Any experience hunting Moose or Bear with .458 WinMag?

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Recently picked up a .458 and am looking to use it on some NA game this year.

Has anyone used .458 on Moose or Bear? Or a similar dangerous game cartridge?.

Curious to hear how it went.
 
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Taking mine out few times for moose but did not get anything. I was using Hornady 500sp in mine and they might be a little to hard when using on bear as I shot a couple llamas for a person( wouldn’t stay in fence and we’re running around country side) and they penciled through. Hornady 350sp would be a good bullet for using
 
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keith mokry said:
Taking mine out few times for moose but did not get anything. I was using Hornady 500sp in mine and they might be a little to hard when using on bear as I shot a couple llamas for a person( wouldn’t stay in fence and we’re running around country side) and they penciled through. Hornady 350sp would be a good bullet for using
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I was eyeing those Hornadys as well. My main concern with the .458 is over penetration or the round not expanding enough on our thin skinned game.

Who makes the most "affordable" .458 factory ammo? The cheapest I'm seeing is $190/box.
 
I use my 458wm for bear. Works great. I generally use a Remington bulk 405gr fnsp at 2400fps. Lots of expansion. Only recovered 1 bullet. 300lb ish bear shot at 164 paces going away kinda uphill. Smashed 9" of spine just above back hip and traveled along the spine taking out all the ribs and smashing thru the front shoulder and stopping against hide of the chest. No vitals hit and the bear crawled into the thick spruce and hid. Finishing shot came at about 3' as it drug itself out from a sprucetree. That shot opened a very large hole thru the chest. Another 175lb ish bear shot directly under my stand was outright flattened shot thru the back and out the bottom o the chest. Another similar size shot face on in the chest was flat on the ground before the muzzle came back down
I now load 400gr woodlieghs ppsn at 2400fps but haven't shot a bear yet with it. Zeroed for 100 yards it only dropped about 8" at 220 paces

I have a 26.5" barrel. The 458wm is one of my fav cartridges. 250gr bullets to 550gr. Cast bullets with trailboss or unique and cornmeal and it's a big bore pellet gun. 300gr HP at 2600fps and it's a varmint rifle. 350gr rn at 2500fps it's an amazing moose gun a soft 400gr bullet is the best bear pill and move up to 480 to 550gr bullets and it'll handle thick skinned angries that can hit back
 
Seeing how many are shot with far smaller/less potent cartridges, I imagine it would die if you put one in the lungs or heart. As far as pencilling through...it is still a .458 diameter pencil hole. A heavy, bonded DG bullet might not be the best choice, so maybe choose a cup and core if available.
 
The hornady 350'spencil through too. go in at a perfect .458 and out the same. Make a good vital shot and they'll run out of blood and die. Best part is when the .458 does that you can eat right up to the hole as you lose almost no meat to explosions.
 
Need to be loaded with a non dangerous game bullet something like a hornady interlock or other thinner jacketed soft.

The hornady dgx will most likely not open in North American game.

Personally I’d like to try either a hard cast with flat meplate or a camp pro plated flat point.
 
Haven’t shot anything yet but 3-4 years ago I picked up 2 boxes of Hornady DGX for $150 a box. $190 sounds cheap today. Cheapest I found lately was $200 for DGS.
 
shakeyjake said:
Haven’t shot anything yet but 3-4 years ago I picked up 2 boxes of Hornady DGX for $150 a box. $190 sounds cheap today. Cheapest I found lately was $200 for DGS.
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That’s ridiculous it’s not the greatest ammo/bullet for dangerous game. You can get good brass solid loaded ammo for a lot less.

I’m looking into casting zinc bullets for the win mag a 500gr mold for lead will produce a 310gr zinc bullet. kinda perfect for the win mag since it needs the long bore riding nose.
 
antiqueguy said:
That’s ridiculous it’s not the greatest ammo/bullet for dangerous game. You can get good brass solid loaded ammo for a lot less.
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A box of factory ammo……$190. You saying there’s cheaper stuff or handloads?
I wouldn’t want a solid. DGX…. Xpanding…..OP is talking moose, bear.
As for the recoil, my BSA has a factory brake cut in so it still looks like a normal gun, recoil ain’t bad, my 338 ABolt first gen is worse.
 
shakeyjake said:
A box of factory ammo……$190. You saying there’s cheaper stuff or handloads?
I wouldn’t want a solid. DGX…. Xpanding…..OP is talking moose, bear.
As for the recoil, my BSA has a factory brake cut in so it still looks like a normal gun, recoil ain’t bad, my 338 ABolt first gen is worse.
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Ammo for the .458 is all above $100 now a days but the hornady DGS is not worth $200. I can get federal loaded with brass solids for $160. The dgx when it come to what their intended for arnt the greatest either theirs better out there.

For North America I wish I had more 500gr interlocks they stopped making them I have 9 left need to see how the 350gr interlocks shoot.
 
antiqueguy said:
Ammo for the .458 is all above $100 now a days but the hornady DGS is not worth $200. I can get federal loaded with brass solids for $160. The dgx when it come to what their intended for arnt the greatest either theirs better out there.

For North America I wish I had more 500gr interlocks they stopped making them I have 9 left need to see how the 350gr interlocks shoot.
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That’s pretty good! The federals I saw were $250! But they weren’t solids.
 
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