Bishop Firearms: 458 SOCOM Lever Action Rifle
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 10 months ago
The Bishop Ammunition and Firearms 458 SOCOM 1895 GBL Lever Action chambered in 458 SOCOM comes with all the foregoing plus additional features other manufacturers charge extra for and now joins our line up in 458 SOCOM with our 458 SOCOM Hunter Bolt Action and the AR458 SOCOM Rifle. The 458 SOCOM 1895 GBL Lever Action was designed specifically for those situations where an AR-15 rifle is either not permitted for hunting while riding the range hunting feral hogs, or for those that want something completely different.
It’s a nice looking and powerful gun, but my question would be why? When the lever guns at Big Horn Armory are available, what is the hoped customer base for this gun?
Hold your breath. MSRP = $2,999.99.
I understand. They’ve got to get their R&D money back out of this. The ammo will be expensive though, just like the gun. Let me know if any readers get one. You can do a review of it.
On January 13, 2020 at 10:45 pm, George 1 said:
No doubt it is an awesome round but it looks to me, and I could be very wrong, that the main advantage for the 458 Socom over something like the 45 -70 is that it will fit in magazines about the size of an ar15 mag. If you go to a lever platform I am not sure you gain anything much over the old 45-70. Maybe ammo capacity in the tube?
Those that know, I would appreciate being educated on the subject.
On January 13, 2020 at 11:54 pm, BRVTVS said:
What R&D costs can it have? Does buying a set of chamber reamers constitute R&D? Otherwise, I think Marlin did most of the R&D for it over 100 years ago.
On January 14, 2020 at 2:19 am, Dan said:
Another “solution” in search of a problem. And a very overpriced solution at that.
On January 14, 2020 at 8:18 am, Fred said:
At 3 grand, why indeed.
On January 14, 2020 at 11:00 am, TRX said:
I’m not seeing any advantage of the SOCOM over the .45-70. The difference in length isn’t going to buy you another round in a tube mag, and the .45-70 feeds fine from a box mag; the Remington-Lee solved that problem in 1873. (James Paris Lee invented the box magazine and the .45-70 was the first production implementation of his patent, so when someone babbles about rimmed cartridges not feeding from box magazines, tell them to STFU)
There have been leverguns that fed from box mags, most notably the Winchester 95, but that was a single-stack design. You’re not going to put an AR magazine in any existing levergun without a wider receiver, which would be beaucoup buckaroonies.
On the other hand, leverguns are expensive, and $3K is only a middlin’ price for a custom levergun, same as a 1911.
On January 27, 2020 at 12:07 am, DBishop said:
This lever was made primarily to do some thing that hadn’t been done in 458 SOCOM. 80% of the internals of the action have been changed. The barrel is EV-five match grade, and of course, there is that big break on the end to control recoil. It is much, much more than just a set a reamers. We’ve taken the uncontrolled feed Of a marlin 1895, which cannot feed rebated rim cartridges without jamming, and changed it to the controlled feed necessary for rebated rim cartridges. Without doing that, this whole venture doesn’t work. As a consequence of doing that, this rifle can be laid flat on the bench sideways, loaded and chambered without jamming. Remington doesn’t know how we did that. But we did it all day long at Range Day before Shot. We dumped the Marlin trigger for a Happy trigger, and solved the problem of cartridges of multiple overall lengths, common to tube fed levers. The 45-70 is limited to one cartridge overall length. The 458 SOCOM 1895 Can accommodate the entire range from 1.94 to 2.25. We shot 500 rounds out at Range Day before Shot Show through that rifle. And we didn’t stop to clean it until the end of the day.. We have customers with this already, Who are loving it. it comes in a locking hard case, not a cardboard box. Although, you can save $160 or so by just having it shipped in the marlin 1895 box it came to us in. If it’s not for you, that’s fine. But it is for some people.
On January 27, 2020 at 12:10 am, DBishop said:
This rifle will hold 6 to 8 rounds of 458 SOCOM, depending on the case overall length of the round used. It is designed so you can be shooting 400 grain Speer FNSP and then decide to shoot 600 grain subsonic ammunition about 10-15 minutes later.