450 Bushmaster Bolt from Savage Hog Hunter

I know of one so far, let's see if more show up.

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450 Bushmaster Bolt from Savage Hog Hunter

Postby Firefighter » Sun Jun 14, 2015 1:49 pm

Long time lurker, 1st time poster!

Bring from SE MI, I was ecstatic when they changed the law to allow straight-walled cartridges last year for deer. The 450 Bushmaster sounded too good to be true so I went ahead and bought a 20" upper for my AR. Well, the round was not only pleasant to shoot, but exceeded my expectations for accuracy. I soon realized though, that hunting with an AR was not my game. I am a bolt guy through and through. I began researching bolts and found nearly all of my information on here. I talked with several builders and decided to go the economical route with a Savage Hog Hunter with an Accutrigger as a donor. Savages are not the prettiest machines, but they are more than suitable workhorses for the relatively short ranges the 450 BM is capable of.

A friend of mine did the grunt work installing the heavy recoil lug and barrel on the action. He also modified the magazine to flawlessly feed the 450 rounds, making the gun a 3+1. The 20" heavy varmint barrel was made by Apache Gunworks in a 1/16" twist, which my friend media-blasted and finished in a matte gun coating. Atop the action is a DNZ one piece Game Reaper scope mount (those things are AWESOME) and a simple Nikon Prostaff 3x9. I free floated the barrel and glass bedded the action into a Boyds Thumbhole stock with a Limbsaver recoil pad and finished it with a sling:

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Was able to get out and shoot for the first time a few weeks ago and after 6 shots to get zeroed in, I settled down and shot this sub MOA 3 shot group @ 100 yards:

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Needless to say I was very pleased! Recoil in the bolt actually felt less than that of the AR.

Total investment into the build, including all accessories was under 950.00

I'm hooked and am already thinking about version 2.0! :D
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Re: 450 Bushmaster Bolt from Savage Hog Hunter

Postby pitted bore » Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:03 pm

Firefighter-
Welcome to the 450B forum! You have built a very attractive rifle that apparently shoots even better than it looks.

The detail you provided about the construction of the rifle is appreciated by those of us with bolt rifles so we can compare your efforts with our own and make notes for our future projects. Persons planning their first bolt 450Bs also benefit. Apache Gun Works gets their barrel blanks from X-Caliber, right? X-caliber is just across town from McGowen, which has made the barrels for several bolt rifles that have been reported on this site; both companies are located in Kalispell MT.

As you work further with the rifle, please post the successes you experience and any problems you encounter.

--Bob
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Re: 450 Bushmaster Bolt from Savage Hog Hunter

Postby Al in Mi » Tue Jun 16, 2015 4:09 am

geesh and another nice rig!!!!

I gotta get humping on mine now.
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Re: 450 Bushmaster Bolt from Savage Hog Hunter

Postby AR Sarge » Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:03 pm

Nice rifle and nice write-up.

I AM an AR type guy but have to admit tat your bolt gun looks damn good. And, the Savage platform is very under-rated. One of the riflemen on my department has a Savage tactical rifle in .223 and, even with the lousy 'pre-accutrigger' trigger it outshoots many of the Remington sniper jobs.

I'll end up with an AR upper I'm sure, but I have to admit that I like your setup.
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