The .450 Bushmaster is a

rifle cartridge A rifle cartridge is a firearm cartridge primarily designed and intended for use in a rifle/carbine, or machine gun. Types Full-powered A full-powered cartridge is a rifle cartridge used interchangeably between service rifles, sniper rifles ...

developed by Tim LeGendre of LeMag Firearms, and licensed to

Bushmaster Firearms International Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC, was an American firearm manufacturer and distributor. The company's product line revolved around semi-automatic pistol and rifle variants of the M4/AR-15 design. The company is currently defunct; it merge ...

. The .450 Bushmaster is designed to be used in standard

M16 The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...

s and AR-15s, using modified

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

and upper receiver assemblies.

History

The .450 Bushmaster is descended from the Thumper concept popularized by the gun writer

Jeff Cooper John Dean "Jeff" Cooper (May 10, 1920 – September 25, 2006) was a United States Marine, the creator of a "modern technique" of handgun shooting, and an expert on the use and history of small arms. Early life and education Cooper was ...

. Cooper was dissatisfied with the small-diameter 5.56×45mm NATO (.223 Remington) of the AR-15, and envisioned a need for a large bore (.44 cal or greater) cartridge in a

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger, and uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and load another cartridge into the chamber. For comparison, a bolt-act ...

to provide one-shot kills on big-game animals at 250 yards. Inspired by this, LeGendre developed his .45 Professional cartridge, and later built and delivered an AR-15 in .45 Professional to Cooper. Bushmaster requested the ammunition manufacturer

Hornady Hornady Manufacturing Company is an American manufacturer of ammunition cartridges, components and handloading equipments, based in Grand Island, Nebraska. History The company is currently run by Joyce Hornady's son, Steve Hornady, who took over ...

to produce the .45 Professional cartridge for this project, but Hornady wanted to shorten the cartridge case and overall length to accommodate their 0.452 in. 250-grain pointed SST flex-tip bullet. Bushmaster and LeGendre approved the change from a 1.772 in. (45 mm) case and 2.362 in. (60 mm) OAL to the now standard 1.700 in. (43.18 mm) case and 2.260 in. (57.40 mm) OAL. This permitted operation in the more abundant and popular AR-15 platform versus the AR-10 platform. Also, a name change to ".450 Bushmaster" was approved.

Loadings and ballistics

The .450 Bushmaster makes use of .452 in. bullets because the lower impact velocities and energies would not adequately expand the heavier jacketed .458 in. bullets. The cartridge is chambered in bolt-action rifles by Ruger, Savage, Mossberg, and Remington, Ruger's No. 1 single shot rifle, AR-15 rifles, as well as an AR-15 pistol by Franklin Armory. Ballistically, the .450 Bushmaster has a rather flat trajectory out to 200 yards; if the firearm is zeroed at 150 yards, the user can expect to see a rise of 1.8 inches at 100 yards, zero at 150 yards, and a drop of 4.9 inches at 200 yards. The cartridge fits single-stacked in a standard AR-15 magazine with a single-stack follower. A 10-round AR-15 magazine body yields a four-round magazine, a 20-round AR-15 magazine body yields a five- to seven-round magazine, and a 30-round body yields a nine-round magazine. Hornady, Remington and Federal now manufacture ammunition for the rifle, and Starline manufactures empty brass for

handloading Handloading, or reloading, is the practice of making firearm cartridges by assembling the individual components (case, primer, propellant, and projectile), rather than purchasing mass-assembled, factory-loaded ammunition. The term ''hand ...

References

External links

Hornady Manufacturing - 450 BushmasterArchived
2009-08-05)
Bushmaster .450 Rifle & Carbine - Bushmaster FirearmsArchived
2009-08-05)
Hornady Manufacturing Company :: Ammunition :: Rifle :: Choose by Caliber :: 450 Bushmaster :: 450 Bushmaster 250 gr FTX LEVERevolution
{{DEFAULTSORT:450 Bushmaster Pistol and rifle cartridges Bushmaster firearms

History

Loadings and ballistics

See also

References

External links