Hoot Drank the CoolAid

[Hoot]

When the 450b came out and for some time to come, it was only available off the shelf in an AR 15 platform. It enjoyed immediate popularity as most good designs often do. Bob, aka Pitted Bore was an early adopter of a bolt action 450b. While us unwashed masses struggled to milk all the performance that could be tolerated by an AR bolt, barrel extension and magazine, he enticed us with frequent threads of his adventures when not limited to the AR constraints. Then as the all knowing they say, 'Something Happened" and bolt actions began to reproduce en masse. I like a handful of originals, were content with the lethality of this caliber, even when constrained by the AR platform.
AS more and more bolt action fans got rigs, to the point that they were the majority and us AR dinosaurs became the minority, I fell out of the limelight and into a role of watchman and occasional answer providrr. With all that extra time on my hands and now in retirement even more, I turned my attention to precision bottleneck calibers. I love that challenge but missed those long winded range reports and posts I became famous for here.

Well no longer!

Lock up your women and dogs as Hoot has drank the bolt action coolaid!

Timing and having a few extra shekels not spoken for lead me to take the plunge.
A member over on the Accurate Shooter forum caught me in a moment of weakness. He had a 22", 1:16, Light Varmint taper, small shank (Savage) barrel available and being equipped as gunsmith's are, offered to thread the muzzle our own oddball 11/16-24 for me as part of the deal. Here's an image from his ad before threading the muzzle:



It'll look better once mounted on one of my Savage Model 12 platforms. Unfortunately, the only one not dedicated to a precision bottleneck caliber is in a thumb hole stock but what better way to transition from a pistol grip platform anyway. It will be interesting (euphemism) to see how the perceived recoil compares to my AR with its heavy stainless steel lower receiver and DIY shake weight style recoil reducer inspired by John Noonan's work.

With more than 2 months remaining before comfortable (to me) shooting weather returns, I'll have time on my side to massage it into just what I want it to be overall. Then, I hope to rejoin the rest of you with some range reports and experiments.

Stay tuned to this thread for step by step milestones as I build it up.

Hoot

[Al in Mi]

Man I hope the sun rises today and this isnt the end of mankind!! Lol

[AR Sarge]

A Bolt Gun…..???

Good God, man! Get ahold of yourself!

[Hoot]

Well, here's the final product. Older Savage Model 12 platform. This originally was a 223 setup so the mag well already had the spacer in it. I had to tweak the lips a little, not unlike an AR mag needs. Ross brake borrowed from my Bartz 450b AR rig. Bipod was just for the photo shoot. It's off already. I use a front micro adjustable rest and rear bag.
Its wearing my load development Nikon Monarch 6-24x50 scope.



Can't wait for the permasnow to work its way down and temps to work their way up above 50. Probably another month or so.

Barrel Break in will probably be with some magtech 230 FMJ's at a modest velocity. That's a patience game but IMHO, worth it. I haven't measured the throat/leade yet.

To be honest, I wish the barrel was a little heavier profile but that's how it was for the deal I got on it. I like big barrels, I cannot lie...

More no doubt, to come...

Hoot

[Smithjdsr]

That is a beautiful rifle. I hope you find it as accurate as it is visually impressive. (My Bushys are all composite stock workhorses. No beauty, just function.) That one looks like it could put bullets through the same hole.

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Well, here's the final product. Older Savage Model 12 platform. This originally was a 223 setup so the mag well already had the spacer in it. I had to tweak the lips a little, not unlike an AR mag needs. Ross brake borrowed from my Bartz 450b AR rig. Bipod was just for the photo shoot. It's off already. I use a front micro adjustable rest and rear bag.
Its wearing my load development Nikon Monarch 6-24x50 scope.



Can't wait for the permasnow to work its way down and temps to work their way up above 50. Probably another month or so.

Barrel Break in will probably be with some magtech 230 FMJ's at a modest velocity. That's a patience game but IMHO, worth it. I haven't measured the throat/leade yet.

To be honest, I wish the barrel was a little heavier profile but that's how it was for the deal I got on it. I like big barrels, I cannot lie...

More no doubt, to come...

Hoot

Holy moo cows. That’s gorgeous. I’m gonna be looking forward to seeing your results.

[coyote wacker]

Holy Cow.....with that l o n g tube and varmint scope your going to be punching one hole with several shots....

A very nice looking set up.....

[Texas Sheepdawg]

I just want to reiterate that the 450Bushmaster is plenty of fun in an AR15.
But shooting it through a single shot and a bolt action brings a whole new
level of FUN to the cartridge.

I’m just a little green over here.

FB53FA1E-1BA9-4D92-92F4-17A34F28DADF.jpeg (24.08 KiB) Viewed 10451 times

[Hoot]

All that glimmers is not gold.

IE "Houston, we have a problem"

So, the next step is getting some dimensions to prepare for reloading. Lets start with freebore. WTF! Its only .072 as opposed to the SAAMI spec of .200. Better double check that. Same. Triple check. Same. Try some standard bullets as a reality check. The 250 FTX hits the lands at 2.28 COL. That's only affords a .020 jump when loaded to AR mag length of 2.26. Other bullets were a similarly short distance to the lands. Well Hell, there goes loading them long to take advantage of the bolt action. I dug out the Bartz AR 450b. Same freebore check. .200 on the money. Double check. Same. Never mind the Triple check. So, what about actual bullets? The 250 FTX hits the lands at 2.39. That's more like it. Other bullets were a similarly longer amount, depending upon the ogive.

So, "What's a mother to do?" I contacted the gunsmith who chambered it, told him of my observation and asked him whether he ran a secondary throating reamer or an all in one reamer? He said he used what was supposed to be a SAAMI spec all in one. He offered to order a throating reamer and make it whatever amount I wanted.

A little bulb lit up in my head and I told him to wait until Monday to order it while I ponder my options. Actually I wanted to bounce this off of some of you gurus but didn't want the discussion buried in this thread. So, I'll start a new thread in a different sub-forum.

To be continued...

Hoot

[Smithjdsr]

Mary I refer your question to a guy on another forum? He’s pretty knowledgeable. Someone at AR15Armory is who referred me here when I built my first Bushy AR. A couple of the guys over there really know stuff. I’m not sure it was Greg, but it might have been. Unless you know him yourself…?