450Bushmaster.net

So, I have had a project in the works for a while, I enjoy building and doing some smith work. For whatever reason I was laying in bed one night about 7/8ths asleep when I came across those Rhineland Arms 450 barrels after searching on google for a new project barrel for the Savage action I had. After a good night sleep this idea was firmly stuck in my head so I got to work on it as time would allow.

When I say spare parts, I mean I had a Savage 10 4.27" action, a 4.4" 12 FV stock, a random stagger feed bottom metal, a set of Warne QD rings, and a Weaver 1-3 power scope. So I got the barrel on order and then started the assembly process.

I'm fairly certain modifying the new stock was hardest but with a drill press, heat gun, and epoxy it worked out pretty well. So, the barrel arrived and I had a good friend Cerakote the action and barrel. After that it was just assembly, so today after getting the ridiculously priced SiCo 450 Bushmaster brake I finally got to shoot it. I'll let the results speak for themselves, I'm completely pleased with the results since this was at 100 yds with a 3 power optic and Hornady custom ammo.

welcome aboard and nice rig along with good shooting with a 3x scope.

I don't know why it's only showing half the rifle, does it look the same to you?

I see the whole rifle, looks good!

I find accuracy like that, with a low per scope at 100yds, very acceptable. I say throw a high power scope on and start handloading to see what it’s really capable of! It definitely shows potential.

I'm glad that the pics look correct. That scope will be coming off of the rifle and I will be adding one of the Leupold 2-7x33 scopes, I want to keep this gun pretty handy for a brush/short range rifle. I hunt mainly in WV, PA, and Western MD so shots are rarely over 150 yds with 200 being the exception.

I'm was surprised by the recoil of this rifle, I shoot everything from a 222 to a 416 Rigby and was really shocked at the thump this cartridge produces. It isn't excessive at all, I shot the gun with absolutely no discomfort but the first round I was holding the rifle like my 222 varmint rifle. It reminds me of shooting slugs from my 20 ga, lots of push but no sharp strike like a 300 Win Mag.

Anyway, once I get dies on the way and a few more spent cases I will start the loading process of some 300 gr XTP's and my own design cast 325 gr WFN. I'm really hoping to find a node with that 325 at around 1,800 FPS. I know that the slow pistol powders are what most shoot but I'm also going to try some IMR-4198, H-322, and possibly IMR 4064.

Based on the 458x2" data and my experiences with IMR 4198 in low power cast loads I should be able to recreate a nice low pressure load while getting that 1800 FPS goal.

the only wierd thing i see is all the pics are upside down. otherwise neat looking gun!

post a pic of your cast bullet when you get a chance, I always like to see what designs other guys come up with.

Be curious as to how they feed in that staggered mag for ya too.

I run a .458 x 1.800 with jacketed bullets for here in Michigan, Benchmark and Varget (which are close in burn speeds to H322 and 4064) left a lot of unburned powder in the barrel even lighting up with mag primers, H4198 not near as much. The 450 has a good bit of freebore so stretching that bullet out and backed by a case full of 4198 might get you a bit more than 1800fps

Al in Mi wrote:post a pic of your cast bullet when you get a chance, I always like to see what designs other guys come up with.

Be curious as to how they feed in that staggered mag for ya too.

I run a .458 x 1.800 with jacketed bullets for here in Michigan, Benchmark and Varget (which are close in burn speeds to H322 and 4064) left a lot of unburned powder in the barrel even lighting up with mag primers, H4198 not near as much. The 450 has a good bit of freebore so stretching that bullet out and backed by a case full of 4198 might get you a bit more than 1800fps

Al,

I'm always happy to expand on my thoughts, I use to make bullet moulds, this one is a design meant for the heavy 45 colt and 454, in 0.432" it was 310 gr but at 0.454" it should fall around 325 gr. I have one or 2 more if guys want them and have a ton in 0.432-0.434".

I believe it will be right at home in the 450 Bushmaster as the area around and in front of the crimp grooves are full 0.454" which should fill that throat very well and keep it close to the FTX bullet length (as you can see in the pic).




I'm seeing no feeding issues as of now with the FTX bullets in the stagger feed design, I can cycle fast or slow and it picks em up and plunks them in the chamber. I do plan on changing to the centerfeed design once a friend of mine gets his AICS mag conversion done. That should relieve any feeding issues completely.

With this bullet and all of it's bearing surface, and the fact I have a 16 twist, I'm really hoping for a case full of IMR 4198 to do the trick, I'll start with a load that just touches the bottom of the bullet and see if any compression fixes burn speeds. If not I can always switch back to 1680 or one of the other slow pistol powders. The reason for slow powders is to soften the launch of a cast bullet. If you keep initial chamber pressures low and make velocity by gas volume not initial pressure spikes, most cast bullets can shoot with jacketed stuff.

Josh wrote:I don't know why it's only showing half the rifle, does it look the same to you?

Josh-
The software used by this forum often does not play well with larger images. Your original image was 777 pixels wide by 1598 pixels tall. The forum software may have turned your original so the long dimension was oriented horizontally. (That's the way it looks with Firefox on my laptop.)

I suspect you can avoid the problems by resizing images before you send them to your image host (tinypix?). Here's how the image looks shrunken by 40% to 311x639. I used MS Paint to do the manipulation:



--Bob

Hoot,
Thanks for fixing the picture so we could see the whole rifle.

thom