Big Bore AR Pistol Question

[CP]

Anyone hunt with a .450 Bushmaster, .458 SOCOM or similar pistol?  I'm toying with putting one together for firearms restricted areas but I'm a bit worried about managing the recoil.  Looks like a black eye waiting to happen.

How manageable are they?   

Do you load them down or use full power loads?

[Rob]

Shooting a 50 Beowulf AR pistol is like holding and firing a 20 gauge next to your face.  It is workable but very important to hold it tight to avoid scope eye.  However adding an arm brace makes a huge difference.

Its a hoot to shoot!

[carpsniperg2]

I would not go 450 bushmaster in a pistol the recoil would be brutal. That’s coming from me who loves recoil and big bore rifles and pistols. I have shot a 458socom pistol and it was very manageable. You could also look to a 10mm build plenty of power for a lot of close range hunting.

[CP]

I’m surprised that no one fesses up to hunting with one of these.  Seems that they would be the perfect road hunter’s gun.  One could legally carry it loaded while driving. 
I probably won’t do that but I ordered a 10” .450 BM upper.  We will see how it shoots with factory ammo.

 If that isn’t much fun to shoot, I’ll get some dies and load it down a bit.  I got a bunch of suitable bullets and powder lying around.

[CP]

Yep, brutal is a good adjective for it  .  It's a beast with Hornady Black ammo.  Shoots a 1" group at 50 yards with the dot but it is punishing.  I could shoot it once or twice a year but I'm thinking a 45 colt bullet loaded to about 1400 fps should be more than enough for blacktail. 

[konradcountry]

How loud is that thing?

I've hunted with a 7.5" blackout and a red dot.

I could cheek to a hundred yards but anything past that was kind of sketchy.

Works fine in thick timber where you know there won't be long shots.

Given the choice I'd still rather take a shotgun but the ar pistol is pretty fun.

[carpsniperg2]

Man that looks like fun but brutal like I figured lol

They make a few brakes that might help take it down.

[birdshooter1189]

Looks like a BCA upper.  I recently got one myself.  16" 450 bushmaster.  I've put 12 rounds through mine so far.  It's an impressive round.

[CP]

Yep, Bear Creek.  I’ve only had one shooting session with it but I didn’t notice that it was any louder than my .300 BLK pistol.  The recoil however isn’t even in the same ballpark as the .300.  The recoil calculator gives me 4.5 ft-lbs of recoil energy for the .300 vs 20 ft-lbs for the .450. 

I don’t want to brake it but it’s unusable right now with factory ammo and the Shockwave blade that I have on the lower.  The hard-plastic blade is downright dangerous; I’d be better off without it.

I few things that I’m considering to tame it:
  Replace the Shockwave brace with a SB Tactical SBA4
  Add some weight (heaver optic, maybe some lead weights in the brace)
  Load down the ammo – I have some 225g FTX, and some other lower velocity suitable projectiles 

 
Hornady is coming out with a subsonic load soon, that may be the ticket.
https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/450-bushmaster-tbd-gr-sub-x#!/

If I can get this thing to behave, I’ll probably get in line for a suppressor for it.

[birdshooter1189]

I believe it on the recoil.  After my first shot with it i thought "this isn't bad".  After the 6th shot i was feeling it in my cheek bone and shoulder. 

Something that you may consider if you want to use it with an arm brace, I have a friend who has "shooting shirts" with a sewn in recoil pad in the shoulder of the shirt. I'm not sure if the shirts were home made or commercial.  I borrowed one once and it worked nice for shooting a 300 win mag on a bench.  I suspect it would work well with an AR arm brace too.

My 450 upper is on a rifle with a standard A-2 stock.  I put a Vortex 3-12x56 scope on it.  The last 3-shot group i shot with it was about 5" at 50 yds using Federal whitetail classic 300gr hp factory ammo. I was frustrated with that, I then noticed scratch marks on the scope indicating that the scope slid in the rings.  It moved about 1/2" until it jammed up on the bell of the scope.  I then pulled the scope off and put a bead of JB-weld on top and bottom of the scope rings and then screwed it all back together.  I haven't shot it again yet but I'm pretty confident that the scope won't move on me this time. 

I'd like to get a suppressor for mine as well and have 3 or 4 loads for it:
1. subsonic quiet load
2. high velocity/light jacketed varmint load
3. high velocity/low expansion "penetrator" load for bear hunting
4. cheap/low recoil plinking load

[JohnVH]

I have a 50 Beowulf 10" pistol, its not bad on your shoulder, and its not bad one handed as a pistol. Its alot of fun!

[CP]

The shooting shirt is a good idea.  Nothing the BATF can do us for modifying our shirts. 

[Rob]

The shooting shirt is a good idea.  Nothing the BATF can do us for modifying our shirts.

BATF says "hold my beer"

[konradcountry]

Yep, Bear Creek.  I’ve only had one shooting session with it but I didn’t notice that it was any louder than my .300 BLK pistol.  The recoil however isn’t even in the same ballpark as the .300.  The recoil calculator gives me 4.5 ft-lbs of recoil energy for the .300 vs 20 ft-lbs for the .450. 

4.5 would be a pretty tame subsonic out of a suppressor. So compared to supers around twice that of blackout it sounds like.

That still puts you into 20 gauge recoil....next to your face.

I few things that I’m considering to tame it:
  Replace the Shockwave brace with a SB Tactical SBA4
  Add some weight (heaver optic, maybe some lead weights in the brace)

Could add a bipod.

I shoot blackout supers and found that I was better with a foam tube over the shockwave and I also use a pretty aggressive angular grip.

But I still prefer a sabot shotgun in a restricted area.

I don't wear a lot of camo and where I go has a lot of California transplants.

So would rather not deal with police calls about some guy with a scary gun.

[CP]

Maybe I'll paint it pink so it isn't so scary.