Thinking of dipping my toes in the 450 BM waters. I've built up many of my own AR's so no stranger to that. However I know nothing about 450 BM. Wanting an un-suppressed deer hunting gun for Ohio. The new Ruger MPR 450 BUSHMASTER looks nice. What do those in the know of 450 BM's think of it vs building my own?

At risk of sounding like a fudd--I am not--for hunting I would look at a ruger American 450 bolt gun.  I bought the 22 inch blued model and its ideal:  lightweight, hammer forged barrel and accutriger. And it shots MOA out to 150 yds.  Shot a big doe this year, ran 10 yards.

Due to bowhunting,  this is the 1st year I've shot a deer with a  450 bushmaster and I must say I'm impressed with this round. I shot a big doe at 125 yds and the shock of the shot pushed the deer sideways. She fell to her knees for 4 count and then got up and ran towards the woods. She only made it 5 yd into the tree line before collapsing.

I have shot countless deer in the heart lung area with 3 in 12 ga sabots and never had that level of performance.

I would look into a suppressor, the muzzle brakes needed are brutally loud without ear pro. That said I like my 450 Bushmaster.  I built mine out of parts, because here in MN I had to have a barrel under 16" to make it a pistol. I wish they would pass the straight wall cartridge rule here too, but it doesn't seem likely with the commie governor we have.

I shot a big doe with it last year, she ran about 40 yds and dropped. This year I shot an 8 point buck at about 50 yds, He walked about 25yds after the hit and dropped not even a twitch.

I never really felt 450 Bushmaster needed a brake, the recoil is stout but no worst than a heavy 20 gauge loads in a similar weight gun.  For that matter given the ratio of propellant to bullet mass and the large bore diameter a brake is never going to reduce recoil by more than about 20% at best and that is going to have to be a huge brake to achieve that level of recoil reduction.  I have a small brake on my 450 and it made a difference but not a huge change from the factory flash suppressor that came on the 450 Bushmaster upper kit I bought.  It is loud but not super effective or really needed.  For extended range trips in warm weather I simply slip on a Limb-Saver recoil pad.  For hunting with winter cloths on and the limited number of rounds fired recoil is a non-issue.



That said 450 BM really shines if you're a reloader.  I fell into a pile of brass and have yet to shoot a factory loaded rounds through mine.  There is only a few factory loads out there and most are in the 250-260gr range.  If you reload you can do even more.  I have loaded everything from 200gr to 405gr.


Left to Right: Barnes, 200gr XPB, Barnes 275gr TSX, Hornady 240gr XTP/MAG, Hornady 300gr XTP/MAG, Hornady, 225gr FTX, Hornady 250gr FTX, Remington 405gr SP (resized).

For hunting though I am using Barnes TSX 275gr bullets going about 1900 fps. I did not get a deer opening weekend but I did shoot a trash-panda and a tactical-opossum and the bullet did horrible things to both of them.  I recovered the bullet that went through the trash panda.  Given the damage it did I am sure the bullet opened in the body. It went in the size of my thumb and came out along with nearly all the internal organs through a hole the size of my fist.  The bullet had good expansion in just the distance of a coons body.  The bullet then went through nearly 3 feet of forest floor but stayed shallow enough to leave and clear furrow.  Recovered bullet had 100% weight retention.

What velocity are you getting with the 405gr? Im surprised the 1/24 twist bushmaster will stabilize them.

Not getting OT this year has really squashed getting that M96 small ring Mauser together with that Rhineland Arms .450 BM barrel on it.

I have built 4 450Bushmasters now 2 for me and 2 for friends for this upcoming deer season.  I have used exclusively APF barrels for these builds and I am super impressed with the performance of these out of a gas gun shooting the Hornady Black 250gr.  My lastest build used an 18" barrel and after zeroing we did 3 3shot 100yd groupings and the average group size for the 3 groups was .416MOA.  The 16" was coming in a bit higher at .620 however that could have been the Monster Energy talking at that point.  I build these we H3 buffers and an adjustable gas block as these are ran suppressed with SilencerCo Hybrids and what a hoot it is.  I will likely never hunt with a shotgun again as long as Iowa doesnt change the deer regs.

I have found the 7rd mags from ASC to be the best so far.  They have 9 rounders as well but do not like to function very well when loaded to capacity.  I am awaiting a few other samples mags to arrive so I can test them out as well and I might just get some followers and play a bit on my own too.

I think anyone considering a 450 should give them a look.

My buddy bought the new ruger ar in 450 bushmaster. I was really impressed with the build quality and it fed and functioned without any problems.

I can't speak to the accuracy because he's just got irons on it. But it was holding a six inch circle with the large aperture at 100 yards with him shooting it. He only shoots maybe 3 times a year.

It's a nice rifle.

Also if it were me I'd still build my own to get exactly what I wanted but you'd save money by going with the ruger rifle.

I bought mine from GLFA last year, had quality issues but great customer service. They took care of me. I'd look at them if you don't want to build your own  or if you're in a hurry like me and want to get some trigger time on the gun instead of waiting for parts to shio.

The Hornady black I've bought has had a lot of variation cartridge to cartridge, over 200 fps. My 200 grain Barnes hand loads only have 30 fps variation and are pushing 2600 fps with no signs of over pressure and are in Lymans AR loading book. I've heard the 200 and 275 grains from barns don't expand under 1800 fps but have no idea the validaty of that as I haven't done my own testing, but I'm confident shooting the 200 grains I can make ethical shots.

The Ruger looks like a great rifle, if it was out last year I would have gladly picked it up but I would have spent more than I did on my GLFA which I'm seeing just over 1 moa out of with a 1x and 3 shot groups...

Went down the same rabbit hole.  Parts gun or Ruger?

What I liked about the Ruger MPR in .450 BM:
1.  Ready to go with warranty  No buffer or battery issues.
2.  5R rifling for a better barrel
3.  2 stage trigger
4.  One fully functioning Mag included
5.  Matching upper and lower

Cons:
Price $750+ shipping on Gunsamerica or Gun Broker

Then RK Guns had them on sale for $699!  Merry Christmas to me.