Anyone Cast for the 450 Bushmaster?

[Ian]

Mike, were you able to get some of Bliksem's printed followers?

My Socom runs flawlessly with stock 5.56x45 Lancer AWF magazines, steel "G.I." 30 round or aluminum Colt M-16 magazines. Probably would be better with the correct follower but I haven't needed to go that route yet.

The BLK runs pretty well with the Lee 230 and several other heavy bullets using Magpul G2 or G3 5.56 magazines afte a little filing on the inner ribs. They run FAR better with the new G3 300 BLK magazines though, and I just temporarily traded some G3s to a friend some for Lancer AWF blackout magazines to try out.

@hrpenley , I would be willing to bet that the cast bullets you've tried are a little too "full figured" near the tip and that causes the cartridge to angle up too much, too soon on the ramp. The cartridge will try to pivot with the fulcrum being the front end of the feed lips and the head of the cartridge trying to pivot down against the stack of cartridges blow it and magazine pressure. The options are deepen the feed ramp (NOT recommended unless it is stock M4 style and hasn't been properly modified yet for single-stack, large-caliber feeding), flare out the feed lips, or change the bullet nose profile to more of a truncated spitzer.

 

[hrpenley]

You are correct Ian, the bullets when compared to all the others that feed fine are quite ballbuss (don't think i spelled that right lol" ) at the end and I suspect this is the correct line of inquiry for this problem as no other explination makes real sense, I will be going out this weekend and doing some 308/223 PC cast bullet testing (I am pushing the 2500fps boundary again with some new alloys and powders getting there is easy, getting there accurately is a little harder) I'll take some pics and vids of the 450 feeding.

 

[Ian]

Please tell us how your adventures in high-velocity NATO calibers went too, a few of us have gone down that rabbit hole and it is always good to read about other's experiences.

 

[hrpenley]

These are the styles I have loaded for my 450 BM, don't have a lot of 45 molds to work with yet, the RN in the 5th row feed bad, 6&7 row feed but not great, the rest feed great The bottom row are 330gn HP Lyman .45, powder coated, shoots great.

 

[hrpenley]

Please tell us how your adventures in high-velocity NATO calibers went too, a few of us have gone down that rabbit hole and it is always good to read about other's experiences.

LOL sure will, the biggest problem is that I am such a bad shot its hard to tell if its any better that a fmj......

 

[hrpenley]

LOL sure will, the biggest problem is that I am such a bad shot its hard to tell if its any better that a fmj......

Here's one from just a month ago, I was using the crony, now I am careful and always set up in line, I don't know what happen but it looked clear down the scope to the target, but I be damned if i didn't take the right had shade bar clean off, worse I was shooting with about 6 friends, won't live that down any time soon. was a cast .308 that time. Mu buddy gave me a cleaned off stainless steel welding rod, he had 3........

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

 

[hrpenley]

View attachment 17199View attachment 17200View attachment 17201View attachment 17202View attachment 17203

I love them, are you using eastwood or one of the Hitek or something else? after trying the harbor freight (very poor) I switched to eastwood and had good results with red and black but havent tried others.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Eastwood is very good! None of those are eastwood powders.

Top is Cardinal semi gloss metallic chrome.
Next is As Cast. Next is myown mix. Then a yellow from powder by the pound. The bottom is Sky blue matte. I magic marker my sub loads with blk sharpie.

CW

 

[hrpenley]

I like your own mix, in the pic it looks like a blue granite, very cool

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Ha that what I call it. "Granite". Thank you!
CW

 

[Bliksem]

Cast is softer than jacketed and will ding the nose and stop. Bolt then dings the case when it comes forward. I really have to watch the base for BO, any roughness and you pull the next case out of position. Tilting follower will make it worse. IMHO most all feed issues are mag related. https://www.ammoland.com/2018/09/450-bushmaster-magazine-problems-the-tromix-solution/

I have been pondering solutions that will work without too much effort or expense. This includes not having to modify the rifle too much as it can be a downward spiral which can ruin a rifle too easily. Ask me how I know this...

I have tried a number of magazines and follower modifications. Some worked better than others but not quite to my satisfaction. The 3D printed mag insert came close but only works in some combinations. That I want a MSR magazine that works for the 450BM and the 458SOCOM makes things a little harder also.

One of my criteria is that I need a magazine that is hunting legal and works reliably. I think I have managed to meet these requirements by modifying a PMAG Gen3 10 round and adding a 3D printed follower. This yields a magazine that accepts 4 rounds and is reliable. The magazine body is modified by running a 1/4" wood chisel down the inside front to remove the rib present. This is only needed if you are going to use the gummy tip bullets. The 3D printed follower I use needs the rib removed but doing this takes about a minute so I just do it anyway. Below a pic showing the standard follower and the 3D printed one.


How a factory round is presented in the rifle. This is a modified slick upper receiver that I milled the ejection port for the 450BM. Feeds perfectly when using cast as well, even the NOE 454-350-RF. My bolt action Mossberg won't feed the NOE cast.



My favorite cast in the bolt action and MSR is the Accurate 45-300J. A close second is the Accurate 45-280D. I had a mold cut with the GC shanks removed as I use PB GC's when needed.



Below the NOE mold and examples of what it creates. Works extremely well in my Ruger 454 Casull but it seems that it does not stabilize properly in my 450BM rifles as accuracy has been mediocre. Maybe needs more work, don't know yet.



Adding some pics of the Accurate bullets for reference below.

 

[hrpenley]

Just got my new NOE mold, .454 260gn, going to see how these work in my .450BM, I like NOE very few break-in problems

 

[hrpenley]

Ready to load

 

[Ian]

those look good enough to eat!

 

[hrpenley]

Oh Ya!!!

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

 

[Missionary]

That pointy end may be a big help to any feed issue the chamber entrance may have.

 

[hrpenley]

yep, that's why I picked that mold, the profile is very close to the horndog FTX and with the mags I have now it don't seem to feed as well as they should, no probs with some profiles, problems with others. The ftx style's feed flawlessly.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

yep, that's why I picked that mold, the profile is very close to the horndog FTX and with the mags I have now it don't seem to feed as well as they should, no probs with some profiles, problems with others. The ftx style's feed flawlessly.View attachment 17487

Have ya tried the 457 Lyman series? 191,192 & 122? They all feed for me. Maybe a different magazine or different spring tensions.

My Ruger Bolt is more finicky then my AR and these feed in the Ruger very well. These are not very hard cast bullets either.