Wilson Combat is pushing ARs to the limit with the new .458 HAM’R cartridge. (Photo: W.C.)
Hunting cartridges often fall into two different classes, light and fast or heavy and slow. Wilson Combat just developed a new cartridge that asks why not both?
Their new .458 HAM’R is a high-pressure thumper that pushes a 300-grain bullet at 2,000 feet per second generating over 3,000 foot-pounds of force at the muzzle — in an AR-15-size package with an 18-inch barrel.
This puts the .458 HAM’R at the top of big-bore cartridge family, beating .450 Bushmaster, .458 SOCOM and .500 Beowulf for sheer power.
.458 HAM’R is not safe to use in .458 SOCOM rifles and will not chamber correctly. (Photo: W.C.)
“The HAM’R is designed from concept to completion to be the hardest-hitting, most powerful AR-platform carbine ever produced,” states Wilson.
“The .458 HAM’R is more than capable of cleanly killing any animal in North America, stopping a vehicle or blasting through a brick wall. Using a purpose-designed ‘hybrid’-length receivers, bolt carrier groups that are .75-inches shorter than a standard AR-10 and feeding from a Lancer AR-15 magazine, Bill Wilson and the Wilson Combat engineering team have produced the ultimate heavy-hitting semi-auto carbine.”
The .458 HAM’R cartridge is essentially a .458 SOCOM Magnum with a longer case shoulder loaded to as much as 46,000 PSI. By comparison, .458 SOCOM’s max pressure load is 35,000 PSI.
Wilson pulls this off by using an oversize AR-10-based bolt and barrel extension sized to fit in an AR-15-length receiver.
Right now the company’s offering two .458 HAM’R rifles, the Tactical Hunter and Ultimate Hunter. They also have two loads ready to go, a lower-cost ball load and an all-copper hollow point for taking game. Wilson Combat uses Starline brass with Barnes and X-Treem bullets for their ammo.
Like a lot of Wilson products, these are high-end, semi-custom rifles with a lot of parts designed and built in-house. In addition to the specialized bolt and barrel components, they also have custom buffers and machined billet receivers.
Despite all the over-built components the rifles still manage to weigh less than 8 pounds. Without optics the Tactical Hunter weighs 7 pounds 11 ounces unloaded. Thanks to carbon fiber components the Ultimate Hunter weighs even less at 7 pounds 4 ounces.
See Also: Wilson Combat’s EDC X9 Brings the 1911 into the 21st Century
The Tactical Hunter, top left, and Ultimate Hunter, bottom right. (Photo: W.C.)
The main difference between the models are the stock assemblies. The Tactical model has a telescoping carbine-style Rogers/Wilson Super-Stoc while the Ultimate rifle has a fixed skeleton carbon fiber stock fitted with a Limbsaver recoil pad. The tactical model also has a threaded barrel.
Both models have fluted barrels with adjustable mid-length gas systems. They also come standard with Wilson Combat triggers set at 4 pounds. They both use the same 14.6-inch modular M-Lok free-floating handguards.
Pricing on these guns starts at $2,905. Other accessories including scopes are not included.
While that’s on the high side for an AR-based rifle, these guns aren’t like anything else on the market. And because they’re made by Wilson Combat, they’re also built to a standard few companies can match.
What do you think of this hot cartridge and hybrid rifle design? Let us know in the comments!
*It looks like a short range but hard hitting carbine to me! Grumpy