I made the mistake or milling out another lower. ( Ok I was bored and needed something to do on a non stormy evening. Soooo as I have this thing sitting around and not doing much other then having a nice looking hole in its middle with a triggering it. I was wondering about building a matching upper. ( again) I am leaning towards the 450 bushmaster. But have heard that the 458 Socom is not bad either. I'll have to get dies for either and will load for them , so ammo cost is not that much of an issue to me. What ya'll think.

PS I already have the 223 and Grendel variants .... no need for valkyrie or the like. What I don't have is a thumper and I may as well change that situation. Don't have a specific purpose for the rifle in mind other then maybe getting some pork chops out of more brushy areas.

I have a 458 Socom built out of Tromix components. I went with the 458 as it shares bullets with the 45/70 that I already had an loaded for. I have been pleased with its performance with both 325 gn Hornady FTX and 300 gn Hornady JHP. I have shot several sheep/goats and hogs with it on an annual hunting preserve trip that we make each year. I use Redding dies which were pricey at the time and have picked up brass from Starline. At one time brass was over $1 a piece, but can be had in the $0.60 to 0.75 range now. Loaded ammo is steep and I have only reloaded for mine. Regardless of what you read on the internet the recoil is very manageable and does not come close to the 45/70.

Tony Rumore at Tromix is a great resource for the 458 Socom and 458 Socom components.

I have since replaced the Vortex Diamondback scope with a Leupold as I had 3 failures of the Vortex on the 458 Socom

Own the 458 socum , ordered from Tromix, also. Tony, knows, and stands behind his products, with years of experience, in low pressure big bore rifles. I'm identical to garymc, bullets, brass, and dies. Have shot hogs, instant knock down, clean kills. Shot couple deer, no running off. Rifle is very manageable, I can say my M14's and 30 cals, are not really any difference, in recoil. I love shooting the 458, very accurate weapon 100/300 yds. Tromix components, especially case follower, best I've ever used for resized brass.

Ahhh now there is something I did not think of .... I don't have a 45/70 but I do have and load for a 454 Casull and that shares the diameter with the 450 BM. Not that it is a major thing to buy different bullets for this round ..... just have to make sure I don't get those mixed up

You could buy 458 Socom then you would have an excuse to buy a 45/70 since they use the same bullets

Good point on sharing bullets with the 454 Casull.

Another thing to consider is the wide range of bullets in the 458 vs 452

I shot few of the heavier bullets, didn't get the velocity and accuracy I wanted. 300 Rem, Hornady 325, are very effective in my 458. The 400 gr, & up didn't perform as I liked. Couldn't get enough powder in the loads to perform very well for my liking. I use LiL Gun powder, and played with several loads to get the accuracy I wanted. As I stated earlier very accurate rifle. I use Lancer 5 mags, those steel fed lips, are the trick. Can't get pics to load of my rifle

Another thing I just found while looking things over. Not only can I share the bullets with my 454C but also the powder as Hodgon has H110 on the list. And I am sure I have some 4198 in my stash as well I could play with.

you lookin to sink a big boat??

I debated this and went .458 Socom. I reload my own. I also use starline brass and at 100 yards my gun shoots one ragged hole using 325 grain hornady bullets.

My recoil is VERY minimal (270 to 308 ish) as I also bought a 40 coil buffer spring from the folks at Wilson Combat and put in my lower. They provide one free with any .458 socom upper they sell. I however went with the Rock River Arms upper as one day they had an awesome sale on them.

This year will be the first year I get to hunt with it as I built it in January when I was bored.

I have a proper cannon for on the water battles


This one is " just because I can" and I was bored so knocked up this lower without thinking of the consequences. Those being that ya can't just have a lower parked in a drawer without anything to stick on it. I should have known better but here we are now a week later looking for a way out of this situation.

tough problem to have.

I know pcr2 but I never said it was going to be easy

Anyway
After having had a look around
My thoughts so far
As stated above I can use bullets and powders that I use in mt 454 Casull if need be.
The 450BM has higher muzzle energy. Not much to make a difference though.
Its way cheaper shoot just looking at prices for bullets between the two. Let alone ready made ammo that I never use anyway. Maybe a box for function check.
Downside .. there are more kinds of different bullets for the SOCOM. But I guess a pig will never be able to tell the difference.
Thus far I am still leaning towards the BM

I am probably missing something important but thats what you guys are for ... pointing this old guy in the right direction.