I posted this rifle in a different thread a while back and stated my dislike for the detachable mag and plastic mag housing and that I had a fix on the way for it. There was some interest as to what the fix was, so here it is.
Some people obviously like detachable mags on a hunting rifle but for my style of hunting they offer zero benefit and a whole lot of negatives. To me the Howa plastic trigger guard with it's horrible mag release, coupled with the huge bulk of the housing and mag sticking down, made for a very awkward carry and easy potential to drop or lose a mag out in the bush. Before buying the rifle, I of course did a lot of research and found several potential solutions to the problem. You can buy stiffer mag release springs to make it harder to accidentally drop the mag out but of course that doesn't really solve the core issue I had. You can also buy an aluminum replacement housing for the detachable mags that replaces the crack prone plastic one but again, not the solution I was looking for. I then found a hinged floor plate conversion for the 6.5 Grendel offered by 2 companies and knew that I was on to something. Jefferson Outdoors was hugely helpful and offered me a blemish demo to try out my experiment to make it work with the 450 Bushmaster cartridge.
So my solution, while a little crude and needing a few finishing touches yet, was to simply cut down a factory mag to use as the internal box mag with their hinged floor plate conversion. With some careful measuring I was able to cut it so that there was just a few thousandths clearance between the mag box and the receiver when it was all torqued up and it feeds absolutely perfectly. I used the factory mag spring, which is really too long and very awkward to stuff back in to the housing once you pop the floor plate but surprisingly it is really easy to just load the rounds in from the top through the receiver opening. It can easily hold 2 down with one in the chamber. Maybe another round would be nice but really, it would be a rare occasion where that wasn't enough. I just cycle them through the action to unload and done.
Overall it's a game changer for me. One handed carry is so much better, it's night and day. The rifle looks so much nicer, lean and trim.
I would highly recommend Jefferson Outdoor bottom metal for anyone wanting to convert theirs to a hinged floor plate. Pretty sure they're all out of stock due to material shortages and I think they only offer 6.5 Grendel at the moment but once they get back into production, they make a nice piece. Very well machined and finished.
Anyway, here it is. Probably the only hinged floor plate 450 Bushmaster there is.
Before (not a great pic but google it if you're not sure what they look like)
After.
Some people obviously like detachable mags on a hunting rifle but for my style of hunting they offer zero benefit and a whole lot of negatives. To me the Howa plastic trigger guard with it's horrible mag release, coupled with the huge bulk of the housing and mag sticking down, made for a very awkward carry and easy potential to drop or lose a mag out in the bush. Before buying the rifle, I of course did a lot of research and found several potential solutions to the problem. You can buy stiffer mag release springs to make it harder to accidentally drop the mag out but of course that doesn't really solve the core issue I had. You can also buy an aluminum replacement housing for the detachable mags that replaces the crack prone plastic one but again, not the solution I was looking for. I then found a hinged floor plate conversion for the 6.5 Grendel offered by 2 companies and knew that I was on to something. Jefferson Outdoors was hugely helpful and offered me a blemish demo to try out my experiment to make it work with the 450 Bushmaster cartridge.
So my solution, while a little crude and needing a few finishing touches yet, was to simply cut down a factory mag to use as the internal box mag with their hinged floor plate conversion. With some careful measuring I was able to cut it so that there was just a few thousandths clearance between the mag box and the receiver when it was all torqued up and it feeds absolutely perfectly. I used the factory mag spring, which is really too long and very awkward to stuff back in to the housing once you pop the floor plate but surprisingly it is really easy to just load the rounds in from the top through the receiver opening. It can easily hold 2 down with one in the chamber. Maybe another round would be nice but really, it would be a rare occasion where that wasn't enough. I just cycle them through the action to unload and done.
Overall it's a game changer for me. One handed carry is so much better, it's night and day. The rifle looks so much nicer, lean and trim.
I would highly recommend Jefferson Outdoor bottom metal for anyone wanting to convert theirs to a hinged floor plate. Pretty sure they're all out of stock due to material shortages and I think they only offer 6.5 Grendel at the moment but once they get back into production, they make a nice piece. Very well machined and finished.
Anyway, here it is. Probably the only hinged floor plate 450 Bushmaster there is.
Before (not a great pic but google it if you're not sure what they look like)
After.
