Which one and why?

I've got a Ruger American in .450, shoots great

I say .450 just because I know you can get it in both bolt action and AR

And, not that I ever will but there are a few states that don't allow necked casings for hunting

Iowa and Minnesota????

I think both are probably good to go

Asked the same question a few years ago when I was contemplating a boomer of an AR. Can't remember why exactly, but I was convinced that between .50 Beowulf, .450 Bushmaster, and .458 SOCOM, the .458 would be the ticket.

I never pursued it...went with 6.5 Grendel instead.

I have 2 --458 socom. an SBR shooting subs (which I Really LOVE) and a 16''. its like throwing a school bus at the pig!

you can go light or up to a 550+ grain projectile. I want to say up to 600grains. I could be wrong. my sub sbr upper shoots 425gr.

338 Federal

Thanks for your opinion.

Thanks for your opinion.

45 Raptor

^^^^^^^
For the Win!

It also has a straight wall case.
It's a Rimless 460 S&W Mag.

I finally settled in with the 300/gr Hornady XTP Mag's @ 2,150 fps

The .458 has better numbers and is more versatile but the .450 is cheap, convenient and good. Pick your poison.

Which one has cheaper and more available ammo?

450 Bushmaster

Depends.

I built and used a couple of 458 Socoms for pigs.
Was a bit of overkill with 325gr hornady bullets and I had no problem hitting out to 150 yards.
One running away shot at close range was nasty!

I went with 458 in AR platform because it indexes off the shoulder like a rifle bullet.
If I did it again, I would go 458.
If you get a Tromix barrel/bolt combo, it will run like butter.

The 458 will kill a lot of scopes and NV devices so make sure it can handle the recoil.
Pretty sure the 450 or any of the big bores would do same though.

I have both in ar’s and really like them. If you are gonna go past 100 yards the 450 is flatter. Seems like the 450 zeroed in at 150 will be like 3.4 low at 200 if I remember right. The 458 will drop pretty bad after 100. I have a feeder at 200 so I have to consider it.

I have grandkids in the stand with me most of the time so a feeder at 200 is less bothered by noises. Ha

I don’t have the Raptor, but do have the parent case, the 460XVR. This year I’m slinging some Buffalo Bore 315gr semi wad cutter’s. They say 2100fps out of my 8 3/4 Barrel. How’s it shoot in an AR platform?

BigPig,

My Raptor runs smooth.
I do not have any Feed Issues etc.

I have only run the 300/gr Bowling Balls.

I can get 3 out of 5 holes touching at 100/yrds.
I would say it is a solid 1.50 MOA (Definitely Sub 2.00 MOA)
I went 8 for 8 on a 4" gong at 180 yards last trip out with it.

The dirtier the barrel gets, the more it seems to like it.

I made the mistake of cleaning it once.
I won't do that again until it starts to spray again.

I prob won’t be doing the Raptor. I’ll stick with the 460 and look to have a Savage rebarreled for it. Figure a 16 inch barrel with suppressor would make a sweet little rifle flinging 315gr rocks around 2600 FPS

Good info

The difference is one of them uses a .452 caliber handgun bullet and the other one uses a .458 caliber rifle bullet. Unless you are trying to kill an elephant (literally). The 450 bushmaster is better.

Interesting.
I would have gone with the opposite.
There are many good bullets for the 45/70 available for sub elephantine targets. The SOCOM has a similar velocity to the 45/70 so terminal performance should be good.
The pistol bullets in the Bushmaster are being driven well above designed velocity (Unless using bullets specifically for the Bushmaster) and will tend to fragment. I have a 44 caliber rifle and have an issue with bullets fragmenting.

M

Both rounds are over kill for any Texas game. Does terminal ballistics really matter? You want to kill something more deader than dead? I think that external ballistics for a longer shot is better than terminal ballistic in this situation.