458
- Thread starter brybenn
- Start date
I use a .458 for buffalo. So far I've shot 11 buffalo with that one, all with 450 grain A-Frames. I've got loads developed for the 420 Safari Raptors, 450 grain Barnes Solids, 450 grain CEB solids, 500 grain NPTs, and even a 350 grain TSX at 2650 fps to mix things up a bit. Most of those will get tried on a buffalo cull this August, then I'll ream it out to .458 Lott and start all over again.
I've had several bb but can't honestly say I have ever hunted with one.......shot a couple gophers one day with 500 gn Hornady solids (SSSHHHHH don't tell the fish cops, non expanding bullets and all). Most all my dangerous game has been taken with 375 H&H "THE TRUE KING" and a couple different 416s
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
I've busted rocks with 350s in mine and punched paper with 500s. Never ventilated and venison with one though. My PH in Zimbabwe carried one. It is the most beautifully worn rifle I've ever seen. I'd love to own it despite the fact that it's a post-64 M70.
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I used a borrowed one in the Limpopo for a day, they're not nearly as brutish as I'd come to expect. In fact, it was a very well mannered rifle and the recoil no worse than my .375's to my shoulder. Quite comfortable, trajectory is actually good as well much to my surprise at the time (hadn't run the numbers, just assumed). They shoot flat enough for any normal hunting shot and even some longer ones. I don't own one yet, but I sure will, also the cartridge three out of the five PHs with significant dangerous game experience I've talked and walked at length with used.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Aside from the fact that you can shoot .458 Winchesters in a Lott chamber, why don't you opt for bottle neck cartridge? It will probably feed better, and there is a significant ballistic advantage. The .375 Ultra opened up to .458 is a proven design, it will probably best the performance of the older .460 G&A due to its shorter neck/longer body and will probably make an honest 2400 with a 500 without the need of an excessively long barrel. Of course there's the Weatherby alternative if international travel makes cartridge head stamps agreeing with the markings on the barrel desirable, and it can be dialed back a bit if the high velocity loads adversely affect penetration or blow up the Hornadys
or if the maximum pressure loads misbehave in the warm climes you seem to happily tolerate.On a side note, a local fellow needed some plinking loads for his #1 in .458 Lott. I went through my powder stores to see if I had an appropriate powder that wasn't seeing much use and came up with 2400. Using .458 Winchester brass, I seated some of my 480 gr WFNs over 25 grs of 2400, and crimped the rounds in the crimping groove (there's no bullet lube in the top grease groove and this where I normally crimp these bullets) to minimize the powder volume and to uniform the bullet pull, which may or may not be a benefit. It proved to be a nicely behaved load, producing a pleasant boom and gentle recoil. I didn't chronograph it, but in my M-70 it shot to point of aim at 25 yards with irons, and produced a 1" 3 shot group. The primer didn't extrude from the case as sometimes occurs with light loads. This should prove to be a very nice small game load, although for that purpose I might prefer a tapered bullet without such a blunt nose.
There's a few reasons for going with the Lott, not all of which are the best I suppose. I am at least slightly intrigued by the RUM case blown out to the .500 MDM though. I'm saving that for whenever I decide that there isn't enough pain in my life.
The first is that I hesitate to make big changes to something that realistically works just fine as it is. I do like the idea of getting away from the heavily compressed loads that I'm using though, and if there's a hundred fps to be found then I'll take that too. Somehow making a Lott feels like unfinished business, something I've been meaning to get around to. Another thing is to keep that particular rifle in at least recognisable form.
Next; as you have alluded to there is the matter of being able to use the .458s that I already have. Establishing an Aussie stash of a couple cases worth of .458s is hard enough; doing the same with a .458 Ultra may cross the line between daunting and unlikely. Living through the experience is also an issue.
The Hornadys aren't going to happen, I'd be afraid that they would blow up on the plane on the way over. In most countries that's considered very bad luck. Ordinarily I'm not a superstitious person but no use pushing it.
The first is that I hesitate to make big changes to something that realistically works just fine as it is. I do like the idea of getting away from the heavily compressed loads that I'm using though, and if there's a hundred fps to be found then I'll take that too. Somehow making a Lott feels like unfinished business, something I've been meaning to get around to. Another thing is to keep that particular rifle in at least recognisable form.
Next; as you have alluded to there is the matter of being able to use the .458s that I already have. Establishing an Aussie stash of a couple cases worth of .458s is hard enough; doing the same with a .458 Ultra may cross the line between daunting and unlikely. Living through the experience is also an issue.
The Hornadys aren't going to happen, I'd be afraid that they would blow up on the plane on the way over. In most countries that's considered very bad luck. Ordinarily I'm not a superstitious person but no use pushing it.
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Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
The RUM case will likely eat up an extra round of magazine capacity in most guns as compared to the Lott, and for someone like Dogleg who shoots high volume that's likely not desired I'm afraid. Not much the Lott won't kill either!
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
What Dogleg really needs to do is cut a lil notch in the front of the rear bridge and get some stripper clips to keep that .458 smokin.
What Dogleg really needs to do is cut a lil notch in the front of the rear bridge and get some stripper clips to keep that .458 smokin.
Ya or 2 X 458s and a boy to pack one and reload as fast as Dogleg can shoot it !!!! That should up his rate of fire about 60%.......
I'll be picking up my first 458 wm next month. It comes complete with dies brass and load workup sheets. Nothing special. Mauser action but custom stocked and bedded with a mercury recoil reducer in place. One day I wish to shoot a cape buffalo but until then it will be a bear and moose gun.
The choice seems to favor more of the mid to high 450/480 gr bullet weight over the 500 gr
I was planning to play with the Hornady dgx and dgs to see how they do
The choice seems to favor more of the mid to high 450/480 gr bullet weight over the 500 gr
I was planning to play with the Hornady dgx and dgs to see how they do
If you're staying with the 4-500 weight range, A2230 is the only powder you need but 4895, 335 and 4198 have their uses. The DGX can be improved by drilling holes in them and using them for fishing sinkers but they should be OK for moose and bear.
At least that way they're under water when they explode......
Hey, that would make them good for something. Maybe CIL hooks will make a comeback.
When I hunted Zambia the 2 hunters leaving camp both lost buffalo to the DGX bullets in the 458 Lott, and were very unhappy campers. Of course without being able to recover the buff there is no way of knowing what happened to the bullets. The PH said his guy hammered his buff perfect, which was why he didn't give it one too, but after 2 days of looking the buff was no where to be found. The one gentleman was virtually not talking to his previous best friend because he had been using Swifts or Woodleighs or something and his buddy talked him out of the Swifts or Woodleighs and insisted that he load the DGX, "the new wonder bullet for dangerous game".......and he was right cause they're both still wondering what the f**k happened.
As I said they were both very unhappy, ruined a hunt, possibly a friendship and cost thousands of dollars in trophy fees for nothing, all because of the Hornady DGX bullet !!!
I like to do my own ballistic testing of bullets and don't generally listen to too much rhetoric about different bullet construction, but in this case, with the corroborating testimony of both PHs that both buff were hit perfectly and neither one was found, with some of the best trackers on the planet, tells me unequivocally that the only explanation was total and utter bullet failure !!!!
As I said they were both very unhappy, ruined a hunt, possibly a friendship and cost thousands of dollars in trophy fees for nothing, all because of the Hornady DGX bullet !!!
I like to do my own ballistic testing of bullets and don't generally listen to too much rhetoric about different bullet construction, but in this case, with the corroborating testimony of both PHs that both buff were hit perfectly and neither one was found, with some of the best trackers on the planet, tells me unequivocally that the only explanation was total and utter bullet failure !!!!
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Nobody ever mentions the Nosler Partition, in the .416 & .458 cals. Anybody ever give them a try, and have real world results to share?
I shot a black bear a few years back, with a .416 400gr Hornady IB (I think that's the predecessor to the DGX, correct me if I'm wrong), and when I did the autopsy, I didn't recover the bullet... or whatever was left of it... I imagine the .458 experience wouldn't have been much different.
I shot a black bear a few years back, with a .416 400gr Hornady IB (I think that's the predecessor to the DGX, correct me if I'm wrong), and when I did the autopsy, I didn't recover the bullet... or whatever was left of it... I imagine the .458 experience wouldn't have been much different.
