450 Bushmaster with PC bullets

[Longcarbine]

Hope I am posting this in the right place. I recently came into an AR chambered in 450 Bushmaster, anyone who has one of these know that factory ammo for these is ridiculously priced at around $50 for twenty and the 250gr FTX bullets made for these by Hornady is just as bad at $45 for a box of fifty. So I have purchased a set of dies and some brass and some Bayou Bullets 250gr powder coated cast bullets and will be using Hodgdon Lil' Gun and/or Ramshot Enforcer powder. To get to my question, do you think this bullet will work in this cartridge and what should I set my overall cartridge length at. The bullet length averages at .657/.658.

[murf205]

I hope you have better luck than I did and there is no reason you shouldn't. I tried to get my son's 450 Ruger Ranch Rifle to shoot 290 gr NOE round flat boolits pc'd with Carolina Blue and it just wouldn't shoot them nearly as well as Hornady 250 FTX's. It shoots them really well but it just wouldn't group the cast.Attachment 315227 I really was disappointed because these look like they would hit with some serious authority!

[farmer66]

Murf, I am very interested. Can you give some details on the load you were trying.

[cwlongshot]

I shoot allot of cast from my Ruger Ranch Bolt. I keep jacketed in my AR.

I have used most powders. I find best results knocking back top velocity and pressure with cast. I have had 300's past 2000 W/O issue but mot great accuracy. Lyman 457122 over 5744 shoots about 1500 and touches holes @ 100 yards. It punches nearly half dollar holes thru deer.
I don't use Lil Gun often and never any more in a semi. I tried Enforcer and it showed promise. #9 was crazy accurate but I was experiencing hang fires. So no more #9 powder for me in 450.

CW

[murf205]

I'll have to find it but it is written down somewhere. IIRC, it was Shooters World Buffalo Rifle (kissing cousin to 5744) that gave the best results but I will definitely check.
I did check and the best I could do was with 34 gr of Buffalo Rifle and it was nothing to brag about.
CW, did you try magnum primers with AA#9?

[murf205]

Here is what I wound up doing with the 250 gr FTX load. I called Hornady and the tech told me that the jacket on these is pretty tough and not to wory about fragmentation or lack of penetration.Attachment 315231Attachment 315232Attachment 315233
I have not given up on cast in this rifle but too many other projects had to come first. Besides, Jr has ammo to hunt with and I might let him see if HE can sort it out!

These are 100yd targets.

[cwlongshot]

Yes, I tried mag and military primers didnt make a decernable difference.

Cast can be different then jacketed. Little kore "hot n cold" or black and White. No grey meaning accurate or pitiful is common. Keep at it you will get it!!

CW

[murf205]

I don't know what the twist rate is on that gun but the 290 gr NOE's might be a tad too long for the velocity a 450 Bushy gets.

[murf205]

Just looked it up, the rate is 1-16".

[Dancing Bear]

My reloads with Hornady 225 and 250 gr. bullets are tack drivers. My cast not as good. But I will keep trying different powder s.

[mehavey]

[G W Wade]

Hope this keeps up. My son just got a Ruger bolt gun in 450 BM. I am hoping to use some 225 gr TC for fun loads. Waiting for brass and dies to show up. GW

[gpidaho]

Following. Just got a 450 Bushmaster upper and have been looking for options. I do have several hundred 300gr RNFP jacketed but would like to find a cast load. Gp

[murf205]

when I get all the other projects put aside, I believe that I will try this mold Tom made for me. I really like big meplates and this baby should hit with some authority. It is closer to the weight range that I had the success with.Attachment 315254Attachment 315255
It hits the cardboard target backer with a resounding WHACK out of my 625-3 S&W and is very accurate in that gun to boot.

[cwlongshot]

Good lookin bullet!!

LOVE BIG MEPLATS!!

[Longcarbine]

A lot of good info here fellas but does anyone have an answer to my question.

[murf205]

A lot of good info here fellas but does anyone have an answer to my question.

SAAMI drawing says Max over all loaded length is 2.260". Your Bayou Bullet is for a 45 Colt if it is the one I looked at and it has a crimp groove pretty near to where you would put the taper crimp but that does not mean it wont work. Load a dummy round to that 2.260" and see if it will chamber without sticking the boolit in the chamber. Use a black marker to color ther nose and see if it is touching when you pull it out.

[mehavey]

While Lil'Gun is listed for a 250gr (jacketed) by Hodgdon,
we can't go much further w/o an OAL determination.

See HERE to get a start on that in your rifle, and let us know.

[Tripplebeards]

I didn’t have reliable feeding in my Ruger American Ranch or gunsite scout. They will feed cast just not 100% reliably for me. I tried 300 grain lee FN and a group buy 285 grain HP. I even modified a couple magazines. Got one of the mags to feed pretty reliable in the American but ended up swapping it out for the scout. All you can do I load some at various lengths and see if they cycle and chamber. I would have to guess you’ll need to load them shorter than OAL to get them to feed. No magic number for you because your gun isn’t in front of me to measure your chamber and inspect your feed ramp. I might try and load some up with pretty short OALs with a bunch of 285 grain HPs I casted up and try again some day. To me 450 BM is a finicky round to get to chamber and cycle reliably if you are not using hard jacketed ballistic tip pointed type projectiles. My cast would jam all the time and put big deep dents in the Boolits where they get caught on the feed ramp. Seemed like the soft alloys would get caught up when dragging off the magazine and somewhere around the feed ramp. The boolits would always get caught on the outside if the chamber and dent the heck out if my boolits. I’m sure if you look at some of my posts from five years ago, it was the first gun ever loaded for. I beat my head against the wall for a good half a year trying to figure it out and finally gave up. It would’ve made good for a single shot for the kind of defeating the purpose since it’s a bolt action repeater.


Do you have any fired cases? If so, I’ll set one of the Cast Boolits in the neck and chamber it a few times. I’m sure the candle It or paint it with a marker. That way when the chambers, and if it pulls back out, you have some markings on it to measure your maximum overall length. Did you slug your barrel to find out if they are bigger than your bore? I went a thousand over on mine and they were pretty accurate. Best group shot a hair over MOA. When I try again I will go two thousand over now. To me a difference, how long your cast boolits are…it’s if they chamber cycle. I tried Lil gun and H110. The lil gun was more accurate. The 450 BM and 35 whelen 7600 I can get get to reliably feed cast. Sone caliber Ps and sone of my guns just don’t like cast. I’m sure if the chamber edges were chamfered and polished they would feed. Just not going to go through those king of hoops to get them to feed cast when I have other guns and calibers that feed cast reliably without any drama.

The only way you’re going to find out is load a few dummy rounds at various lengths and try and cycle them. That’s what I do.

[reddog81]

The bullet should work. OAL will be determined by your gun / magazine combination