Factory Ammunition: Every Load on Its Maker's Own Page

Sixteen loads from five makers, read on 19 October 2026, with what each maker publishes and what it does not, the expansion floors the cartridge's literature says nobody prints, and two tables that are really one

Figure 1 — Hornady's own illustrations of its 250-grain FTX load (82246) and its 395-grain Sub-X subsonic load (82247). The case is the same; the subsonic bullet is longer and blunter, and is seated deeper to… — Figure 1 — Hornady's own illustrations of its 250-grain FTX load (82246) and its 395-grain Sub-X subsonic load (82247). The case is the same; the subsonic bullet is longer and blunter, and is seated deeper to keep the same overall length. These are the maker's renders, not photographs, and are shown at the scale Hornady published them. Source: hornady.com product pages for items 82246 and 82247, read 19 October 2026.

3.1 How this survey was done

Every figure in this volume was read on the maker’s own product page on 19 October 2026. The list of products came from each maker’s own sitemap or calibre page, so it is the maker’s list of what it currently catalogues, not a search engine’s. A price is the price shown on the page that day for a box of 20; it is a snapshot, not a market survey, and a figure hidden in a page’s code but not shown to a reader is not treated as a price. A load seen only on a retailer’s page is listed separately as unconfirmed.

The cartridge’s earlier dives read many of the same pages a month before, on 17 September 2026. Where the two readings differ, both are kept and the difference is noted in the last section.

3.2 The field, in one table

Table 1 — The field, in one table

Maker, item	Bullet	MV, fps	G1 BC	Muzzle energy	Barrel stated	Price / 20
Hornady BLACK 82246	250 gr FTX	2,200	.210	2,687	20 in	not shown
Hornady American Whitetail TIPPED 82244	250 gr FTX	2,200	.210	2,687	20 in	not shown
Hornady American Whitetail 82242	245 gr InterLock	2,200	.165	2,633	20 in	not shown
Hornady Subsonic 82247	395 gr Sub-X	1,050	.300	967	20 in	not shown
Federal Fusion F450BMFS1	260 gr Fusion SP	2,200	.180	2,794	not stated	$76.99
Federal Power-Shok 450BMB	300 gr SP	1,900	.225	2,405	not stated	$68.99
Federal American Eagle AE450BM	260 gr FMJ-RN	2,040	.186	2,402	not stated	$39.99
Remington Premier AccuTip 27943	260 gr AccuTip	2,180	.144	2,743	not stated	$69.99
Remington Core-Lokt 27941	260 gr PSP	2,040	.171	2,402	not stated	$69.99
Remington UMC 23661	260 gr FMJ	2,040	.186	2,402	not stated	$39.99
Winchester Deer Season XP X450DS	250 gr	none published				”$$“
Winchester Power-Point X4501	260 gr	none published				”$“
Steinel (four loads)	see below				24 in pressure barrel for one	$51.19–$78.99

Sources for each row are in the references.¹²³⁴⁵

Figure 2 — Velocity against range for every load whose maker publishes a ballistic coefficient, with the three minimum velocities that makers publish drawn across it. Each curve is a G1 calculation from the m… — Figure 2 — Velocity against range for every load whose maker publishes a ballistic coefficient, with the three minimum velocities that makers publish drawn across it. Each curve is a G1 calculation from the maker's own BC; each reproduces the maker's own published 100, 200 and 300-yard figures to within 4 fps. Source: original diagram; model in this dive's 04-templates/ballistics.py.

3.3 Hornady

Hornady’s sitemap lists four .450 Bushmaster loads, and every one of its pages states the same thing the others do not: “Test Barrel (20”).”¹

82246, 250 gr FTX, Hornady BLACK. 2,200 / 1,835 / 1,515 / 1,255 fps at the muzzle, 100, 200 and 300 yards; 2,687 / 1,868 / 1,274 / 874 ft-lbf; G1 BC .210, sectional density .175. The trajectory row is −2.4 / +4.1 / 0 / −19.3 inches for a 200-yard zero.
82244, 250 gr FTX, American Whitetail TIPPED. The same bullet and the same published table, digit for digit. The page title places it in the American Whitetail TIPPED line while the body copy is still Hornady’s description of its Custom line; it is the item retailers sell as “Custom.” It is one load in two boxes.
82242, 245 gr InterLock, American Whitetail. A cup-and-core spire point: 2,200 / 1,742 / 1,364 / 1,103 fps; 2,633 / 1,651 / 1,012 / 662 ft-lbf; BC .165. It starts at the same speed as the FTX and is 152 fps behind it by 200 yards.
82247, 395 gr Sub-X, Subsonic. 1,050 / 977 / 921 / 874 fps; 967 / 837 / 744 / 670 ft-lbf; BC .300, sectional density .276; trajectory −1.5 / 0 / −34.9 / −110.8 inches for a 100-yard zero. Hornady’s description: the Sub-X “features a lead core. Long grooves in its gilding metal jacket combine with the bullet’s flat profile and the patented Flex Tip® insert within its hollowpoint cavity to help it expand reliably at low velocities.” Its bullet page adds the number that matters: the Flex Tip “aids in expansion at velocities as low as 900 fps.”¹

⚠ A correction to the AR-15 dive. That dive’s load table shows Hornady’s BC for 82246 as ”—” and builds its ballistics on a BC of 0.2112 fitted to Hornady’s table. Hornady publishes the BC on the page: .210. The fit was good, and it agreed with the published number to two significant figures; the figure was simply there to be read. The dive also said Hornady’s wider range “could not be confirmed.” It is four items, listed in the sitemap.

3.4 Federal

Federal’s sitemap lists three .450 Bushmaster loads.² None states a barrel length. Two state something no other mass-market maker states for this cartridge.

Table 2 — Federal

	Fusion F450BMFS1	Power-Shok 450BMB	American Eagle AE450BM
Bullet	260 gr Fusion soft point	300 gr soft point	260 gr FMJ round nose
Bullet length	0.779 in	0.800 in	not given
MV	2,200	1,900	2,040
G1 BC	.180	.225	.186
Terminal Performance Minimum Velocity	1,400 fps	1,000 fps	(target load)
fps at 100 / 200 / 300 / 400 / 500	1,777 / 1,419 / 1,155 / 1,002 / 907	1,592 / 1,331 / 1,136 / 1,014 / 932	1,651 / 1,329 / 1,104 / 976 / 891
ft-lbf at the same ranges	1,823 / 1,162 / 770 / 579 / 475	1,687 / 1,179 / 860 / 685 / 579	1,574 / 1,020 / 704 / 550 / 458
Drift, 10 mph, at 100 / 200 / 300	2.7 / 12.0 / 29.5 in	2.8 / 11.3 / 26.6 in	3.0 / 12.8 / 30.8 in
Path, 100-yd zero, 1.5 in sight, at 200 / 300	−9.7 / −37.1 in	−12.4 / −44.5 in	−11.5 / −42.9 in
Price, 20	$76.99	$68.99	$39.99

Fusion’s page describes a jacket “electro-chemically bonded to the core” and a “skived, pre-programmed nose.” Power-Shok is described as “traditional lead-core hunting bullets” with a “jacketed soft point.”²

⭐ The field “Terminal Performance Minimum Velocity” is the most useful number in this volume, and its existence contradicts both of the hub’s earlier .450 dives, which state that no maker publishes a minimum expansion velocity for any .450 Bushmaster load. Federal publishes two. The last section of this volume works out what they mean.

3.5 Remington

Remington’s .450 Bushmaster calibre page lists three loads.³ None states a barrel length.

Table 3 — Remington

	Premier AccuTip 27943	Core-Lokt 27941	UMC 23661
Bullet	260 gr AccuTip	260 gr pointed soft point Core-Lokt	260 gr FMJ
MV / BC	2,180 / .144	2,040 / .171	2,040 / .186
fps at 100 / 200 / 300	1,665 / 1,261 / 1,026	1,620 / 1,282 / 1,064	1,651 / 1,329 / 1,104
ft-lbf at muzzle / 100 / 200 / 300	2,743 / 1,600 / 918 / 608	2,402 / 1,515 / 948 / 653	2,402 / 1,574 / 1,020 / 704
Drift, 10 mph, at 100 / 200 / 300	3.6 / 15.9 / 38.6 in	3.3 / 14.1 / 33.8 in	3.0 / 12.8 / 30.8 in
Path, 100-yd zero, at 200 / 300	−11.4 / −45.1 in	−12.0 / −45.5 in	−11.5 / −42.9 in
Price, 20	$69.99	$69.99	$39.99

The AccuTip page describes “a hard cartridge-brass jacket and precision nose cuts” behind a “patented Power Port Tip”; the Core-Lokt’s “tapered jacket design expands reliably across a wide range of velocities.” Neither gives a number for that range.³

The AccuTip’s .144 BC. The AR-15 dive printed this figure and flagged it as possibly a catalogue error, since a tipped hunting bullet should not have a lower coefficient than a flat-based FMJ of the same weight. It is not a stray digit. Remington’s own downrange table for the AccuTip loses 515 fps in the first hundred yards against 389 fps for the UMC FMJ, and the table is exactly what a G1 calculation with a .144 coefficient produces (next section). So the BC and the table are consistent with each other. Whether the bullet really sheds speed that fast is a question only a chronograph downrange can answer; nothing published settles it. ⚠ It matters in practice: on Remington’s own figures the AccuTip, which starts fastest of Remington’s three, is slower than the FMJ beyond about 120 yards.

3.6 Winchester

Winchester’s sitemap lists two .450 Bushmaster loads, the Deer Season XP X450DS (250 grains, “Streamlined profile and large polymer tip,” “alloyed lead core”) and the Power-Point X4501 (260 grains). Both pages, read on 19 October 2026, give the price only as a symbol (”$$” and ”$”) and say under Ballistics: “There is no ballistics data available at this time.”⁴

So for Winchester the maker’s own page publishes no velocity, energy or BC today. Retail listings give the Deer Season XP as 2,200 fps and 2,686 ft-lbf, and the AR-15 dive quoted 2,200 fps and a BC of .210. Those figures are not repeated in the table above, because the maker’s page does not currently carry them. The Power-Point load was not in the AR-15 dive’s list at all.

3.7 Steinel, and the smaller loaders

Steinel Ammunition loads four .450 Bushmaster cartridges and publishes components and, for one, test barrels.⁵

Table 4 — Steinel, and the smaller loaders

Steinel SKU	Bullet	MV, fps	ME	Components stated	Price / 20
450BM240XTP20	240 gr Hornady XTP Magnum JHP	2,260	2,722	Starline brass, CCI, Vihtavuori	$51.19
450BM250MK20	250 gr Maker REX solid copper HP	2,200	2,687	Starline, CCI Bench Rest, Vihtavuori	$78.99
450BM280BR20	280 gr monolithic brass solid spire point	1,900	2,244	Starline, CCI No. 41, Vihtavuori	$70.58
(subsonic)	425 gr Maker REX solid copper HP	1,023	988	Starline	$66.34

The subsonic page is the useful one. It gives three measured velocities, “20″ AR15: 1,023 FPS | 20″ Remington 700: 1,046 FPS | 24″ Pressure Barrel: 1,080 FPS,” states that expansion is “impressive at velocities as low as 700 FPS,” and says plainly: “These large, heavy bullets will not stabilize with 1:24 twist rates and 1:16 is optimal.”⁵ Volume 4 takes up both the barrel figures and the twist statement.

Two cautions about the Steinel pages. The 240-grain load uses a handgun bullet, the XTP Magnum, which is exactly the trade-off Loading the .450 Bushmaster, Volume 4 warns about; it is a choice to understand rather than a defect. And both solid-copper pages still say the loads are “legal for most parts of shotgun-only zones in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio,” which in October 2026 is true of Ohio only (Volume 7).

Not confirmed on a maker’s page. Underwood (300 gr JSP at 1,950 fps; 360 gr lead flat nose) appears in retail listings but not on any Underwood page that could be reached. Buffalo Bore’s sitemap lists no .450 Bushmaster product. No Barnes .450 Bushmaster load was found on Barnes’s site, although Massaro’s 2022 article lists a Barnes VOR-TX 250-grain TSX load;⁶ it may have been discontinued. None of these is in the table.

3.8 Published tables are calculations, not measurements

This dive’s ballistic model (a G1 point-mass solver, described in Volume 5) was run for every load above using only the maker’s own muzzle velocity and BC, and compared with the maker’s own published downrange velocities:

Table 5 — This dive's ballistic model (a G1 point-mass solver, described in Volume 5) was run for every load above using only the maker's own muzzle velocity and BC, and compared with the maker's own published downrange velocities

Load	Model, 100 / 200 / 300 yd	Published	Difference
Hornady 82246	1,831 / 1,511 / 1,252	1,835 / 1,515 / 1,255	−4 / −4 / −3
Hornady 82242	1,739 / 1,361 / 1,101	1,742 / 1,364 / 1,103	−3 / −3 / −2
Hornady 82247	977 / 921 / 874	977 / 921 / 874	0 / 0 / 0
Federal Fusion	1,774 / 1,417 / 1,153	1,777 / 1,419 / 1,155	−3 / −2 / −2
Federal Power-Shok	1,590 / 1,330 / 1,136	1,592 / 1,331 / 1,136	−2 / −1 / 0
Federal AE	1,650 / 1,328 / 1,103	1,651 / 1,329 / 1,104	−1 / −1 / −1
Remington AccuTip	1,661 / 1,259 / 1,024	1,665 / 1,261 / 1,026	−4 / −2 / −2
Remington Core-Lokt	1,618 / 1,281 / 1,062	1,620 / 1,282 / 1,064	−2 / −1 / −2

⭐ Every published downrange figure for this cartridge is reproduced to within 4 fps by a standard calculation from two numbers on the same page. That is what a maker’s table is: a muzzle velocity, from a barrel the maker may or may not name, and a ballistic coefficient, extended downrange by arithmetic. It is not evidence about any range beyond the muzzle, and a second maker’s table is not independent confirmation of the first. This is normal industry practice and not a criticism; it is a reason to treat the muzzle velocity as the only measured number in the row, and the barrel it came from as the thing to ask about.

3.9 Two makers publishing one table

Federal’s American Eagle AE450BM and Remington’s UMC 23661 are both 260-grain full-metal-jacket target loads, and their published specifications are identical in every field the two pages share: 2,040 fps, BC .186, the velocities and energies at every range to 500 yards, the wind drift and the trajectory.²³ Neither page says the two are the same cartridge, and this dive does not claim it; it notes that two makers publish one table, and that a buyer choosing between them on ballistics is choosing between identical numbers.

3.10 The published expansion floors

A hunting bullet’s useful range ends where it is too slow to expand as designed. The cartridge’s literature treats that speed as unpublished for this cartridge. Two makers in fact publish one for a .450 Bushmaster bullet: Federal for two loads, and Hornady for the Sub-X bullet.

Table 6 — The published expansion floors

Load	Published floor	Crosses it (maker’s MV, 100-yd zero, 59 °F)
Federal Fusion 260 gr	1,400 fps	about 206 yd
Federal Power-Shok 300 gr	1,000 fps	about 414 yd
Hornady Sub-X 395 gr	900 fps (bullet page)	about 243 yd, from Hornady’s 20-inch MV

The ranges are from the model, using each maker’s own velocity and BC; Federal’s own table shows the Fusion at 1,419 fps at 200 yards and 1,155 at 300, which brackets the same answer.²

⭐ Two readings follow, and they cut in opposite directions.

The fast, premium bullet has the shorter expansion range. Federal’s bonded Fusion, which starts at 2,200 fps, is at its floor by about 200 yards. The cheap, slow Power-Shok, at 1,900 fps, stays above its floor past 400 yards, because Federal rates it to expand at 1,000. The 1,400-fps figure is a statement about how the Fusion is built, not about the cartridge. The usual “it is a 200-yard cartridge” argument, which the AR-15 dive reached from energy and drop, turns out for the Fusion to be the maker’s own number; for the Power-Shok the limit is somewhere else, and it is drop and wind (Volume 5).
These floors are measured from the maker’s muzzle velocity, and a short barrel moves them in. Volume 4 shows what 100 fps of lost velocity does: the Fusion’s crossing moves from about 206 yards to about 183, and the Sub-X’s from about 243 yards to about 97. For a subsonic load that starts only 150 fps above its floor, every inch of barrel matters.

3.11 What changed in a month

The hub’s AR-15 dive read several of these pages on 17 September 2026. On 19 October:

Federal’s prices were lower: Fusion $79.99 to $76.99, Power-Shok $71.99 to $68.99, American Eagle $41.99 to $39.99. Remington’s were unchanged.
Winchester’s pages showed no ballistics. The AR-15 dive’s Winchester figures may have been read from a page that has since changed, or from a retailer.
Hornady’s line was listable from its sitemap: four items, not one.

None of these makes the earlier dive wrong for its date. All of them are reasons to date every price and every catalogue.

References

Hornady Manufacturing, product pages read 19 October 2026: “450 Bushmaster 250 gr FTX® Hornady BLACK®” (item 82246); “450 Bushmaster 250 gr FTX® American Whitetail® TIPPED” (82244); “450 Bushmaster 245 gr InterLock® American Whitetail®” (82242); “450 Bushmaster 395 gr Sub‑X® Subsonic” (82247); and bullet page “45 Cal .452 395 gr Sub-X” (item 45031). Product list from hornady.com/sitemap.xml. URLs: https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/450-bushmaster-250-gr-ftx-black; https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/450-bushmaster-250-gr-ftx-tipped; https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/450-bushmaster-245-gr-interlock-american-whitetail; https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/450-bushmaster-tbd-gr-sub-x; https://www.hornady.com/bullets/rifle/45-cal-.452-395-gr-sub-x; https://www.hornady.com/sitemap.xml. ↩ ↩² ↩³
Federal Ammunition, federalpremium.com product pages read 19 October 2026: Fusion F450BMFS1, Power-Shok 450BMB, American Eagle AE450BM. Product list from federalpremium.com/sitemap_0.xml (lastmod 18 October 2026). URLs: https://www.federalpremium.com/rifle/fusion/11-F450BMFS1.html; https://www.federalpremium.com/rifle/power-shok/11-450BMB.html; https://www.federalpremium.com/rifle/american-eagle/american-eagle-rifle/11-AE450BM.html; https://www.federalpremium.com/sitemap_0.xml. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Remington Ammunition, remington.com, “.450 Bushmaster” calibre page and product pages 27943, 27941 and 23661, read 19 October 2026. URLs: https://www.remington.com/rifle/shop-by-caliber/450-bushmaster/; https://www.remington.com/rifle/premier-accutip/29-27943.html; https://www.remington.com/rifle/core-lokt/29-27941.html; https://www.remington.com/rifle/umc-rifle/29-23661.html. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Winchester Ammunition, winchester.com product pages X450DS and X4501, read 19 October 2026. Product list from winchester.com/sitemap.xml. URLs: https://winchester.com/Products/Ammunition/Rifle/Deer-Season-XP/X450DS; https://winchester.com/Products/Ammunition/Rifle/Power-Point/X4501. ↩ ↩²
Steinel Ammunition, steinelammo.com, “.450 Bushmaster” category page and product pages for the 240 gr JHP, 250 gr SCHP, 280 gr brass solid and 425 gr subsonic SCHP, read 19 October 2026. URLs: https://steinelammo.com/product-category/rifle-ammo/450-bushmaster/; https://steinelammo.com/all-available-calibers/rifle-ammo/450-bushmaster/450-bushmaster-240gr-jhp/; https://steinelammo.com/all-available-calibers/rifle-ammo/450-bushmaster/450-bushmaster-250gr-maker-solid-copper-hollow-point-schp/; https://steinelammo.com/all-available-calibers/rifle-ammo/450-bushmaster/450-bushmaster-280gr-brass-spike/; https://steinelammo.com/all-available-calibers/rifle-ammo/450-bushmaster/450-bushmaster-425gr-subsonic-solid-copper-hollow-point-schp/. ↩ ↩² ↩³
Philip Massaro, “Behind the Bullet: .450 Bushmaster,” American Hunter, 16 November 2022, read 19 October 2026. URL: https://www.americanhunter.org/content/behind-the-bullet-450-bushmaster. ↩