450 Bushmaster Reloading and General Information
Sue and I bought a 450 Bushmaster, The 250 Grain Hornady SST ammo was $27.00 per 20 rounds so the first thing we did when we got home was to order some reloading dies and some 240 grain .452 Hornady XTP Mag bullets designed for the 454 Casull. I can reload the 450 Bushmaster using these bullets for about $7.00 per box of 20.
450 Bushmaster
 | Burris BallisticPlex Retical showing the range in in yards indicated for each tic mark using factory 250 gr. SST ammo |
 | .223 vs 450 Bushmaster |
November 08, 2008
Sue and I shot the 450 Bushmaster today and the recoil's not as bad as I thought it would be. The recoil from the 250 grain SST .450 seems to be about the same as my 308 AR10 w/168gr. FGMM. One thing to note is to watch out for the scope, it'll get your eye if you're not careful. I shot five rounds at 50 yards and made one ragged hole. I also received my reloading dies yesterday and reloaded some of the 450 bushmaster cases.
I tried some 284 brass that I ordered but I don't think this going to work unless I can figure out how to ream the unfired case necks to the right size. It seems that the new, unfired 284 brass is too thick after being trimmed. I can't find the right size reamer, I found a .452 reamer from Forster but I believe this will be to large and also would not fit my RCBS trimmer. The .452 reamer may work on fired .284 brass before it's resized but I don't have any fired brass and have no way of firing what I have. Anyone have any suggestions let me know.
Update- 450 Bushmaster Brass is now avalible.
Below is the factory ballistics for the 450 Bushmaster and the ballistics from Remington for their 45-70 for comparison. Note that the 250gr 450 Bushmaster has 400 ft.lbs more muzzle energy than the 300 gr. 45-70, not bad for an AR 15 style carbine.
Factory Ballistics for the 250 gr. SST. 450 Bushmaster
45-70 Government Factory Information from Remington
November 09, 2008
I shot a few of my reloaded .450 Bushmaster cartridges today. The load was 37.2 grains of H110 behind a .452, 240 grain Hornady XTP Mag bullet. I didn't chronograph this load because I blew up (shot) my chronograph a few weeks ago and haven't replaced it yet. This load is well below maximum. It had less recoil than the factory load and should have about 2350 ft.lbs of energy, that's about twice the energy of a .223 and should be great for deer or hogs.
I didn't like the fact that my factory magazine only held five rounds so I took the blue, single stack follower out of the factory magazine and put it in a 30 round aluminum magazine, this gave me at least 10 rounds and worked great. Ten rounds of 450 Bushmaster ammo should be enough for anything you may run into. I also tried to put the single stack follower into one of my Magpul magazines but it wouldn't fit without some work with my dremel tool. I also tried it in a Thermold magazine, the follower fit ok but the feed lips where to wide and would not hold the single stacked 450 cartridges in place.
Sue shot a five gallon bucket full of water, the bucket went about four feet high and was blown into small pieces. As soon as I get time, I'm going to mix up some ballistic gelatin and shoot it with the 450 Bushmaster, I'll post the results here later.
I mixed up some ballistics gelatin today to shoot with the 450 Bushmaster, I set up my video camera and placed the gelatin on an aluminum work table, when I shot the gelatin, it broke my table and broke my camera that was about ten feet away, looked awsome though, I'll try it again soon.
See my 223 ballistic gelatin test here  | Here's a picture of my Hornady 450 Bushmaster Dies. Notice this is a four die set with a taper crimp die and a separate roll crimp die. I'm not sure why they sent the roll crimp die because the 450 bushmaster uses a taper crimp. This is the first Hornady dies I've bought and they seem to be even better quality than the RCBS dies I usually use. The seater die has a floating cylinder that helps keep the bullet straight and this seems to work good. I bought the dies from Midway USA, they weren't cheap but Midway seems to be the only place selling them and they always give me good service |
Below is some reloading data I picked up for the 450 Bushmaster, use at your own risk.
I've got my reloading dies now and will let you know how these loads workout.
Note: I shot some 240gr. XTPs w/ 37.2 grains of H110 and small rifle primers with good results.
450 Bushmaster Reloading Data
Trim 1.690
Max 1.70
450 Bushmaster
240 gr Hornady XTP/Mag
Case Hornady C.O.L 2.060
Small Rifle Primer
Barrel Length 16"
| Velocity | 2000 | 2100 | 2200 | 2300 |
| H110 | 35.6 | 37.2 | 38.9 | 40.6 |
| Win 296 | 34.9 | 36.9 | 38.8 | |
| IMR4227 | 39.4 | | | |
| Lil' Gun | 32.0 | 34.1 | 36.2 | 38.3 |
450 Bushmaster
250 gr FTX
Case Hornady C.O.L 2.225
Small Rifle Primer
Barrel Length 16"
| Velocity | 1900 | 2000 | 2100 | 2200 |
| H110 | 33.6 | 36.4 | 39.2 | |
| Win 296 | 33.8 | 36.0 | 38.2 | 40.4 |
| Lil' Gun | 30.3 | 32.8 | 35.4 | 37.9 |
450 Bushmaster
300 gr Hornady XTP/Mag
Case Hornady C.O.L 2.065
Small Rifle Primer
Barrel Length 16"
| Velocity | 1600 | 1700 | 1800 | 1900 |
| Lil' Gun | 27.2 | 28.8 | 30.5 | 32.2 |
| H110 | 29.5 | 31.9 | 34.4 | |
| Win 296 | 30.6 | 32.6 | 34.5 | |
| IMR 4227 | 32.2 | 33.9 | | |
| Viht N120 | 34.2 | 36.0 | 37.7 | 39.5 |
Muzzle Energy
I plugged in some of the data into my RCBS Ballistic software and here's what the external ballistics should look like for the 450 Bushmaster with 240gr. XTP bullet at 2200 fps.
Sighted in at 150 yards, the bullet should be 2" high at 100 yards, 2" low at 175 yards. After about 200 yards, it drops like a rock.
