458 Socom is a bit too much like the mild 45-70. It's awesome to have that power in an AR, but up here we can only go to shooting ranges with those. I'm talking about a bolt action rifle I can take to bear country. Nothing wrong with the 45-70, I'm just quickly finding that getting a bolt gun to work it well is a bit difficult. Having an old sporterized P14 turned to 45-70. Will let me hot load to my heart's content, as it has a strong action. I'll probably get a lever gun eventually but I just like bolt actions. Personal preference, and my muscle memory is really worked in bolt guns.
Thans for the links. I don't think that "not having much shoulder" is a bad thing, especially when you look at what that case can do. The ability to have more than 450 Marlin in a short bolt action rifle is amazing. After my P14 is done, I'll probably start looking for a rifle that I can turn into a 458 caliber from a WSM case. John Noveske himself made one, that's worth something to me. 16.5" barrel that gets a 400 grainer moving at 2100ft/s? Sounds like my gun.
I'm trying to end up with a rifle that has peep sights, low weight, hopefully can have a plastic or laminate thumbhole or pistol grip (like an AR pistol grip, not a rifle grip) and shoot that nice, big bullet pretty fast.
