Beowulf/500S&W/458SOCOM/45Bushmaster/499LW etc bolt actions?

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SprayAndPray

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Are there any "monster-caliber" bolt action rifles (not thinking about .50bmg, not at all). Will there be any? Can they be custom made?

Thinking about 500 S&W, .50 beowulf, 458 socom etc etc as long as its almost .50. There are probably more.

Which ones will disappear and which ones will survive?
 
Can a custom be made?


Well for the right amount of money, anything is possible. But looking at the specs of the .500 S&W, it looks very possible. The diameter at the base of the 500 is .526", while the base diameter of a standard magnum is .532. Just 6/1000th of an inch difference. I'd say go for it. The difference in length would make some problems. But the easy way around that is to make it a single shot. Or another possibility would be to load .50BMG bullets into the 500 S&W cases, to an OAL of 3.34".

I have a Spanish Mauser, with a 30" .45 cal. muzzleloading barrel, made to shoot the .45 ACP. And pretty darn accurately. So to answer that part of the question, anything is possible. If you can dream it up, you'll be able to find someone that is willing to take your money and build it.

As far as factory guns, not that I've seen, yet. I'd say look for them in this order; break action single shot (someone probably already makes a barrel for the Encore), falling block single shot, then a lever action. The last two could be reversed, it just depends on if Marlin or Ruger jump on it first.

Wyman
 
You can chamber a heck of a lot of bolt-guns for any of those calibers. All you would need is minor bolt/extractor work, and a new barrel. Rebated rim designs you list will work in smaller actions than ones with magnum bolt heads. Any action designed to handle .270 or 30-06 pressures should support the bolt face pressures of the 500SW. The only other issue would be some magazine modification to feed the shorter cased rounds correctly, which I can't picture being much of an issue for a custom smith.

I simply wonder, when doing such a conversion, why limit yourself to the capacity of a pistol case? ;)
 
Or another possibility would be to load .50BMG bullets into the 500 S&W cases, to an OAL of 3.34".

Bad idea, besides being about twice as heavy, 50BMG bullets are actually .510" in diameter as opposed to a true .500" for the S&W
 
The 50BW and the 458 SC were designed to be used in a magazine fed semi auto. They have reduced powder capacites with heavy bullets but work for hunting and heavy duty blasting .
With a suitable pile of money most any type of gun could be made but what would be gained by putting a mediun power but hard to find and expensive caliber in a bolt action when there are many fine choices that could reach any power level and end up being cheaper.
Sometimes folks get all caught up in the coolness factor of putting a certain caliber in a certain type of firearm and spend a pile of money in doing so but more times than not it has been done (possibly under a different name)
 
Find a company making .50cal unchambered rifle blanks, have a chamber reamer for .500S&W made for you (about $80) and send it to the barrelsmith and have him chamber you a .500S&W barrel. Then you have to find a bolt face that will work properly with it, though...

I bet a .500S&W 4-shot bolt action guide gun would be nice for carry in Kodiak country.

-Jason
 
Steyr makes a bolt action .450 Marlin that looks kind of intriguing. You could also rebarrel any short action with a magnum bolt face for that caliber.
 
kingjoey-thanks for that little tidbit, I was unaware that the 500 was actually .500. But on the weight issue, there is a company, selling both bullet and ammo for the 500 S&W with a hardcast 700 gr. bullet.

jubjub-the only factory short actions, with true magnum bolt faces, are the old 6.5 and .350 Remington Magnums. Lots of luck finding one of those. The new fangled short mags use a larger .555" boltface. It might be possible to find a smith that would open up a standard boltface to the magnum boltface dimensions. But I do know that many will not modify a commercial bolt, only military.

Wyman
 
Those monster pistol calibers are designed to be shot from short barrels, and the the monster AR calibers are designed, as pointed out, for monster ARs. If you want a monster bolt action rifle, why not get it in a caliber designed for that, such as .458 Lott or .460 Weatherby Magnum? The Weatherby will give you a 500 grain bullet at 2500 feet per second. If you need more gun than that, it's time for air support.
 
Thats just the thing, I want less gun. But large holes. I know there are ton of ultrapowerful calibers but wouldn´t it be fun with big bullets and still shootable all day long (however I dont know if these calibers are something you can shoot all day long).

Ideally I would like something with a muzzle energy of ~2500-2600 ft·lbf, but not much more, yeah and 50 cal (or so).
 
A favorite combo for some hog hunters hunter I know is the .45-70 chambered in a modified Siamese Mauser. The conversion is easy because these mausers were chambered for a rimmed rorund.

If you handload, the .45-70 is a wonderfully versatile round.
 
between these calibers which is cheapest to shoot all-in-all?
Which ones would you guys avoid?

.500 S&W Magnum
.460 S&W Magnum
.50 Beowulf
.458 SOCOM
.45-70
.450 Bushmaster
.50 Action Express (these 2 are weaker iirc)
.454 Casull

Which ones has the biggest selection of bullets?

Ok lets say almost all of those can be loaded to 2500ft lb, but you change bullet weight from 300 to 500, still same energy, will there be more recoil??

Would it be better to go slow and heavy or light and fast on moose and similar?
 
between these calibers which is cheapest to shoot all-in-all?
460 magnum hands down because you can still shoot .454 casull and 45lc as "specials" in the same gun

Which ones has the biggest selection of bullets?

biggest and cheapest again goes to the .460 everything from cheap cowboy action bullets to tough heavy hunting bullets
 
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