Shooting Experience of A Lifetime

Colt1911A1

Colt1911A1

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Newfoundland & Labrador
Well fellow CGNers. I had today, what was for me anyway, the experience of a lifetime. I got to shoot a 460 Weatherby. I can sum the experience up thus: When I squeezed the trigger....I saw God.
Just wanted to share.
 
hahaha i like the i saw god comment lol. and the detached retinas. biggest and best ive shot is a .375 H&H. and as you said, i saw god as well lol. good times with the giant boomers.
 
My dad (longtime .375 H&H owner and shot a few rounds of .458 win mag) shot one round of 460 Weatherby (standing) and told me he instantly hurt him significantly from his tailbone to the top of his head and straight across his shoulders. He said he would never shoot one again, and if he was being charged by a bear and was holding one, it would get used as a club only.
 
In 1987 a gunshop in Edmonton, Alta came up with a novel way to sell a Weatherby Mk V in .460 Weatherby Mag. They held a shooting contest. 20 contestants each paid $100. to enter, for which you got 3 shots offhand with the .460 & a T-bone steak (and a few beers) to barbeque after the shoot. I and 2 buddies from Unity, Sask entered but at the last moment 1 of my friends couldn't make it so he asked me to shoot his place for him, as the entry fee wasn"t refundable.
Long story short I came in 1st for myself (called before shooting) and 3rd for my friend.
I came home with the Mark V, a Leupold vari-X III 1.5 to 5, 60 rounds of once fired brass, and 2 boxes of factory 500 gr ammo in a hard case. All for my entry fee of $100. and I refunded my buddy who couldn't go his entry fee. Plus enjoyed a steak barbeque and met a lot of new shooters. My winning group was 2.97" off hand for 3 shots @ 100 yds. My 3rd place group was 3.724 ".
I have also owned a factory Sako AV Fiberclass in .458 win mag which only weighed about 7 1/2 lbs scoped. That gun was amazingly accurate but would rattle your teeth with every shot. Way more recoil than the .460 because of the light rifle! That gun was originally built for Mr. Esa Verho, who at that time was the Sako factory manager. I am 6'6" and weigh 300 lb. Mr Verho made me look small!!! I met him at a shot show many years ago & bought the gun directly from him, as Sako did not chamber the .458 Win Mag.
I have also owned a .416 Rigby, a .375 Weatherby Mag, a .378 Weatherby Mag as well as the venerable .375 H&H. A few years ago I realized there aren't many elephants in Sask, and I'm never going to get to Africa, so I sold all my big boomers. Now I content myself with my .375 H&H and a couple of 45-70's.
I don't think I ever saw God shooting the big guns but I have broken a blood vessel in my shoulder and had the right side of my chest and my arm down to the elbow turn purple the next day. Great fun!
 
That's nothing. Try a 50 BMG from a Ferrett upper onto an AR-15 lower. (!17 lbs!)
A whopping 22 inches of barrel & all the muzzle blast & recoil you can eat.
It wasn't mine and I adhere to the same policy as daddylonglegs.
My FN Mauser action in 458x2inch American, is my upper comfort zone for 15-20 rounds off a bench and trying for accuracy, thank you very much.
 
I Shot a 416 rigby one time when I was 14 yo and weighed about a buck-20.
Needless to say all the responsible adults around at the time had a real good laugh.:mad:
 
When I had my 460, every one who shot it went away smiling. They all said not as bad as they expected, and had a memory of shooting the most famous big bore. I had to sell it to get something bigger.:eek:
 
I relish recoil until about an hour after a few shots. I like the .375 H&H. But a lightweight .308 punches me. A 14" 12 gauge isn't much fun after a dozen shots either. Muzzle blast is probably more jarring than the kick, but both are nasty. :D

Weight is a good thing when considering recoil. Length is a good thing when considering muzzle blast. I think this is why the average rifle is between 7 and 7.5 pounds unscoped and 42" long. That's where the comfort factor begins to set in.
 
philthygeezer said:
I relish recoil until about an hour after a few shots. I like the .375 H&H. But a lightweight .308 punches me. A 14" 12 gauge isn't much fun after a dozen shots either. Muzzle blast is probably more jarring than the kick, but both are nasty. :D

Weight is a good thing when considering recoil. Length is a good thing when considering muzzle blast. I think this is why the average rifle is between 7 and 7.5 pounds unscoped and 42" long. That's where the comfort factor begins to set in.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it
 
My wife shot a deer a few years ago with my 375 H&H using full power 270gr tsx loads. She didn't even notice the recoil.

460 is a whole nother level.
 
This reminded me of a story in Cartridges of the World, 11th Ed. (p.224) on the 475 A&M Magnum:

Around 1960, Fred Barnes (of Barnes Bullet fame) built himself a 475 A&M-chambered rifle, based on a sporterized Enfield action. With its open sights that rifle weighed no more than 8 pounds. Being Fred Barnes, his initial handloading effort combined stiff charges of IMR 3031 behind his 600-grain bullets***. He, friends, and a small group of well-wishers went to an informal shooting range near Grand Junction, Colo. Fred sat down on the pea gravel of the parking area and crossed his legs to fire from the sitting position. He took dead aim at the base of a small juniper tree, which was tenuously hanging on at the top edge of a roadway cutbank.

When Fred pulled the trigger, everyone was watching for the impact. The shot went low. The tree was summarily uprooted! All watchers cheered as the tree fell, then, as a group, they looked around to find what Barnes' reaction might be. There he was, located several feet behind his original position, lying on his back, arms outstretched, holding the rifle above his head. Dust from the muzzle blast and his ignoble recoil-induced slide (he had absorbed well over 110 foot-pounds of energy) was still stirring when Fred asked, matter-of-factly, "Anybody want to buy a rifle?" He found no takers.


*** 600 SP | 105 gr. of 3031 | 2502 fps | 8340 FPE
Click to expand...

OUCH!

:) Stuart
 
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