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The .450 Bushmaster: What You Should Know
The .450 Bushmaster is one of the most well-known cartridges in the U.S. More so now as the gun control debate has continued to rage. This resulted in several states banning certain types of cartridges for conventional hunting use.
The .450 Bushmaster was created directly as a response to these regulations. Let’s dive deep into this cartridge and see what it’s good for.
Is it a great pick for your kit?
What Is the .450 Bushmaster?
The .450 Bushmaster is a cartridge primarily designed for deer hunters and AR platform users. It’s relatively new compared to many staple cartridges on the market. It has a bit of a torn reputation between its fans and detractors, thanks to its odd design choices.
The .450 Bushmaster is a straight-case cartridge and normally used for hunting medium to large game. It’s popular for many because its caliber is legal in most of the states that don’t normally permit you to hunt with traditional bottleneck cartridges.
In case you don’t know, a bottleneck cartridge allows you to have more propellant behind the bullet. Thus, these cartridges are better for longer range shooting.
Straight case cartridges don’t have as much propellant and are usually more legal as a result, especially when combined with an assault rifle.
In terms of effective range, the .450 Bushmaster is generally effective at around 250 yards to 300 yards, particularly if you are trying to down a medium-sized game. You can use it slightly outside this range to some extent, though you’ll have better luck with a different cartridge if you really want to push up to 500 yards or so.
What’s It Used For?
The .450 Bushmaster is ideally used as a hunting and target cartridge when fitted with an AR platform. You can combine it with either AR 10 or AR 15 rifles depending on their specifications.
It produces enough power to reliably take down deer in a single shot, but it also doesn’t provide tons of recoil. This makes the .450 Bushmaster an incredibly controllable and user-friendly cartridge, making it might be a good choice if you want to practice hunting or target shooting as a beginner.
Again, it doesn’t have as much propellant as many other classic hunting AR cartridges, so newcomers to the sport shouldn’t have too much trouble handling recoil regardless of their rifle build.
Ideal Applications
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Whether or not the .450 Bushmaster is a great choice for you largely depends on your state laws regarding cartridge limits.
For instance, many states in which deer or other medium-sized game hunting is popular also have laws against bottleneck cartridges. This limits many hunters’ choices when it comes to ammunition.
The .450 Bushmaster is an easy answer, as it allows you to reliably down medium-sized at traditional hunting distances.
However, it’s also a great cartridge to get used to for target practice, thanks to its availability and current popularity. The .450 Bushmaster is pretty affordable since lots of hunters are flocking to the cartridge due to the aforementioned hunting laws.
Thus, you can purchase this ammunition in bulk amounts if you want to stock up before your local gun store runs out stuff!
Awesome Hunting Cartridge
All in all, the .450 Bushmaster might be a viable hunting cartridge alternative if you currently live in a state that has regulations concerning cartridge type. It’s still important to maintain the fight against excessive gun-control laws.
But until then, the Bushmaster might be a suitable replacement for another cartridge if you want to go on a hunt or use your favorite rifle in the meantime.
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