I have a friend who wants to sell me a 602 that has been converted to .450 Ackley. I am leaning towards getting the rifle and leaving just like it is, but I wonder if it there is any round that has "headstamped" brass available that the rifle could be converted to without rebarreling. The Ackley chamber is pretty straight and I can't think of any .458 round that would "clean up" the chamber. Any suggestions.

The gun is fine as it is, but I don't want some customs guy wondering about the .416 stamped brass.

The 460 Weatherby, the 450 Rigby, and the 450 Dakota just to name a few. Of course, you would need to open up the bolt face and rework the magazine and feeding.

Why is it nessesary to have a headstamp brass anyway? You may also want to check out this outfit as they can make old ball cases for a variety of wildcat cartriges. Good luck.

http://www.qual-cart.com

JudgeG,

The .450 Ackley is a great cartridge, I would leave it like it is. Perhaps even make your ammo out of 375 H&H brass just to really throw them. You could always set the barrel back and recut it to 458 Win Mag.

Malm

I would just restamp the barrel, personally.

"375 / 450 Ackley" then you can just say, 'what are you talking about? See, it says 375 on the cartridge base, and 375 on the barrel.'

OR order unstamped basic brass and a headstamp die from MAST (B.E.L.L.) and stamp your own.

You could even name it "450 Judge", headstamp the brass and engrave the barrel accordingly.

I would not bother with a 450 Dakota or 450 Rigby or 460 Weatherby. The recoil with full loads in an average weight rifle (9-1/2 to 10 pounds) is nothing a Golden Isles White Tail hunter wants to fool with!

However, if you wish to go with a bigger case you can always load down to 2300-2400 ft/sec and have an entirely adequate rifle. Save the full house rounds for those exciting moments. Stick in 350 grain X-Bullets and you have a 500 yard Elk/Moose rifle.

I don't know for sure but I think one could re-chamber to the new 458 3"...I believe it would clean the present chamber and you could almost do that with your fingernail, like picking your nose..the 458-3" is one heck of a round and you can get factory brass for it from Africa and I believe PMC...also it would shoot 458, 458 Lott if I am not mistaken...you could just mark the barrel .458x3 and let it go at that.