When the 450b came out and for some time to come, it was only available off the shelf in an AR 15 platform. It enjoyed immediate popularity as most good designs often do. Bob, aka Pitted Bore was an early adopter of a bolt action 450b. While us unwashed masses struggled to milk all the performance that could be tolerated by an AR bolt, barrel extension and magazine, he enticed us with frequent threads of his adventures when not limited to the AR constraints. Then as the all knowing they say, 'Something Happened" and bolt actions began to reproduce en masse. I like a handful of originals, were content with the lethality of this caliber, even when constrained by the AR platform.
AS more and more bolt action fans got rigs, to the point that they were the majority and us AR dinosaurs became the minority, I fell out of the limelight and into a role of watchman and occasional answer providrr. With all that extra time on my hands and now in retirement even more, I turned my attention to precision bottleneck calibers. I love that challenge but missed those long winded range reports and posts I became famous for here.
Well no longer!
Lock up your women and dogs as Hoot has drank the bolt action coolaid!
Timing and having a few extra shekels not spoken for lead me to take the plunge.
A member over on the Accurate Shooter forum caught me in a moment of weakness. He had a 22", 1:16, Light Varmint taper, small shank (Savage) barrel available and being equipped as gunsmith's are, offered to thread the muzzle our own oddball 11/16-24 for me as part of the deal. Here's an image from his ad before threading the muzzle:
It'll look better once mounted on one of my Savage Model 12 platforms. Unfortunately, the only one not dedicated to a precision bottleneck caliber is in a thumb hole stock but what better way to transition from a pistol grip platform anyway. It will be interesting (euphemism) to see how the perceived recoil compares to my AR with its heavy stainless steel lower receiver and DIY shake weight style recoil reducer inspired by John Noonan's work.
With more than 2 months remaining before comfortable (to me) shooting weather returns, I'll have time on my side to massage it into just what I want it to be overall. Then, I hope to rejoin the rest of you with some range reports and experiments.
Stay tuned to this thread for step by step milestones as I build it up.
Hoot