrogen on many of the other knitting hunting forums.