Opinions on heavy bore AR's?
 

I'm considering a .458, .450, or .50B AR upper for deer and hogs. Leaning towards the .450 bushy.

What's your take on heavy bore AR's for big game hunting? I'm leaning towards the .450 Bushy mostly for the MV/energy, but I'm open to hear opinions on other heavy bores. Maybe there's some political or other consideration that I've overlooked?

Sometimes I worry that I have split-personality disorder, because there's part of me that is giddy over a bullets with BC's over .45 running over 3300fps, but then there's the other side of me that loves a big fat pumpkin trucking along south of Mach 2.

I was planning to rebarrel my 6.8 to a grendel, now that things are ironed out with the licensing, but have since decided to go with a .243WSSM, and will be buying a DTI receiver, so my CURRENT 6.8 receiver needs a job...

Which is where the .450 bushy comes in. It MAY defeat the purpose of the AR platform, since both the .450 and the .243 are 5 shot propositions, but at least they'll be comfortable and fast firing.

I like the 6.8 SPC, ever since I saw this rig;


http://www.barrett.net/firearms/rec7

http://www.barrett.net/firearms/rec7
this in 6.8..eff an ar

I would get the 458 SOCOM over the 450. The 450 shoots pistol bullets while the 458 SOCOM shoots rifle bullets.

Ridge Runner are you shooting Barnes bullets?

arnt these sub-sonic?

Ridge, is your EP enlarged? It might just be my eyes, since I'm a fan of dust covers and not as used to the naked look. The mill job on the ejection port is why I decided to go ahead and buy a DTI receiver for my .243WSSM build (HAS to be ported), so I'm looking for a cartridge that will fit out the standard port.

(I haven't ever heard that it was necessary to open the port to convert to any of the big bore AR platform rounds, so I'm guessing it's just my lack of familiarity with the profiled receiver).

I have been pondering this a bit. It surprises me that the .458 Socom (the slower of the two) is the one that runs rifle bullets. On the other hand, neither are running very fast. I'd like the extra 10% MV/20% KE of the .450 over the .458, but I do appreciate the difference in bullet construction. I'm not really certain that 2100-2200fps is too fast for pistol bullets though? (Thinking back over the last 20yrs pushing 240grn "pistol" bullets out of a Marlin 1894 to 1900-1950fps for deer). Having ran .45-70's for deer, I've seen my share of bullets that were clearly moving too slow to properly expand (rifle bullets).

So the bullet choice IS indeed something that does keep me up at night. Ultimately, I'd like something that would be a modest improvement over a .45-70 for trajectory, plus the semiauto edge. The major advantages being bullet construction in favor of the .458, and velocity/energy in favor of the .450. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm leaning towards the .450 because I'm fairly confident in the "pistol bullets" out there, and would prefer the flatter shooting round, but I'd love to hear some first hand exposure for how the .450 is on big game (by Ridge's pics, I'd say the .458 is doing just fine).