Does anyone have any experience with them? What are the general opinions of them? they look like a LOT of fun.
they are fun, but expensive to feed if you dont reload. i took my 17 yo )at the time) brother shooting for the first time, and let him shoot it thinking it was 5.56, needless to say hilarious
yeah they look like a lot of fun. any idea on how the .50 beowulf compares to a 12gauge slug though?
i think its more comparable to a 20g
The ammo has become much more available recently. Factory ammo cost is about half that of .458 SOCOM. You can buy an upper or roll your own. I built mine for a little more than a standard entry upper.
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How does the 50 compare to the 450 Bushmaster?
Jeff
Well, I know if you are a reloader there is a much better bullet selection for the Beowulf. The .450 Bushmaster is limited to .452 cal bullets used in .45acp. If Bushmaster was smart they would have made it .458 and had much better bullet selection.
Here is a .50 Beowulf ballistics chart: http://www.alexanderarms.com/beowulf_ballistics.pdf
Here is some info on the .450 Bushy: http://www.hornady.com/assets/files/ftx_load_data/450_bushmaster_ftx.pdf
It would be nice if a major would start loading for it, but probably still aren’t enough of the out there to justify it. Make a helluva Fish and game gun where there’s big bears.
Been looking at the 50 for a while, ammo is has always been the issue.
Ammo availability has been much better as of late. Still half the price of .458 SOCOM
And price really does count at times in this day and age.
How do you figure a better selection of bullets for the Beowulf? There are more .452 bullets for the 45 ACP/45 Colt/454 Casull than there are .500 bullets for the 500 S&W Mag/50 AE.
The .458 bullets are for the 45/70, SOCOM, and 458 Win Mag (or bigger). The only way I see a “better” selection of .458 bullets is if you want over 300 grains.
That’s what I suspected, and that is what browsing Midway for 10 minutes confirmed. I’m curious as to what you are looking for that you like the .458 and .500 bullets better than the .452s.
Like a lot of other people, I like the idea of these, but the ammo costs are keeping me away.
Pretty hard to beat out the 458 SOCOM for selection, believe they have that corner covered.
I should have clarified. I meant a better selection of heavier bullets. In my narrow thinking when I consider a big bore I immediately think of the heaviest bullets I can sling. I have also read that the twist rate in the Bushmaster limits bullet weight to around 350 grains. I haven’t investigated it yet and it may not be true but it is worth looking into.
I made my choice on factory loaded ammo availability and the availability of aftermarket parts such as barrels since I wanted to roll my own.
They are great as a range gun to have fun with.
There was a security company that brought several to Afghanistan in the early days. Several guys turned in their M4’s and proceeded to carry the Beowulf. When they finally got to the range, they realized reliability was not there and quickly drew their M4’s back out.
Saving up to build one for hog hunting shot one last week lots of fun.
I would not trust it. I live in an area with big bears. 12 gauge Breneke Slugs are a minimum and a hot loaded 45 70 pushing a 400 grain bullet to 2000 fps is better. Most of these rounds seem to have 45/70 light ballistics. (300 grain bullet at 1600 or so) not enough. A semi auto .308 like a properly running Ar10 would be a better choice. More rounds and more power. Some of the fish and wildlife Troopers up here are getting Ar10 carbines. Personally I think a AR10 carbine in 338 Federal would be a great bear defense rifle.
Pat
Our 50 Beowulf 400 grain load pushes out at 1800 fps. One of my customers shot through both shoulders of a bull moose at +100 yards. While the cartridge drops fps to a hot 45-70 load you get more frontal area. Typical expanded diameter is well in excess of 1" with gel penetration of +36". If you need anything with more penetration I have brass solids. I do have lighter bullets and in some instances will drop velocity for a particular bullet to bring the velocity envelope within that of the bullet design, but to characterize the rifle in that way is not correct.
They see regular use for bears and have proved to be effective.
Bill Alexander
I’ve never shot a bear, (yet…), but I have several friends who have, and I would agree the hard version Brennecke’s or a hot 45/70 are great choices. But 400 grains at 2000 fps is hotter than even the gold standard Randy Garrett load. His over SAAMI spec, +P Hammerhead is a 420 at 1850 and his regular Hammerhead is the same 420 at 1650, and that load has killed plenty of big bears.
As far as a .308 semi, that’s not something I’ve ever heard recommended for big bears. Sure, big bears have been killed with them, along with much smaller rounds, but I can’t see them choosing a .308 for that. Fish and Game in California has been issuing .308 semi’s for a number of years, not for bears, but mainly because they have to contact folks with high powered hunting rifles, and I would think AK F&G would have the same scenarios.
No, if the Beowulf system is reliable, I’d choose a .50 caliber, heavy, hard bullet at 1800 fps, or even 1650 fps, over a .308 for big bears, any day.
I would think they might have realized the magazine capacity wasn’t there for a mission like that…
I could see the round having some value in limited scenarios, but if I’m in a combat zone, I sure wouldn’t want to be changing mags every 10 rounds…