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Great Wisdom was found in two books by Richard Harland. From those two books, excerpts for review:

















That was the introduction to the books review.

I’ve never had the opportunity to read Harland’s books. I’ll see what the library can do for me.
F01

...The Lottites should read "The Hunting Imperative" and "Ndlovu" and Ron Thomson's book "Mahohboh."

Tsibindi

Sir Dennis,
You made me google a copy here: OUCH !

https://www.abebooks.com/African-Hunter-Guide-Ndlovu-Art-Hunting/31676382248/bd

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I read the books of John Hunter from a Morehead, KY grade school library when I was in the fifth grade and the world was sane.
It will be a miracle to find NDLOVU at a library nowadays, unless it is in your own personal library.
Too many Democrat librarians nowadays.
I have it on good authority that the creature with man boobs and profane hat on the previous page was a GS-13 at the Library of Congress,
curating the vast collection of LGBTQ+ books there.

Sir Ele Hunter,
Ron Thomson is next.
But first, more on the golden words of Richard Harland. Enaa baasee".

Opening paragraph of Appendix I of NDLOVU by Richard Harland:




What he is saying, in the first sentence, is that hearing the fake news about the .458 Winchester Magnum from the Lottites is getting boring.
In the very next two sentences he acknowledges that the .450 Watts Magnum of James Watts was conceived in 1947
and aborted by Jack Lott in 1971.
Then the act of stolen valor was facilitated by Art Alphin who sold the Zimbabwe Game Department a load of bad .458 WM ammo.
But I elaborate.
Tricky Art was lobbying to get the .458 Lott into SAAMI, the faulty final design of which was no doubt his brain fart, straight out of A-Square.
Sabotaging the .458 WM would be good for his business.
Was Art a Democrat ?

...from another web site
"I'm gonna' respond in a way I trust no one gets his/her panties in a wad.

First of all, I have had the opportunity to shoot a "goodly" number elephant on control. I've killed elephant utilizing the following cartridges (Note: should've been calibers. Author noted 4/24) .416 Taylor, .458WM, .450 Rigby, and .505 Gibbs. The Taylor and WM are M-70's, the Rigby was a Ruger RSM, and the Gibbs was Granite Mountain Arms
Conventional wisdom would almost certainly have the Gibbs as the forerunner "best in class" for dealing with elephant.

Indeed , the Gibbs is all it's touted to be. If I were a p/h (and could afford one) the Gibbs would be my preferred back up rifle.
The .450 Rigby is what the Lott should have been. You know, 2450fps as opposed to 2250fps. More velocity is better...right? HA!

The .458WM will always have its nay sayers. Blah, blah, blah.

The .416 Taylor, or any 40cal is far and away better than the .375H&H. Unless you're Harry Manners.

All the elephant I shot with these four calibers were killed. Obviously, the ones brain shot dropped in their tracks. Body shots to the heart/lungs, most didn't run more than 50-60 yds before succumbing.
After evaluating the type shooting in which I was involve, any one of the calibers were adequate to achieve the end result.

The amount of empirical experience I have is limited by the total number I have successfully shot/killed. (If you're interested in the number, well, it is 12% of the total John Buhmiller shot.)

Regardless of graphs, and old history, and SD, and BC and fps...I chose the "Worthless, underpowered, should have been, etc, etc." .458Winchester Magnum. I have never felt under gunned.

My rifle is a Winchester M-70 with a 24" barrel. Loads are 500gr solids @ 2185fps.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I wrote this for another site a couple of years ago and I thought it would read well on the Fire.

Tsibindi


C

Sir Ele Hunter,
Enaa baasee'.
Perfect rifle and load for ele.
Federal publishes load data showing an easy 2200 fps with their 500-gr TBSS,
satisfying SAAMI with COL 3.340" and MAP of 60,000 psi from a 24" barreled .458 WinMag.
My Ruger #1 with 24" barrel might exceed that COL and pressure by a little bit, and it did 2408 fps MV by LabRadar,
with just 83.0 grains of AA-2460 at COL of 3.550", crimped on the bottom cannelure of the 500-gr TBSS.

John Buhmiller was the man who created the .460 Weatherby before Roy Weatherby commercialized it.
He did the .510/460 Weatherby before Art Alphin claimed it as the .500 A-Square, etc., etc.
Even John Buhmiller with his big tally of original wildcats as well as elephant culls,
even he carried a .458 WinMag as backup rifle, and killed more game with it than with any other cartridge.

Defective powders that clumped in the sabotaged factory ammo of yore
would have clumped in any other cartridge so abused.

...I, by chance, met John Buhmiller in 1973 two years prior to his death. I was in Kalispell visiting a friend and was invited to meet a retired local gun maker. I had no idea who this gentleman was.

I mostly was a listening participant to the conversation. I do remember Mr. Buhmiller mentioning how flat nosed bullets would penetrate better than conventional round nose bullets. he also related a story how he was shooting buffalo and had two bulls standing side by side. He said the first bull dropped at the shot, and the second ran a few yards and also fell over. I have no recollection of what rifle, or caliber he was shooting at the time.

I recall his wife was growing tomatoes, and she was using discarded rifle barrels as tomato stakes. Obviously, some of the Buhmiller barrels didn't measure up!

Hunting in Africa was at that time was only a dream and I had no knowledge of big bore rifles/bullets. Pity I couldn't appreciate "Uncle John's" wisdom.

Oom Jannie sold some barrels to an African getting his smithing done in deepest darkest.
One thing led to another and he got invited to do some culling,
and Ooom Jannie accepted the invitation,
returning many times after that.

Sir Richard Harland's summary at the end of Appendix I of NDLOVU:










AA-2460 and AA-2230 were doing well 20 years ago.
They now have improved temperature stability (since 2016) and are still top performers.
That Alliant Power Pro series of powders works quite well too.
Anything that will goose a .223 Rem/5.56 Nato will gander a .458 WM.
The development lately of lots more great choices in powders is a happy coincidence/synchronicity/God wink for the King of Cartridges.

Damn good load data Sir Ron, Thanks, iirc i did get 2300 fps with the 500gr Partition in my old SAAMI spec FN Browning with AA-2460 at 3.340 inch, man that's a blaster of a hard hitting load, shows what's lying on the table and available to all with the Mighty 458 WM, even at SAAMI length.

Ron, Thanks for the good info and tables. Much appreciated. Brian

This last week I was sailing out in the Atlantic & off the grid a bit so now I'm catching up on emails, this thread, Sir Bob's latest blog post & perusing auctions. It was an interesting read on the previous page where Sir Ron talked about the 1956 African & the recalled stocks. It was like déjà vu when I wandered by the RIA website shortly thereafter & saw one with a single crossbolt coming up for auction next month. I wonder how accurate that estimated price is (Click Here!):



Way back on page 190 of this thread we were discussing the custom guns that were auctioned at the SCI conventions back in the 1980's. The .375 H&H Rhino Rifle that sold for $43,500 was made by Champlin Arms in Enid, OK. I noticed in that same RIA auction they had a less fancier & more affordable version of that rifle but it was chambered in a much better caliber this time (Click Here!):

Sir Darryl,

Enaa baasee'. You have brought gravitas .
That One-Bolt 1956 African surely is mis-under-estimated for price.
Has the factory box that is "fine" just like the rifle is.
Crazy !

In two days from now (Saturday, April 13/24), Part 1 of a 2 part series, is titled: "Why I Still Promote the .458 Winchester Magnum". It contains a bit of personal history with three of 'em, and handloads, in particular from the CZ 550 and my current Ruger No.1H; in case anyone is interested.

Thanks Sir Ron for all of the recent work related to those historic books, along with your much appreciated comments.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Very nice odonata, you should be bidding on that pre-64 458 with credit card in hand! ; ]

Great find.

Seems one of old guys kids may kill the sell on the pre-64 458 i have been looking at, no way to ethically approach a situation about a man's guns and his kids. oh well, i have always believed things happen for a reason, and, if you have to force it, it's not meant to be.

Sir Jerry,
I've been in you're position more times than I usually mention as ethically all we can do is the right thing, of course. I've had the kid's contact me down the road and we've worked a few things out to satisfy everyone just because I didn't upset the apple, cart so to speak. We can't and won't get in between on those things, as it's all about doing what's right as I know you are. You never know how things work out and I know that you consider yourself lucky to have viewed a fine specimen as you did.

HS 58

You bet Sir Tony, i left it with them, all good, one fine day that cell might ring................................

I'm very fond of my Winchester Model 70 Safari Express in 375 H&H. This particular auction had fifty-one Model 70's to choose from many of them desirable pre-64. They even had several of the rare .35 Remington & .300 Savages that Sir Ron mentioned in his early post (pictured below).

So it's at times like these all I can do is curse my crappy right eye & left-handed shooting as I sigh wistfully at all of these really nice right-handed rifles that are pretty much useless to me. Who wants a stupid 1957 Super Grade in 7mm Mauser anyway? Not me!!!

Lord have mercy, i best not go near that site, i'm 61 years old and trying to thin the herd a bit, Thanks, i think!