Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 450 Bushmaster VS 45-70

With the increasingly popularity of the 450 Bushmaster, would you go with the 450 Bushmaster or the 45-70?

The Ruger 450 rifle is much lighter vs the 45-70 lever rifle. Another plus is the 45-70 holds a few more rounds. I know the 45-70 can get into the 720gr range as far as bullets if you need them. The 450 Bushmaster is a pretty good shooter out to 300 yards and hit a paper plate.


PS: Anybody reload for the 450 Bushmaster, other than the FTX bullets, like cast or XTP bulllets?

I would take a 45-70 or a 458 SOCOM before the 450 Bushmaster because the first 2 use the "rifle size bullet" and the Bushmaster uses "pistol size bullets"
There are some good .451" and .452" diameter bullets that work well on game, but all of the .458" diameter bullet were made for larger game. If you want rapid expansion with less penetration in the .458" size you have the 300 grain HPs by Remington and Sierra as well as Nosler so the SOCOM and the 45-70 can do all the Bushmadter can, but the Bushmaster can't do things with 350-600 grain bullets for reasons of the throat lengths, the rifling twist and the magazine length.

So there are more eggs in the basket of the 45-70 and the 458 SOCOM then there are int eh basket of the Bushmaster.

Not that there is anything wrong with the Bushmaster, but there is more right with the 45-70 and the SOCOM.

I have a .458 SOCOM and a .45-70.

The .45-70 is just starting to get rolling good at .458 SOCOM ballistics, meaning that there is a lot more potential performance with the .45-70. It would be a likewise comparison with the BM round and .45-70.

If I could have only one, it would be the .45-70 simply because of the versatility, though the .450 would probably be better as a pig rifle, if in the AR platform. Picking the right bullet would be very important, there is a lot of pistol bullets that would not perform optimally at .450 speeds.