Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles any 450 bushmaster shooters on here ?

I am thinking of buying a 450 bushmaster .Is hornady the only ammo being made now ? I think the caliber is awesome just don't want to buy something I can't get ammo or brass for .I am not a big fan of hornady brass and i think Remington quit making ammo for it .I think you can make it from 284 brass also .The bullets are not a problem I think .I heard it's a good hunting round .

I just built a 450 this past winter. Hornady is the only game in town right now for ammo and brass. Remington released some ammo but there were accuracy problems so the discontinued it.

I haven't hunted with mine yet but it's sure fun to shoot.

There is a forum you should join 450Bushmaster.net

There's a great bunch of guys there that have done all kinds of mods and customizations and have that round and rifle down to a science. I learned a great deal there.

There is literally volumes of detailed information to read.

Dan

http://450bushmaster.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15258

It is claimed there, that Ohio has now ALLOWED. 450Bushmaster!! (All straight walls between .350 and .50) If so that is great! There is nothing on the website i can find for ODNR, but the statement says it happened a few days ago. I will contact ODNR myself to verify this.

I bought a BM upper last year and built up an Anderson lower for it. Fun rifle to shoot and accurate with the Hornady loads. Remington listed an AccuTip load and a Barnes bulleted "Hog Hammer" load, but I've never found any for sale. Xcaliber ammo sells a loading with a 240 grain XTP. I haven't gotten around to loading for it but I've got a quantity of 250 grain Barnes tipped .452" muzzleloading bullets that I think would work great in it.

I do not reload, but am hoping to find someone local who does, and would be willing to reload for me.

1. Factory ammo is very accurate. Cloverleaf 3 @100.
2. Easy to reload with Hornady 4 die set.
3. Pay attention to taper crimp dimension.
4. Barnes bullet work well for reloading.
5. Cast bullets are very difficult to get to shoot well.
6. Easy to duplicate 45-70 300 gr BP express loads.
7. Zero problems with Hornady brass after 5 reloads.

Enjoy !

Confirmation. Ohio HAS changed the regs!
Now allows ALL straight wall cartridges from .350-.50 ( heard it from the horse's mouth)

This is right on the money! The 250 FTX factory stuff is superbly accurate. My first reloads, 34 gr. of H110 and a 300 gr. XTP, dropped into a 1.25" group at 100 yards. I can only guess, 1900 fps. They felt great and absolutely smacked the steel at 200 yards like a hammer.

One of my favorites in the AR platform.

Best bullet for whitetails is Cutting Edge bullets 160 gr. Flat Base Raptor....bullet was originally designed as a muzzleloader bullet with a sabot...I contacted Dan if he would sell some without sabots now they are a separate catalog item....

https://cuttingedgebullets.com/452-160gr-flat-base-raptor ......several times a year they have a sale up to 30 % off.....all April was 20% off...

Lil'Gun 40.5 gr. Hornady case Remington 7 1/2 primer CEB 160 gr. 2617 fps 34000 psi .....I have shot in a Bushmaster 20" with 1-24" twist 1 1/4" 3 shots at 200 yards....

Recoil is reduced over using 250 gr. Hornady ammo....

Lil'Gun is the best powder in 450 BM....Remington 7 1/2 primers are the best to spark a full case giving smallest extreme velocity spreads....

With the above load 5 bucks 155-225 lbs dressed shot from 80-185 yards.....DRT....

Keep a eye on case length...it strange but cases tend to get shorter with firing....low pressure loads shorten case length faster than a high pressure load and shorted case life....remember the case head spaces on the mouth watch your case length use only a taper crimp...

tag

How's the recoil on these? (I've become recoil sensitive due to some med issues.)

To me, using a 20" Bushmaster upper, it's comfortable to shoot. No worse than a .30-30 carbine. Hard to compare with a "traditional" rifle because the AR platforms lower bore axis bring recoil straight back with little muzzle flip.

Thanks.

I have yet to see a 450 Bushmaster sell here in Wyoming.
458 SOCOMs and a few 50 Beowulfs are here and there, but the 450 seems to have no favor.
I expect it's because of the fact it is a pistol bore size instead of the rifle bore size, so most folks are more interested in the bullet range from 300 to 500. (even 600 if you can get them)
Having killed a pretty fair amount of large animals with a 454 Casull, I have to believe the 450 BM would be fine especially if they have tightened up the twist some. Using a tough 300 grain bullet, I am sure it would be fine for elk sized game. From the info I have, the original twist was very slow which made the use of bullets of light weight "a given" but I am now told that has changed.

Can any 450 shooters confirm this?

The 458 SOCOM has the standard "rifle twists" and shoots any bullet from 300 to 600, so that seems to be the major selling point.

Recoil is supposed to be about the same as a 20ga. Shotgun, according to all the reading I did before building the AR-15, .450bushmaster.
I do not have a 20ga. To compare it to.

I think the main reason for the popularity of the Bushmaster round is that its case fits the requirements of certain states and areas that allow only straight walled case cartridges for deer hunting, i. e. Indiana, Southern Michigan, Ohio. The .458 SOCOM is probably a better and more versatile round, but being a bottleneck cartridge, it's not legal for deer hunting in "limited rifle" areas.
Don't know what earlier twist rates were, but my Bushmaster barrel is marked 1-24". I would think that would do for 300 grainers, but for my purposes (deer <200yds) the 250s will be enough.