458 socom

[wadeestes]

I'm building a AR-15 and will start with a 223 Wylde barrel.

I'm thinking down the road and wondering who has shot the 458 socom and what did you think? Accuracy? Recoil? Other impressions.

Thanks!

 

[jmorris]

I have one that is just over 1 moa with my hunting loads, it is pretty heavy but recoil is a lot less than my 45-70 lever gun with equivalent loads.

 

[68wj]

Accuracy was good at 100 yards. Recoil was in the 20 ga range. Gun was a RRA.

 

[BigBore44]

Hopefully Flintknapper will chime in. He has a nice Socom and he reloads.

 

[jmorris]

Hopefully Flintknapper will chime in. He has a nice Socom and he reloads.

If you don't reload a 458 socom is not for you. Factory ammo is like hen's teeth and stupid expensive.

 

[wadeestes]

Thanks for your input. I have a Marlin 1895 guide gun in 45-70 and wondered how close the socom would perform to the Marlin, which I love for bear hunting. It sounds like similar accuracy with less recoil. Nice.
Do you know what kind of velocity the socom can safely generate with quality hand loads?

 

[Mike1234567]

Yeah... PM Flintknapper. He's very helpful. Here's an excellent THREAD.

 

[jerkface11]

Brass can be hard to find.

 

[Welding Rod]

I have a RRA SOCOM. It is very fun to shoot, but almost prohibitive if you don't hand load. I consider it a 200 yard cartridge due to typical trajectory of the loads for it.

I bought mine maybe 5-7 years ago. It almost immediately had a chipped locking lug in the back of the barrel. I was shooting Corbon ammo, which I notice RRA now on their website has a warning against using, for an unexplained reason, until further notice.

Plus the extractors are hand shaped from an extractor for a different cartridge (I can't remember which one). Mine had been over-aggressively ground down to where there was almost no rim engagement. It worked but ruined the rims on one firing. I also had to bend the lips on a magazine to get 405 grain Remington bullets to feed reliably.

The two were fixed under warranty no-problem. It works great, though I don't shoot it a lot. It is quite accurate too, at about 1.5 MOA or better with good loads.

It is awesome on steel gongs.

 

[bldsmith]

Have a RRA car length socom and it is probably my favorite rifle. Really Really fun to shoot. Recoil, not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. As mentioned about a stout 20ga. I also picked up a Marlin 1895 45-70G. Looking at the ballistics and reloading stats the 458 and 45-70 are almost identical. I wanted the lever since I had so many pills in 458. Also just in case I have the opportunity to go back down to Ca and hunt pigs I can take it.

 

[jmorris]

Thanks for your input. I have a Marlin 1895 guide gun in 45-70 and wondered how close the socom would perform to the Marlin, which I love for bear hunting. It sounds like similar accuracy with less recoil. Nice.
Do you know what kind of velocity the socom can safely generate with quality hand loads?

With factory 45-70 loads the socom can pass the marlin for power but load up to what the marlin can stand an the 45-70 wins.

On the socom I have 405g loads that run just a tick over 1600 fps but generally run 500 grain bullets subsonic if I am getting rid of hogs, still plenty of power.