I have had the opportunity to test various .50 Beowulfs and .458 SOCOMs.
In many ways they are very similar.
Reliability wise I never had an issue with either.
Accuracy wise, they were very similar in similar quality rifles.
Although they are considered short range guns, due to bullet drop, they
do surprisingly well at distance if you actually know the come-up. At an
industry event (The Big 3) at my range this past weekend I saw former
military members engaging LaRue sniper targets out to 500 yards with a
.50 B. They were doing it just for fun to see if they could. And they did.
Of the two though, I own a .458 SOCOM built by Tromix. It's a great gun, Tony
did a great job on it. It's very accurate, extremely reliable and a hammer.
I like the range of projectiles available in .458, and have a small horde of
400 grain solids left.
I do feel though, that if you plan on shooting one much, reloading is the way to go.
I also wish the .458 SOCOM had a rim rebated to x39.
Now if we could only get Wolf to come out with a steel case load......