Magnum Wheel Man
New member
I'm torn...
buddy has a junker ( in his words... he does really good work ) he's putting together parts he's collected over the years... strong bolt action, not sure of it's heritage, he has either a 54 caliber barrel or or a 50 caliber barrel... it's currently wearing a highly reshapped Mossburg shotgun stock... say's he'll make steel case heads for the brass shotshells & anneal the cases for me if the 54 doesn't offer "enough" thump
54 caliber would use 32 ga brass shot shells, if loaded as a flat nose shot shell or slug, it would be limited to a single shot, but he can fit the box mag to hold 3 32 ga shotshells if enough bullet protrudes out of the case, so they'll feed from the mag... I could use 54 caliber round balls & some filler to seat the round balls at the case mouth, & he has already made a 54 caliber bullet mold mag would hold at least 2 with one in the chamber
pros... it's big, therefor it's cool, lead bullets & uniqueness, enough power for deer easy & cheap to reload, could probably legally hunt deer in shotgun season with 32 ga stamped on the barrel & 32 ga headstamp brass cases, round balls easy to get, custom reloading dies would come with the package, price is cheaper ( less work & things to buy to shoot )
cons... weaker shot shell cases than the action can handle... nothing off the shelf about this gun, bullets hard to get
50 Alaskan would shoot factory 50 Alaskan cartridges, mag would hold at least 2 with one in the chamber
pros... factory more powerful cartridge, powerfull enough for any game, including bears, probably better resale value than the 54, bullets easy to get
cons... more things to buy to get the rifle going ( dies, etc. ) probably very fierce recoil, price of ammo
either way the rifle will be a "beater" gun, the stock may be coated with truck bed liner to cover up all the modifications
which caliber would you choose if you could buy an ugly custom gun for dirt cheap ???
buddy has a junker ( in his words... he does really good work ) he's putting together parts he's collected over the years... strong bolt action, not sure of it's heritage, he has either a 54 caliber barrel or or a 50 caliber barrel... it's currently wearing a highly reshapped Mossburg shotgun stock... say's he'll make steel case heads for the brass shotshells & anneal the cases for me if the 54 doesn't offer "enough" thump
54 caliber would use 32 ga brass shot shells, if loaded as a flat nose shot shell or slug, it would be limited to a single shot, but he can fit the box mag to hold 3 32 ga shotshells if enough bullet protrudes out of the case, so they'll feed from the mag... I could use 54 caliber round balls & some filler to seat the round balls at the case mouth, & he has already made a 54 caliber bullet mold mag would hold at least 2 with one in the chamber
pros... it's big, therefor it's cool, lead bullets & uniqueness, enough power for deer easy & cheap to reload, could probably legally hunt deer in shotgun season with 32 ga stamped on the barrel & 32 ga headstamp brass cases, round balls easy to get, custom reloading dies would come with the package, price is cheaper ( less work & things to buy to shoot )
cons... weaker shot shell cases than the action can handle... nothing off the shelf about this gun, bullets hard to get
50 Alaskan would shoot factory 50 Alaskan cartridges, mag would hold at least 2 with one in the chamber
pros... factory more powerful cartridge, powerfull enough for any game, including bears, probably better resale value than the 54, bullets easy to get
cons... more things to buy to get the rifle going ( dies, etc. ) probably very fierce recoil, price of ammo
either way the rifle will be a "beater" gun, the stock may be coated with truck bed liner to cover up all the modifications
which caliber would you choose if you could buy an ugly custom gun for dirt cheap ???