Good enough for deer ya think?

B

blueoval56

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Made a nice trade last weekend and wound up with this beautiful new boomer:

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I'm just not sure how well it will perform on anything bigger than a rabbit? Im sure I'll be okay with premiums like TBBC's or TSX in a minimum of 450gr. Sure glad it holds five down and one in the chamber in that 'ol muley decides to charge in the thicket!

...all kidding aside :)

Super happy with my new stick and thought I would share some pics. Sorry if they are a little blurry but I can't for the life of me find my Cannon batteries since my last trip to Guyana. I think they may still be there.

The rifle is a CZ 550 Safari Classic 458WM. In the trade I also wound up with a 458 Lott reamer and a NECG barrel band swivel, so hopefully those two upgrades can happen sooner than later. I absolutely love the gun and the walnut is now the nicest in my collection. The pictures don't do it justice. It is almost 3-dimensional looking in certain light.

If anyone has any suggestions for a smith to install the barrel band I would be all ears.

Also feel free to share pics of your big bore safari guns!
 
I certainly am enamored with the wood when I scrolled down the page to the first picture.
No idea on a G/S to help you with your possible upgrade, but let us know how it shoots when you
get around to busting a few caps.
Tight Groups,
Rob
 
Nice wood BO56, and caliber wise, well you might want to try it on some island deer first, before you head right out for a full sized muley..........You know check it out on tiny deer before you work up the gargantuan ones, safety and prudence first.

I think I just posted this but here's a couple biggies

This is my .470 NE





This is a 458, soon to become a 458 on a 416 Ruger imp case.



 
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That aughta work. Nice fake out in the top couple of pics with the little cartridges too. The nice thing about big cartridges is that they're easy to load for, loading gives you a broad range of power options, and you never have to worry about having enough gun. As a meat gun, the .458 can do anything a high velocity small bore can do, much it can't do, and do it all without producing 20 pounds of bloodshot meat.

Now I know that barrel band swivels are ###y and all, but I'd think twice about doing that. The advantages they say are that a barrel mounted swivel prevents cut hands under heavy recoil, and that the muzzle rides lower, and is less likely to snag if you moving through heavy cover with the rifle slung. If you're moving through heavy cover the rifle should be in your hands IMHO, and if the sling swivel is attached to the radius of the forend tip, it will prevent cut hands as well. the best part about using this forward swivel position is that it allows you to sling up for a shot from a rested position like kneeling or sitting. For me, the advantage of slinging up cannot be over emphasized.



If the rifle has yet to be chambered for .458 Lott, I wouldn't rush into that. CZ unfortunately doesn't block their magazine for the shorter .458 Winchester cartridge, so they do slide around in there quite a bit, particularly under recoil, and a longer cartridge would certainly mitigate this. But I wouldn't choose a longer straight wall cartridge for a bolt action; in a single shot or a double, they work fine, but in a magazine rifle, I'd prefer a bottle neck cartridge, if I was to go longer than a .458 Winchester. Your options then would be a .458 Ruger, which doesn't increase the length of the cartridge, the .460 Weatherby, but the cost of .460 brass is not for the faint hearted, and the massive case will reduce your magazine capacity by one if not two, and you'll have to open up the bolt face. So the .460 Bee is sort of a nonstarter unless you are fixated on owning one. This brings us to what is in my opinion is the best of the lot (pun intended) the .458 Ultra (similar to the .460 G&A). It will use up all the length in the CZ's magazine, it will work with the standard magnum bolt face, its not as fat as the Weatherby, it will feed better than the Lott, and potentially will make with 2400 with a 500 when shot from a long barrel. The .458 Ultra wins the cool factor because its a wildcat. You might be able to get a gunsmith to take your Lott reamer in trade for a .458 Ultra reamer.
 
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Thanks for the compliments guys.

C-FBMI, that is a beautiful double! It's on my bucket list to have a nice double like that, and actually use it.

I appreciate the wisdom Boomer. I had not completely decided on the barrel band swivel yet, so the advice is appreciated. What you say makes sense. I am also a huge advocate of a good sling. A rifle without a sling is like a handgun without a holster!

The reason I was thinking 458 Lott is that I plan to do a lot of practicing with hard cast lead with medium hot loads. I have a nice 450gr GC mold that I should be able to push to 2000fps no problem and should make for good cheap practice.
The standard Lott chamber has a better lead and throat for cast bullets compared to the 458WM with it's very generous freebore.
If I wasn't going to shoot cast I would probably just leave it as a 458WM. I had never thought of the 458 Ultra. I had heard of it before.
Just out of curiosity, what makes you say that it will feed better than the Lott? If it's the same length and just slightly wider shouldn't the feeding be similar?

I read quite a few reports of the 458WM CZ550's to have problems feeding and a lot of guys re-chambered to 458 Lott and it solved the problem. I am happy to say mine doesn't have this problem and seems to feed very well. I even pushed some 500RN right to the front of the mag sitting against the feed ramp and they still fed like a knife through hot butter.

I am definitely staying away from the 460WB. Too much of a good thing for me and the cost of brass doesn't justify it for me. If I was going to pay that much for brass I would get a 500 Jeffery ;)
 
blueoval56 said:
. . . Just out of curiosity, what makes you say that it will feed better than the Lott? If it's the same length and just slightly wider shouldn't the feeding be similar? . . .
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Glad to hear you are having no feeding issues, and with the cast bullet consideration, perhaps the Lott is the best choice for you. The issue with my M-70 is that the geometry of the magazine follower with the chamber causes the rim of the ejected cartridge to catch the case mouth of the top round in the magazine. A bottle neck case would not allow this to happen. When I use bullets with a distinct crimping groove, such as cast bullet or TSXs, the problem doesn't exist, but with a knurled canelure its a recurring problem.
 
blueoval56 said:
I'm just not sure how well it will perform on anything bigger than a rabbit? Im sure I'll be okay with premiums like TBBC's or TSX in a minimum of 450gr. Sure glad it holds five down and one in the chamber in that 'ol muley decides to charge in the thicket!

...all kidding aside :)
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well it might just leave a hole the SIZE of the Rabbit... lol

Great prairie dog gun, makes clean up nice and easy when there's nothing left but pink mist...?
 
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