New upper in the house

[Billinthedesert]

I've never had an upper in .450 Bushmaster, but did have one in .450 SOCOM. That one came from a small outfit in Virginia and had serious feeding problems. Lost interest in it and found it a new home.
Now that I live in feral hog country here in west central Texas, a big-bore upper for my AR started to make a lot of sense again, so I thought I would try the Bushmaster.
I bought mine from Bear Creek Arsenal -- 18-inch, 1:24 twist -- fully knowing that they are not the most trouble-free brand in the business, but I wanted to try a right-side charger as well and they were almost giving them away.
I've got a Vortex Strike Eagle 1-6X mounted on it and hope to break it in this week if possible. Have it well-lubed with CLP and have both Hornady factory and some handloads to try. Will report.

[plant_one]

hope you have as much luck with them as we have. there are several bca 450's in the family/friends group that shoot fantastic.

[Billinthedesert]

Plant One, that's great to hear.

[Billinthedesert]

Whoops. That was supposed to be .458 SOCOM, of course ...

[Billinthedesert]

Well, it finally was range day for the new BCA upper, and it ran flawlessly for its initial 20 rounds. I shot five rounds of 41 grains of 296 under the Hornady 225-grain FTX at 50 yards to zero the Vortex Strike Eagle. Then I moved out to 100 yards and shot another five-round group with the 41-grain 296 load, making a scope adjustment. Then I fired a five-shot group of the same Hornady 225 over 42.0 grains of 296, and another of 43.0 grains. This hardly constitutes a ladder, which I will do next time, but the 42-grain load gave me a wonderful group of about 3/8 center to center, with a called pulled shot an inch to the left. Dang, if I had known this upper would be this accurate, I would have taken more time -- and will next range session. Pretty jazzed with this 18-inch upper, 1:24 twist, right-hand charger. Will also take the chronograph along. I had an Atheris upper in .458 SOCOM a couple of years ago that seemed to punch me significantly harder than the Bushmaster, but that was with the 300-grain Barnes TTSX SOCOM. With the lighter bullets, the .450 is a very pleasant round to shoot.

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Very nice. I was going to say, it seems every time we shoot these thumpers, we have one pulled to the left or to the right or up or down. It never fails. That’s a good group right there. I was about to ask what the FPS were and then I see you did not have a crony this time. we will be waiting for those numbers. It should be impressive at 41, 42, 43 grains of 296.