I just received notice from Tony at Tromix that he received my order, and it will be ready in TWO WEEKS!  He has a minimal back log right now so if you want your .458 SOCOM upper right away, now is the time to order from TROMIX.  Goodness, these are going to be a loooong two weeks...

Well, you dirty dog.  Two weeks to wait, ammo is available, brass and dies will be here soon.  That does not sound too hard.  I just got my 458 upper from Marty, waiting most of the summer, and I am in love.  It's looking to be pretty darn accurate, it does not care what magazines you use, and it is real easy to shoot.  My only problem, as I told Marty, is that I got my teeth sunburned on Friday, as I could not get the shit-eatin' grin off of my face, after shooting it in the morning.  I don't know which configuration that you ordered, but mine is a 20, and even my wife liked shooting it.  Hell, everybody that shot it Saturday loved it.

I would say to hang in there, that it is worth the wait. But I wouldn't call two weeks a wait.  More like fore-play.

Craig

I thought he quit the business years ago! Does he still run the Teppo Jitsu website? How could one get hold of him to place an order?

[url]http://www.teppojutsu.com/[/url]

Tony's Tromix Web Site is here:
[url]http://www.tromix.com/[/url]

Teppo Jutsu is Marty's site, and Marty seems to have the extensive backlog at the moment....

Yes.  Tony took a hiatus from the big bore business for a bit.  He's back now.

Tromix and TeppoJutsu are two different companies, though they share some in the knowledge base.

IIRC, MartytW designed the 458 SOCOM and asked Tony to build it up since Tony had the tools.  Tony did EXCELLENT work but took that little bit of a vacation and Marty took to making his own uppers.

This may be a WAY OVER simplified recounting, but I think I hit the high points. [:D]

I currently have a Tromix 50AE upper and a TeppoJutsu Custom 458 SOCOM upper in the safe.

I always keep my eye peeled for a Tromix 44Mag upper -- only 6 were made as I understand.

Oh no, I did not mean that the two weeks was a long time to wait.  I was planning on much longer, but now that Tony told me it will ONLY be two weeks, it makes me anxious as all get-out and I have ants-in-my-pants to get my hands on it.  Sort of how like when you were a kid, the longest two weeks of the year were the two weeks before Christmas.  I consider myself most fortunate to ONLY have to wait two weeks.

Shivan gave a good "reader digest" version of the history.  Indeed, when Tony took to looking for the Golden Yeti, I took to building uppers.

Kind of a good thing that Tony has no big back log, I am working off the ones I have, plus a few special projects (hope to have them with me at Gun Stock), but after Sept 1, I will need to take close look at whether I can take more orders ...

Cosidering after Nov 1 I will be totally unavailable as I will be playing Daddy to Son #2 ....

I installed air conditioning in the Tromix shop here in the spring, so it's no problem working through the summer.  Before, the damn shop would be 85 degrees at 6 am and shortly thereafter it would pick up to 100+. Maybe I'm just a pussy, but I can't work in that shit.

Now it stays 60-75 all the time.

Tony Rumore
Tromix Corp

OH MY GOD!  My upper arrived today, I think almost exactly two weeks from when I mailed him the order!  It was almost a religious experience opening up the parcel that the BBT brought me.  There are no words to describe the quality of the build Tony made.  Absolute perfection.  I am glad I went with his recommendations and used the Lo-Pro upper.  Every detail is absolutely perfect, and all in less than two weeks.  Damn, you can't beat that with a stick.  I'm telling you guys, Tony's the man!

Thanks Tony!

Big Bore,

Oh no you don't, mine from Marty is nicer!!!!

Seriously,  I suspect that you cannot go wrong with either of them.  I too, got the Low Pro, and love it.  Mine has a 20 inch barrel, and it looks like 2100 fps with the 300 grainers will be easy.  I am already there, under the max loads, with no pressure signs.  Not that I am necesserily a velocity freak, it is just that the Barnes 300 X has a lower velocity limit of 1600 fps for expansion.  AS mine will be a hunting arm,  this extra little velocity nudge gets my range a bit further.  I hope to harvest an antelope with mine next month.  

I put a Swan Sleeve on mine, so now with my Leopold 3-9, red-dot, and flip up irons, I am good to go for almost any situation.  I even had my dot and irons co-witnessed within a few rounds.  With the Low Pro, Swan Sleeve, and Leupold High QR mounts, my eye relief and cheek weld is absolutely perfect, for both optics.  I have not streched it out for distance yet, but my 50 yard 3 shot groups are just ragged holes, with all of my initial loads.  I have not gotten serious with accurate loads, yet.

For anyone with any big game caliber rifle experience, it is a piece of cake to shoot.  I can even do an extended bench session sitting, in a t-shirt, without any soreness.  Of course I have not tried anything heavier than 300 grains ;^)  

I hope that you are having as much fun with yours, as I am with mine.  By the way, I got Midways last two boxes of Barnes 300 "X" bullets, today.  

NA NA NA NA NA, mines better.

Hats off to both Troy and Marty, for giving us something a little more fun than you daddy's AR.

Craig

you refering to a 440 Corbon or a 44 RemMag ??

I'd sure like to have one in 440 Corbon

So all you guys that got the .458's , you reloading with the Starline brass ??

Is Corbon selling 458 ammo ?
(and 440 corbon ammo?)

There are 6 44 Remington Magnum uppers floating around AFAIK.  There are 440 Corbon Mag uppers.

I've had the 440 Corbon and I think I like the 50AE a little better with the 350gr Speer ammo.

Corbon has 458 SOCOM and 440 Corbon Mag in stock.  I just ordered 7 boxes of 458 SOCOM and it is due to me on Sept 2nd.

There is probably more Starline lengthened 50AE than 458 SOCOM formed floating around, although I have another 21K pieces coming for a total of 50K pieces of formed properly headstamped brass sold by me.

Corbon did 20K pieces as well so there may currently be more Starline 458 SOCOM brass in a month.  Starline will also stock the brass for the next year.

Ed

WoW!!  
I'd like to see on of those 44RemMag uppers function, curious to see how it handles the rimmed case.
 50AE too, hmmm, I need to get one of those big bore uppers!!!!!

A royal PITA.  Tony quit building them because they were so difficult to get to feed reliably, and the 50AE was outselling everything anyway.  I DESPERATELY tried to build a working 44 Mag using parts supplied by Tony for a customer from ARFC but in the end Tony had to turn it into a 440 CorBon.

Tony figured out a) how to used the rimmed case and b) what magazine to use.  He sleeved Desert Eagle mags into AR mags to feed the beast, and cut a special chamber with "shelf" for the rim.

I think part of the problem with the 44 Mag may have been the blunt fat bullet.  If it had been a slightly necked version like a 357-44 B&D, it might have been easier to get it to feed.

In any event, very few folks bought one, whereas a bunch of 50AEs kept Tony busy for a long time.  With the GP on the 458, it may now have outsold the 50AE in volume from our two shops combined, but not by much.

Bearbait, glad to hear it is still working like a charm.  Now, if my customer that just received his special version has good success in his "hunt", that will be quite the story...

Marty

One of the reasons I went with the .458 SOCOM rather than the .50 B was I have 300 of the Barnes .300 gr. X bullets just sitting there.  I have been shooting this bullet for over a dozen years in my Contender .45-70 I use for deer hunting (handgun).  I had an order get screwed up a few years back and my order got placed twice, and when all those bullets came, I just decided to keep them.  Soooo, with all those bullets just sitting there, I had to find something to shoot them in.  I was only burning up about 50 rounds a year in the Contender and I already had enough loaded to last me quite a while, and still 300 on the shelf.  It is a great bullet and it will serve you well.  I have shot over two dozen deer with this bullet and have never had a problem.  Deer from 90 to 200 pounds go down like they had been pole-axed.  A couple deer shot front on had the bullets go fully length-wise and exit.  Needless to say, I have yet to recover a bullet from a deer.  Out of the TC they leave the muzzle (15") at 1890 fps, and they retain enough velocity (1600 fps) so that they will expand out to 175 yards.  Out of the SOCOM, boosting the vels to 2100 fps, that will make expansion possible to around 275 yards, now that is reaching out and touching something.  At that range, the 300 X still is carrying 1687 ft-lbs, and with a 175 yard zero, the bullet is down only 14" at 275 yards, yet never rises more than 3 inches above line of sight (with scope mounted 2" above the bore).  My SOCOM has the 17" barrel so I won't see a great gain over the .45-70 most likely, but if I can get 2100 fps out of the 17" tube, I will be very happy.  Tony told me that in the SOCOM, there is very little velocity gain past 17" so I went with his recommendation.  He has been right on everything else, so I trust his judgement completely.  Yes indeed, this is going to be one FUN rifle!

Big Bore,

Thanks for the info on your hunting experiences with the 300X.  I too have shot a lot of them, mostly out of Contenders.  My 375 did show signs of marginal expansion when the velocity was down around the 1600 fps, and this was concerning me.  The last thing that I wanted was a shot on an Antelope, with a FMJ acting bullet.  The shots that we get in this unit are seldom over 200 yards,  but we can get an occasional large buck, and I did not want to have any lingering doubts in the back of my mind if I got a shot way out there.  Just for the record, all of my long shots are with a good scope, range finder, and solid rest.  I am pretty anal about those long shots.  I will probably keep them at 200 yards this year, as I have not had enough time behind the Socom to feel comfortable further out.

As to your barrel length, and velocity, I will be very curious how that goes.  Rod sent me the spread sheet for reloading, and it looks like he is gonna end up just a shade below or above 2000 fps with his, which is a 16 incher, I think.  I am only gaining about 100 fps out of my 20 incher, so at 25 fps/inch I would say that we are certainly in the area where the individual chamber and barrel might be affecting things as much as barrel length.  17 inches might be perfect.  I might do a little playing around with the 250X, as I do have a little more room in my case for powder, and I am a little curious to see where I could go with a little lighter bullet.  Problem is, I do like the ballistics of the 300X SP.  Thanks again for your insight, on that bullet.

Craig