Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger .450 Bushmaster Bolt Gun

You have not read Ohio Regs. The state in their "wisdom" listed acceptable cartridges and the 450bm is not on the list. If it was I would have a Savage bolt rifle built accordingly.

Heck, Ohio is easy. 444 or 45-70 are a hell of a lot better than the Michigan legal BS like 44 and 45 Colt.

Sorry I thought all straight cartridges were ok.

I would think any of the Swift A-Frame bullets in .452 would work great

The Barnes copper bullets from 160 to 275 grains do very well in the 450Bushmaster bolt guns. (The Barnes Buster 325-gr .451 lead-core bullet was developed specifically for the 450 Bushmaster.)

With my Springfield M1903 in 450B, I used a Barnes 200-grain pointed XPB at about 2800 fps to take a piggy on the 2014 Campfire Hog Hunt in TN. (Pic's been posted previously.)
.

.
Lead bullets don't do well in AR-type rifles chambered in 450B. Apparently the gas port in the barrel takes a divot out of gas checks as they go past, which wrecks accuracy.

However, lead bullets in 450B bolt guns should do fine. Just for fun in July I tried some lead bullets with black powder in my 450B bench gun built on a 1972 Model 70 action.

Components for the BP session:
.

.
Firing the shots:
.

.
Target from 25 yards:
.

.
The results were sufficiently encouraging at very short range for me to plan some trials with smokeless next summer after the U.P. winter goes away.

(More details on the BP shots are in a thread on the 450 Bushmaster forum: [b][color:#0000FF]Black powder and cast bullets in the 450 Bushmaster[/color][/b].)

--Bob

The gun is now in the Ruger site. Badass looking brake. Probably an ear buster

A lefty RA .450?? Oh great, I just got done building a .450BM AR!

Easy on "those goofy yankees".

This goofy Yankee is currently building in AR15 in 450 Bushmaster.

I haven't sighted it in yet but I did test fire 5 rounds for function. Awesome is one word that describes that caliber.

Dan

TTT - I want one of these , anybody else bought one ? , how do you like it ?

Well, I got one the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I wasn't even looking for one at the time! My best friend called me a few weeks earlier and wanted to know if he could go deer hunting with me. Of course he could, but he'd never been hunting before, and had no deer gun. We both live in Ohio, so not just any gun is legal. I still had my 12 gauge 870, a CVA muzzle loader, and a Marlin 1894 SS .44 mag that I'd been using these last several years since it became legal.

Unfortunately, the Marlin seemed to throw fliers a lot, despite trying 6 different bullets and several different powders, so I decided to sell it and get something else. After some research I'd decided to go with a stainless CVA Scout in .44 mag, since I've got almost 1000 cases and a ton of bullets for the .44 magnum. Went to a local gun shop, and after handling the CVA, the owner handed me a Ruger American in .450 Bushmaster. Deep down inside, I immediately knew I was going to have to own one. I tried talking myself out of it, after all, I couldn't let all those .44 mag components go to waste, the only other .44 I had was a 4" 629.

I didn't want to saddle my buddy with a muzzle loader, or a hard kicking slug gun for his first hunt, but man, that Ruger felt so good! After thinking about it for a few days, I sold the Marlin, and bought both the CVA and a Ruger ($330 & $440 and I already had scopes for them). The Ruger American only weighs 5 1/2 lbs, handles like a dream, and just plain feels great! The CVA, claims a weight of 5.8 lbs, and handles really good, but when I put it on my postal scale, I was shocked to see it actually weighs 7 1/2 lbs.. unscoped! Anyway, you asked about the Ruger, not the CVA, so I'll throw out some random things I've learned.

In the few days between buying the Ruger and leaving for my annual southern Ohio pilgrimage to deer hunt, I did some tweaking on it. First I measured the trigger pull out of the box. It was 4 1/4 lbs, and backing the adjustment screw off all the way only brought it down to 3 3/4 lbs. After some buffing of parts did nothing more either, I did some internet research. Then I cut a coil. It did nothing. Then I cut another, either 3/4 or 1 more (can't remember which) and it came down to 2 1/2 lbs, with the screw backed off. Close enough.

I didn't care for the sound the bolt made when working it, so I after some research, I worked the bolt somewhere around 1500 times. It didn't do much, it maybe was a little slicker, but still made the annoying sound; so I did some polishing with some fine grit sandpaper and buffing compound. I like it much better now.

I didn't have time to develop loads for both guns, so I bought a couple boxes of factory loads, go it on paper, shot a decent group, and worked on the CVA and .44 loads. I was in a rush with working up a load, setting up two stands, and celebrating Thanksgiving with my sister paying a surprise visit, so I didn't put the calipers to it, but it was pretty decent.

Also, the recoil was more than I expected. Not brutal, by any means, just really snappy. I also found it very easy to sweep my off hand as I fought for balance on southern Ohio sidehills while deer hunting with that short barrel. It did fit inside my blind really well, but it also rang my ears a bit with the brake, which I should have removed when actually hunting. I noticed the blast kind of knocked off some black specks on the inside of my blind after the shot. I was successful, nothing noteworthy on effectiveness, but it is a really cool rifle, and I love being able to use a bolt action in Ohio.

I found that I needed a lot of cheek riser to line up with the scope, so I bought a soft black drawer liner from Walmart, and folded it up until I got the right height- it took about 5/8's" to do it- and black electric-taped it to the stock for the hunt. I've been researching what I'm going to do on a more permanent basis, and am thinking I'm going to attempt to build something up on the stock and paint it myself- which will be a first for me.

I also think the 13 3/4" length of pull is too long for me to work the bolt right, and the bolt takes a pretty fair amount of force to operate, I guess because of the 70 degree lift. So, I just installed a 1.75" bolt handle from Glades Armory yesterday, and I like it much better. I've never been a fan of those big ugly shifter knob things, but this one isn't too bad. While I'm working on the stock, I'm going to attempt to shorten the length of pull by about 1/2" too.

One of the things I've done in the last 10 or 15 years, is move to all stainless guns whenever possible. This one wasn't available that way, so I'm going to ship the barreled action off to Mahovsky's Metalife next. While watching a video on here the other day, I saw a table full of guns in .450 Bushmaster with Randy Brown, the guy who got the ball rolling with Ruger. Start at about 16:40 here.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ThHiZ5PxI&feature=youtu.be. At any rate, I learned that there are special versions available from him. Had I known that, I'd have gotten it in stainless with a slightly longer barrel to start with.

Good info.bhemry , who'da thought a break would be more quiet than a regular barrel .
The stainless would be my choice in the 16'' , they should have went with 20'' instead of 22'' -IMO .

I use pipe insulation to get my cheek weld the way I want it - lowes depot has it cheap .

Thanks for the info. -hope you and you best bud have a good hunt .
I'm from sw ohio warren county , planned on a big bow hunt camp out with brother and friends but took a fall at work back in june - broke right arm in five places , ribs , collerbone ++ next year I hope .

If you liked the CVA Scout in 44, they also make it in 450 Bushmaster. 25" barrel with removable KDF brake. That's about the best option in stainless 450, other than the exclusive one at the Michigan dealer, but the price on those jumps up quite a bit. I am a lefty and wanted stainless, so that was the only option. Randy told me Ruger would never make a stainless lefty 450 (only because he never asked them to)

The trigger out of the box is better than the Ruger after an hour of trigger work.


I'm shooting 200 grain Barnes XPB bullets at 2900 FPS out of mine. 2 deer didn't like it at all this year.

Ken ,

I have a 444marlin H&R - has about a 12lb. trigger - going to remedy that when my arm/hand gets better . I like the cva's but i've got one similar .

With all the 44mag shooters in the world I bet ruger could sell a tractor trailer load of the the little carbines chambered in 44mag .. Just saying .

It's all this guys fault , our own North 61 and sonny his sonny .

I'm subscribed to North61's channel and his boy put that 450 Bushmaster to work on a big bull moose.

Subscribed myself and yes the son unit filled the freezer with the little ruger .

I really like Greg's singing - he'll just bust out an old mountain man song while running a boat up the river - hiking a trail or driving the family around in the wilderness .

Incorrect as of this year:
" All straight-walled cartridge calibers from a minimum of .357 to a maximum of .50. Shotguns and straight-walled cartridge rifles can be loaded with no more than three shells in the chamber and magazine combined."

George

If I was in Ohio the 450 would not be in the top 3 of picks for legal cartridges

Ol Mike, you must have pretty good endurance if you made it past the singing! Thanks for the sub, and Gerry too!

I would mind haveing one of the RUGER Gunsite Scout in 450 Bushmaster. LGS has one and its a handy little rig. Would make a great brush gun for big hogs, IMO. Since I've already bought three new rifles in the last 6 months, I'm trying to resist

You're welcome ...


chlinstructor ,

Get another rifle -it's good for the economy ..