Mossberg Patriot 450 Bushmaster 20" 4rd OD Green Rifle

Mossberg's Patriot is a plain working bolt gun, and the 450 Bushmaster chambering exists to solve a legal problem rather than a ballistic one. A long list of midwestern deer states restrict hunters to straight wall cartridges, and this round throws a heavy, wide bullet that puts deer down hard inside 150 yards. That covers timber, field edges, and almost every stand a whitetail hunter ever sits in. The 20" barrel keeps the rifle short enough to swing inside a blind, and the muzzle is threaded, so a brake or a can goes on without a trip to a gunsmith.

Feeding is handled by a detachable box magazine holding 4rd, which means topping off is a matter of dropping the mag rather than thumbing rounds down through the ejection port. The trigger is user adjustable, so you can set it up the way you like instead of living with whatever left the factory. Metal work is matte blued and the stock is OD Green synthetic with molded texture at the grip and forend, a departure from the standard black. Recoil is real with this cartridge in a rifle this light, so the pad on the butt earns its keep. Nothing here is fancy, and that is the point. It is a short, honest deer rifle built around a cartridge a lot of hunters in shotgun only counties are now required to use.