The Wilson Combat Tactical & Ultimate Hunter Rifles in .458 HAM'R
Designed to be the “hardest hitting, most powerful (practical size) AR platform carbines ever produced,” Wilson Combat recently announced the Ultimate Hunter and Tactical Hunter rifles chambered for the proprietary .458 HAM’R cartridge.
The new guns are a bit of a hybrid design that use a shortened AR-10 bolt carrier group and feed from Lancer manufactured AR-15 magazines. The cartridge uses a rebated rim case and develops pressures up to 46k PSI. According to Wilson Combat, these cartridge and gun combinations are suitable for clean kills of any game in North America.
Tactical Hunter
The Tactical Hunter line attempts to offer something to shooters who like to hunt, but also have more tactical interests.
This version of the gun has a match grade 18″ fluted barrel with a mid-length gas system and adjustable SLR Rifleworks gas block. It is threaded and equipped with a cap to protect the threads. The barrel is surrounded by a 14.6″ Wilson Combat handguard that uses M-LOK attachment points for accessories. In back is a Rogers Super-Stoc.
Wilson Combat uses an NP3 coated bolt carrier group. The trigger is the company’s own Tactical Trigger Unit, or TTU, with a 4-pound pull. Depending on the magazine used, the gun can hold 7 or 9 rounds. Unloaded, the gun weighs nearly 8 pounds without an optic.
The base price is $2,905. A kit version of the rifle bumps the price up by $590 and gets you a Leupold VX-R 2-7×33 Firedot mounted in Ultralight AR scope rings.
Ultimate Hunter
The Ultimate Hunter is similar in many regards to the Tactical Hunter. However, it deletes the Super-Stoc in favor of a fixed length carbon fiber stock that is fitted with a Limbsaver recoil pad. The 18″ match grade barrel is the same, though it has a target crown and is not threaded.
This model comes in a little lighter at 7 pounds, 4 ounces. The base price is a bit more at $3,055. It can also come with the Leupold scope kit for the same upcharge.
The Ammo
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to pick up ammunition for these guns at any gun store you might wander into. For now, all of the ammo will be coming directly from Wilson Combat. At the time of this writing, there are two loads being offered.
The first load uses a 300 grain X-Treme RNFP bullet that is loaded to 2,000 fps from an 18″ barrel. This works out to be nearly 2,700 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle. It sells for $39.95 for a box of 20.
The second factory cartridge loads a 300 grain Barnes TTSX bullet to 2,100 fps from an 18″ barrel. That means the bullet has more than 2,900 ft-lbs of energy when it leaves the gun. These are a bit more expensive at $69.95 for a box of 20 cartridges.
An advocate of gun proliferation zones, Richard is a long time shooter, former cop and internet entrepreneur. Among the many places he calls home is http://www.gunsholstersandgear.com/.
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Why? BECAUSE TOO MANY PEOPLE NOW OWN .458 SOCOMS, THAT'S WHY!
If you think about it, the relationship of the .458 HAM’R and the .458 SOCOM are roughly analogous to the relationship of the 7.62x40mm WT and the .300 Blackout. Wilson essentially lengthened the legacy case for greater propellant capacity, optimizing the new case for supersonic loads with lightweight projectiles In contrast, the legacy cartridges were trying to balance the case length and capacity for use with subsonic,heavyweight projectiles.
I would not be shocked to learn that Wilson is subcontracting the receivers and bolt carrier assemblies from CMMG. It is basically the same concept as the CMMG MkW Anvil. Making a brand new cartridge undoubtedly held less liability concerns than introducing a super high pressure .458 SOCOM load only suitable for rifles designed around the hybrid bolt.