thumper opinions

[johnrhino]

it is between .458 and .50beo. anyone know where some balistic comparisons can be found?

[Aramark]

I would have like to have seen Tim from Titan Armory get the .500 BAAR off the ground before he got sick. That would have been a sick setup.

big plus one. Maybe Ben could pick this up???? please....

[1956_4x4]

I have had the Wulf for a while. I use it mainly for hog hunting and it hasn't let me down yet. Every shot has put a hog on the ground. There is no having to trail a hog or anything like that. Ammo is available, but you can't find it everywhere and you need to pick it up when you find it. I'm partial to the 300gr Gold Dots.

Mine has been very reliable and has done everything I ever asked of it. I picked up an upper from Alexander Arms and put it on a lower I built.

Smitty

[nyc71]

great info, didnt know 458 worked in 556 mags. i do re-load and think ill be lookin to build the 458, after i finish my 6.8 of course!!!

Here's a Lancer mag with 10 rds of Hornady 300gr bullets.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1341799249.723530.jpg
The most expensive item and hard to get is the brass.

[ttins2475]

I see the 450B is already out of the running, but that was my choice since I reload and it uses the same bullet as my Savage 10ML muzzleloader. There is a great forum on the 450b if you care to look at it. http://450bushmaster.net/ Of course now my attention has switched to the 6.8 and I have started accumulating parts for my first build. Too many AR calibers and too little money$$$$

[the boar buster]

225 lb boar shot with a 458 socom with a Barnes 300 gr TTSX doing about 1650 fps out of my 12.5" pistol. I got close to 20" of penatration.
The bullet entered between his ears and ended up at the base of the knife in the picture.

[BradL45]

Here's a Lancer mag with 10 rds of Hornady 300gr bullets.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1341799249.723530.jpg
The most expensive item and hard to get is the brass.

Cool pic, I have lots of Lancer Mags. I guess I'll buy brass and wait for a Wilson SOCOM upper.

I've thumped many Deer with a 44 mag lever gun(1900 fps with a 240gr slug), mag feeding a SOCOM has to be a hoot as well.

[johnrhino]

im sold .458 it is then!!! still would like to find some ballistic data. i think the 458 will edge out the 50 beo

[eastern_hunter]

I guess I am old fashioned ... am not sure I see the great value in a large bore AR. When I want a heavy medium to large bore rifle I'll pull a bolt gun from the safe in .375, .416, .458 or .470 caliber. Covers the range of 4,000 to 6,400 fpe. Big enough for Africa ... big enough for North America.

Would suggest that the cost and availability of reasonably priced, lighter weight bullets tends to favor the .458 as a big bore plinker.

[MGP]

I don't own one but planned on getting one until I realized the 6.8 would do everything I needed with less range restriction from trajectory. Here is what I was mulling over.

.450 Bushmaster uses pistol diameter bullets. It was still very new then and wasn't sure how bullets designed for pistol velocities would perform coming out of a rifle. As far as I knew and still know Hornady is the only maker of ammo. That may have changed now, have not looked in a long time.

.50 Beowulf ammo is much cheaper than the .458 SOCOM. That was a big deal to me since I do not hand load at the moment. It had some choices a few different commercial loads available, though there were very few commercial manufacturers offering it. I am not 100% certain but does it not use pistol bullets as well? It was based on the .50 AE case was it not? I think there are some Barnes bullets available for it and I would trust those.

.458 SOCOM factory ammo was running about $60 a box when I was looking. It uses rifle diameter bullets which is a huge plus over the .450 Bushmaster IMO. It also gives the handloader more option to work with in terms of bullet choice. It's a bottle neck case which should, in theory, give it better feeding reliability. It also has some good support from Rock River and Wilson.

Like I said I am no expert but those were the things I considered. Something's may have changed since I was researching them. The SOCOM is probably the best choice on paper, but the wolf and bushmaster would be cheaper to feed factory ammo to. I think they all perform similarly, but the SOCOM would be the clear choice if going subsonic were in the equation.

My reasoning lead me to the 6.8, far more punch than the 5.56, lots of factory loads available at reasonable costs from multiple sources, and much flatter trajectory. It had lighter recoil for faster follow up shots, more magazine capacity, and what it lacks in power compared to the thumpers can be made up with by shot placement. That being said I still like the idea of a thumper for woods hunting but think I am going to hold out for a commercial .35 caliber offering. That should flatten the trajectory a little more but still hit plenty hard.

Im hoping i can get someone to produce commercial loads for my 358 MGP although not a big bore it has plenty of punch and can take medium size game out to 200 yards with a 200gr FTX moving up to 2200 fps out of a 16.5" barrel and a lot more accurate than the 458's out there.