I used mine a fair amount, right around 180 animals. Of those 125 were my buffalo, maybe 15 more of finishing off other peoples wounded buff and most of the rest were pigs.
I did a fair amount of experimenting with different bullets, plus velocties from "standard" to some that would give many Lott loads a run for their money. A2230 is great stuff. I have no doubt that the faster loads hit buffalo harder than the slow ones, just as I don't doubt that the close animals got hit harder than the farther ones. The trouble with the .458 is that just when I get things interesting I run up against case capacity/heavy compaction issues. 2350 fps with a 450 grain A-Frame is a great load, but the powder is so compacted that it pushes the bullet back out of the case if they sit too long. So do many book loads for that matter. 350 grain TSXs at 2600+ are interesting too. I eventually rechambered to .458 Lott, as much for duplicating my enthusiastic loads without compaction (and with many different powders) as for further increases in velocity. There's always a hard way and an easy way, and on balance the Lott is the easy way.
Last edited by Model70Guy; 08/03/15.
