I hate the way Bill Alexander has a license on all his ammo. This is the only thing holding me back from the 6.5 Grendel. Now that Les Baer has his version I am a little more inclined to dive in when I get back on my feet, but more than likely I will wait to see what happens between both designs. I was really interested in the Beowulf when I was first looking at the big bores, but once I found out it uses untrimmed .50AE brass I threw that notion out the window. Then it was a real toss up between the .458 and .450 as two big names were backing them (Rock River vs. Bushmaster), the .450 won out with these reasons:
1. Factory ammo is readily available at 3 out of 4 of the gun shops near me.
2. Parent .284 cases if needed.
3. Multiple .45 caliber projectiles to choose from. Which is a plus as I have two .45acp 1911's.
4. With the Cerberus Corporation purchase of Bushmaster, Remington, and DPMS, I figured they would jump on board as well (Rem has so far). Along with Hornady's initial backing.
5. After all the forum browsing between the cartridges I found that the original designer of the .450 (Wildcatter=Mr. Tim LeGendre ) was the most active on the net helping answer questions and exploring other avenues with the cartridge.
My reasons may not be for everyone but they were my own reasoning behind my own decision. Not to mention all the nice well mannered gentlemen here on 450bushmaster.net. I have been on alot of firearm forums and this is the most friendly non cartridge/platform/idea bashing boards I have ever been on.