Anyone else having feeding issues with 450 bushmaster and cast?

[Tripplebeards]

I have given up on cast in my Ruger American. I tried the big lee 300 grain FN’s two years ago and had random cycling and jamming issues with the wide metplate. I bought one of the group buy Noe .452-277-RF brass GC molds designed for the 45O bushmaster. Well my gun still jams with them randomly no matter how short the OAL. I taper crimped them .474”. I have given up on cast with this gun now. I tried some 250 grain Hornaday flex tips that I loaded up myself and tapered at .476 and all of them cycled smoothly and Flawless. I believe it’s the design of the gun. It just has a very rough chamber and a week magazine spring I’ve tried three different magazines in it and it doesn’t make any difference. I loaded up a bunch of 250 grain Hornaday flex tips and tapered crimped at .476. All 20 plus round I tried in it cycled smoothly and flawless. I believe it’s the design of the gun, it just has to have a very rough chamber and a weak magazine spring. I’ve tried three different magazines in it and it doesn’t make any difference. Apparently the narrow taper of the hornady J word skips along the ruff machining making its way into the action? Anyways, zero issues with j word feeding. The group buy 277-RF Noe boolit has about the best taper for a smaller metplate than any other cast boolit out there so I’m finished trying with this gun. I loaded my dummy rounds all the way down to 1.996” and still get a random 2nd and last round jam. The boolit is striking high and jamming on top of the action not allowing it to feed in the chamber. You can see by my boolits. I’ve definitely given up on this gun with cast. I’ll stick to my 77/44 that eats anything I feed it. Im confident my Ruger American will never reliably cycle with cast and I’m done trying. Can you tell I’m done with this gun and cast???... Maybe I didn’t say it enough

Here are my dummy rounds that I loaded at 1.996” and tried to cycle today.







Has anyone else ever ran into a gun that just won’t cycle with cast? I don’t know what else to do. I’ve tried every little trick I know with this gun. Played with the magazine spring in one magazines trying to tweak it so the boolits wouldn’t feed so high.

[Prodigal Son]

Me personally, no but my father has great success with the Lee flat nose 300 PB boolit and here's last years buck! He shoots 10 shot group at a hundred yards one ragged hole! Don't know why your having trouble but maybe you have over crimped them? HP seem to have problems in some platforms! Just a thought!

[Tripplebeards]

The lees jam just as bad in my gun. The metplate hits the top of the action and jams every two to three rounds.

[murf205]

Me personally, no but my father has great success with the Lee flat nose 300 PB boolit and here's last years buck! He shoots 10 shot group at a hundred yards one ragged hole! Don't know why your having trouble but maybe you have over crimped them? HP seem to have problems in some platforms! Just a thought!

300gr PB? Did he have a GC mold altered to PB. I wouldnt mind having one of those myself. Was that 10 shot group shot from a Ruger American? I am curious because my son just bought one and I am going to try and pyt it on a diet of cast boolits as soon as I can walk again.

[Tripplebeards]

300gr PB? Did he have a GC mold altered to PB. I wouldnt mind having one of those myself. Was that 10 shot group shot from a Ruger American? I am curious because my son just bought one and I am going to try and pyt it on a diet of cast boolits as soon as I can walk again.

The American is the gun I’m having trouble with.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I was having similar trouble with the American in 358 Win. Interestingly enough, using the 450 mag in the 358 fixed the issue. The 358 has a flat spot in the bottom of the feed ramp. Smoothing it out was going to be my last ditch effort, but didn't end up needing to.

[Tripplebeards]

Yeah, i’ve been reading that the 450 bushmaster magazine is the fix to all the other calibers being it feeds straight up...so what’s the fix with the 450 bushmaster magazine chambered for a 450 bushmaster because it sure won’t feed.

[Tripplebeards]

Me personally, no but my father has great success with the Lee flat nose 300 PB boolit and here's last years buck! He shoots 10 shot group at a hundred yards one ragged hole! Don't know why your having trouble but maybe you have over crimped them? HP seem to have problems in some platforms! Just a thought!

Is he shooting a Ruger American 450 BM bolt action to clarify my feeding issues?

[Tripplebeards]

I called Ruger this morning and they told me that that thought it was a magazine issue and are sending me a replacement magazine. I remembered already have three magazines for this rifle so I tried the other two. All three kick my ammo up too high and jam. The other two are are worse than the first magazine for cycling.

[pmer]

Try making a few dummy rounds that are longer in OAL & see they will feed past the edge of the chamber. It looks to me like you are having a 3 point jam. I was having the same issue with A458 socom in a AR15 and I ended up designing a custom bore riding bullet that has a longer nose And it cleared up my feeding issue and I can still run a bigger meplat for hunting
The longer rounds might not chamber because of your throat but at least you can tell if the feed issue is from the ammo being too short.

[Tripplebeards]

Try making a few dummy rounds that are longer in OAL & see they will feed past the edge of the chamber. It looks to me like you are having a 3 point jam. I was having the same issue with A458 socom in a AR15 and I ended up designing a custom bore riding bullet that has a longer nose And it cleared up my feeding issue and I can still run a bigger meplat for hunting
The longer rounds might not chamber because of your throat but at least you can tell if the feed issue is from the ammo being too short.

I “kissed” the lands at 2.035” and tried dummy rounds from 2.035” down to 1.996” which all jammed.

I just looked down my action to see where my boolits are hitting the top of barrel where it’s threaded into to action and I have a good pile lead shavings to clean out from trying to cycle my dummy rounds.


I would assume the only way to get cast to work is to have someone remove metal from the top of the inside of where the barrel is threaded into to the receiver. Basically honing it at a 45 degree angle and polish it so my boolits would clear and slide into the chamber.

[Tripplebeards]

I believe I figured out what’s going on. First I looked at the extractor to make sure it was working since I had a could dummy rounds not extract. It seemed to work fine. I then kept doing a dummy round while “failing to cycle” to see what’s going on. It seems the goofy design of the too long of a magazine capacity is at fault IMO. The end of the casings are dropping below the next round in sequence before trying to enter the action causing the boolit to kick up and jam...if you get what I’m saying. Here’s some pics of what I’m trying to explain...








This is basically how it looks jammed in my gun with the round dropped low in the magazine. I believe if the magazine was shorter it would eliminate my feeding issue. I blaming the design of the magazine that’s causing my cast boolit feeding issues. Any suggestions on how to mod the magazine since I already have three and another on the way from Ruger? I would think if I fabricated a shelf to cover the front open half inch or so make a ramp it might actually feed.

[dkf]

If the magazine fed the round more nose up I am sure it would help feeding quite a bit. A piece of round wood the right diameter wrapped with sandpaper can be used to taper the feed lips of the magazine so the round rides more nose up.

I'm running cast in my .458socom AR with metplats as large as .380" with reliable feeding.

[Prodigal Son]

My father is shooting the 450 bushmaster AR, no issues whatsoever! PB 300 gr Lee boolit! 1 ragged hole after 10 shots a a 100 yards! Nothing said about a Ruger bolt gun! He's only 80 years old been doing cast since the late 50's Cus they couldn't afford copper coated bullets! He and my Uncle Jack got me hooked on lead!

[pmer]

Wow there's alot of room in that magazine. I wonder if it would feed a dummy round seated out to near max oal like 2.250 or so?

I have a similar trouble with a Ruger Hawkeye in 358 Win. Can't shoot the RCBS 200 boolit because it's oal is too short and the nose hits the end of the barrel before it can find the chamber. But a 250 grain SAECO feeds good with its longer nose.

[Tripplebeards]

AR magazines don’t have as much “extra room” in their magazines so it makes sense that blunt boolits feed better. The max length without kissing the lands with my blunt HP is 2.030” or my round will stick in the chamber so that’s as long as I can load it. Even on the last round with the magazine follower all the way up so it has a flat pathway to slide into the chamber my boolit still hits high and jams. I give up, IMO modifications to the magazine is not going to fix the issue. The only correct fix...which I’m not going to do would be to dremyl/grind the top inside of barrel where it hits and polish it so even when my boolit hits high it would have a smooth, angle to slide into the chamber. My guess by doing so would blow out my casings when they expand from firing. So this gun will either be used with J words only or traded or sold for a gun that I shoot cast out of.

[dkf]

My uncle has a Ruger M77 in .338 federal that he has been having feeding issues with since new.(several different types of factory ammo) Similar to your issues. It too has basically nothing to help guide the round into the chamber but a tiny chamfer at the chamber.(which is not enough) I showed him my Rem 700 so he could see how his rifle should be. He wanted me to load some ammo for his rifle with bullets you can't get in factory ammo to see how they feed but I guess he forgot. He has the money to buy a much better rifle, why he bought the Ruger is beyond me. Even a $2k rifle is much less than he paid to go on one hunt out west.

The bullets you are trying to use really do not have that big of a metplat. But then again neither do .338 federal bullets. I agree the magazines are not helping anything. I am sure with trial and error (and modifications) a block could be made, installed to help the feeding. There is a lot of dead space in that mag that does not help anything. i don't know why Ruger even uses such long mags for the .450.

[murf205]

IIRC, the older M70 Winchesters were not short action guns but they used a magazine block in the rear of the magazine to make the "box" a short action, which eliminated the excess room. Since you have several mags, you might want to use one of those to make a blocked mag and see how that works. Good luck.

[bdicki]

IIRC, the older M70 Winchesters were not short action guns but they used a magazine block in the rear of the magazine to make the "box" a short action, which eliminated the excess room. Since you have several mags, you might want to use one of those to make a blocked mag and see how that works. Good luck.

I was going to suggest the same thing, a spacer at the rear of the mag like what Remington did with the 742 in short calibers like the 308. You could use a piece of wood with double side tape until you find the right thickness.

[Tripplebeards]

Well I tried to remove a little off the front of the magazine to lower the way it chambers. I took too much off and wrecked the magazine. The boolit now hits way to low. I’m quitting while I’m behind and wreck another magazine. I’m now thinking after the unaltered magazine chambers shells now and then that’s it’s a chamfer issue as I’ve been told.