Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Been working on two different rifle projects to test something new out of my shop. Many of you may have seen my report on my 458 Allen Magnum a while back which was driving the custom Hammer Bullets target bullet of 680 gr. to 3200 fps out of a 36" 12 twist barrel with great accuracy.
well, had a customer with a rifle on order and asked if he would be willing to be a bit of a test patient and allow me to push the limits a bit farther and see where we end up. Here are some teaser pics of whats been going on.
Left to right, original 458 Allen Magnum formed case, middle two are headspace gauge and throat length gauge for my new 458 Maximus design and the right is one of my formed 510 Maximus cases.
many of you may have noticed that in the last report i called the shorter wildcat round the Maximus but decided to change that to Allen Magnum. The new design will be based on a full length bmg case with no shortening. As you can see in this pic, the resulting cases once fire formed will have significantly larger case capacity then the original design.
some have asked why not stay with the original design as it was working so well. With the Hammer bullets easily matching the bc of the very best LR 50 cal solids already and being able to be driven to 3200 fps levels already, far superior to any bmg or pretty much anything else out there for that matter.
well, reason is two fold, one, thats just my nature to push the limits, call it my curiosity to see what can be done. Two, actual forming the full length round is dramatically easier then the shorter version!! Using my recommended RWS brass, simply neck down properly, prime, throw a proper charge of unique handgun powder, fill case with corn meal and press paper wad in the neck, clean and fire, out comes a fully formed case ready to be FL sized and loaded with full power accuracy loads. This is the only case i have ever tested that did not require a very hot shoulder anneal to get good shoulder blow out while forming.
here is the "little" beast. Many more, much better pics coming soon, again, just a teaser post....
this one is built on an Armalite AR50-A1 National match donor rifle, blueprinted, trigger upgrade and a 41", 12 twist barrel installed with one of my APS Super 6 port painkillers on the muzzle. Rifle over all length is a hair shy of 72"!!
So what level of performance is this beast getting compared to that rifle chambered in the shorter Allen Mag design and 36" barrel, will be reporting on that very soon!!
Suspect the gen 2 Hammer Match 680 gr will get to its target with a bit less TOF then the original versions....
Test rifle number 2 is one of my personal rifles again based on a fully blueprinted Armalite AR-50A1 donor rifle but with a bit of a change up in barrel. Rifle #2 will wear a 45" barrel and cut with a 10 twist pitch..... this rifle will be tested with two new prototype Hammer Match bullet designs, one slightly under 800 grains and one slightly over 800 grains. Yes, we are going over 800 grains weight in a 458 cal bore!!!
again, will be reporting soon on these beasts and their results. From day one, I designed the 458 Allen Magnum and then 458 Maximus with a single goal in mind, offer sustained supersonic velocity to 4000 yards....... Stay tuned to see if that goal is reached or not.
well, had a customer with a rifle on order and asked if he would be willing to be a bit of a test patient and allow me to push the limits a bit farther and see where we end up. Here are some teaser pics of whats been going on.
Left to right, original 458 Allen Magnum formed case, middle two are headspace gauge and throat length gauge for my new 458 Maximus design and the right is one of my formed 510 Maximus cases.
many of you may have noticed that in the last report i called the shorter wildcat round the Maximus but decided to change that to Allen Magnum. The new design will be based on a full length bmg case with no shortening. As you can see in this pic, the resulting cases once fire formed will have significantly larger case capacity then the original design.
some have asked why not stay with the original design as it was working so well. With the Hammer bullets easily matching the bc of the very best LR 50 cal solids already and being able to be driven to 3200 fps levels already, far superior to any bmg or pretty much anything else out there for that matter.
well, reason is two fold, one, thats just my nature to push the limits, call it my curiosity to see what can be done. Two, actual forming the full length round is dramatically easier then the shorter version!! Using my recommended RWS brass, simply neck down properly, prime, throw a proper charge of unique handgun powder, fill case with corn meal and press paper wad in the neck, clean and fire, out comes a fully formed case ready to be FL sized and loaded with full power accuracy loads. This is the only case i have ever tested that did not require a very hot shoulder anneal to get good shoulder blow out while forming.
here is the "little" beast. Many more, much better pics coming soon, again, just a teaser post....
this one is built on an Armalite AR50-A1 National match donor rifle, blueprinted, trigger upgrade and a 41", 12 twist barrel installed with one of my APS Super 6 port painkillers on the muzzle. Rifle over all length is a hair shy of 72"!!
So what level of performance is this beast getting compared to that rifle chambered in the shorter Allen Mag design and 36" barrel, will be reporting on that very soon!!
Suspect the gen 2 Hammer Match 680 gr will get to its target with a bit less TOF then the original versions....Test rifle number 2 is one of my personal rifles again based on a fully blueprinted Armalite AR-50A1 donor rifle but with a bit of a change up in barrel. Rifle #2 will wear a 45" barrel and cut with a 10 twist pitch..... this rifle will be tested with two new prototype Hammer Match bullet designs, one slightly under 800 grains and one slightly over 800 grains. Yes, we are going over 800 grains weight in a 458 cal bore!!!
again, will be reporting soon on these beasts and their results. From day one, I designed the 458 Allen Magnum and then 458 Maximus with a single goal in mind, offer sustained supersonic velocity to 4000 yards....... Stay tuned to see if that goal is reached or not.
