[Greg Storey]

Mr. Stanton:      Really interested in a .50 cal  but after shooting my guide gun in 450 Marlin from prone for 20 rounds 1 day I think I need more weight and a different stock design.  I love the look of the 50 Alaskan and note that WIN used the basic 348 case dimensions to design their new short magnum.  I have a 416/350 short action Ruger that I would not mind rebarelling as it has never shot well.  If the 300WSM was necked up with minimum taper could it be given enough shoulder to headspace well.  Might this fat case feed well through an unaltered Ruger short magazine rifle?  What sort of ballistics could I expect out of a fat 20" barrell?Is this a practical conversion?

 

[Greg Storey]

Thanks Marshall, I am in the middle of moving south from Nunavut to the southern NWT and my reference materials are scattered hither and yon.  I think I remember reading that  the 300WSM is a rimmed improved version of the .348 Win.  I know the 50 Alaskan based on the 348 has no shoulder and headspaces on the rim but I forget how much taper is in the case.  I could rechamber the existing barrell to .416/300WSM and get Taylor performance from a short action but I think that the existing barrell is the reason for the poor accuracy of the existing rifle.  Besides something about caliber 50 stirs my imagination.  Are the Remington short magnums based on the ULTRA mag line any larger in diameter?  I'd rather go with the Win case as Winchester seems to honor it's dud cartridges better than Remington.  I have collected about 800 rounds of 6.5 Rem Mag to keep my two going while I believe you can still buy .225 Win.  Thanks again.

 

[Greg Storey]

Thanks all.  Sounds like the two short action rounds are not quite fat enough to have a usable shoulder at 50 cal .  Ahh well, likely it is too much of a good thing anyway.  The 416/350 has a light barrell coming in at around 7 pounds and 12 rounds from prone with 350 grain bullets is not much fun.  I like the idea of a 50 just to play with something different as I have owned a 458 Win and now own a 450 Marlin.  I do like the 45's though interestingly enough on caribou my 6.5 Rem Mag with 120 grain Sierras at 3000 ft/sec tends to have a higher percentage of fast kills than the big 45's do.  The quick shock of a speedy bullet seems better suited to smaller game although if I had a curious polar bear outside the old wall tent I prefer the big 45's, and if I can figure out a way to build a .50, I will.

 

[Greg Storey]

J:  Thanks for the idea.  I also thought about the Lazzeroni which have a .580 diameter but worry about cost of brass ans was hoping to use the existing magnum bolt face.