Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 458 Win in 458 Lott

An acquaintance wants to sell a rifle he isn't using; a Win Safari super grade 458 Lott. It is like new condition. I want to be able to shoot 458 Win Mag loads. The word is that you CAN shoot them in a Lott but is it considered a good practice? I think this rifle is priced right ($800) but if I can't shoot 458 Win, I don't think I want it.

Any of you guys tried this combination before?

Thanks

I just scrolled down and see someone else has asked basically the same question. I don't want to do it in emergencies only, I want to have some fun shooting some cast bullet loads etc. Not sure how easy it will always be to get the Lott brass. If it is as benign as shooting 38s in a 357 I don't see a problem. Just hoping accuracy doesn't typically deteriorate to bad with this combination.

Perfectly safe to shoot .458 Win Mag in .458 Lott, but not the other way around. I have a Lott, and I predominantly shoot Lott, but have no hesitation about using Win Mag.

If you're traveling to Africa, I would take Lott ammunition if .458 Lott is what is inscribed on the barrel. Some countries may object to the mismatch of .458 Win Mag ammo with a .458 Lott rifle.

Or just reload Lott brass to 458win speed and have the best of both worlds! Clint

Cast bullets?

Just load cast bullets in the .458 Lott and have fun.

By the way BUY IT a Winchester Super Grade in a .458 Lott is worth far more than $800,more like $2000 +/-.

This

I believe Lott designed it that way. Just has more freebore with a Win Mag. May want to give it a good chamber scrubbing if you shoot a bunch of cast Win Mags in it before shooting the Lott stuff.

Buy it! The brass is not a problem. Not only is Lott brass available but you can use Hornady basic belted, one pass through the sizing die and you have lott brass.

I have it sewed up, just need to go get it. I will have to figure out the reduced load thing for having fun!

Dennisinaz,PLEASE POST PICS! When you get it.

Will do.

Dennis,

Get you a couple pounds of AA5744 and load you up some fun plinking loads. They should have data on their website. If not email them and they'll send you data. I did that with my 416 Rigby and load a 350gr. at around 1900fps. Fun to shoot with recoil around the 270Win. level.

David

You should bring it out to Bill Poole's safari rifle shoot in Phoenix this March.

Mike

I need to look into that!

Yup, the beauty of the lott is you can load it down to 45 colt handgun levels for plinking, and on up to lott levels and anywhere in between.

A good NA load is a Speer or Hornady 350 gr under enough RL7 to give 2400-2500 fps at the muzzle. 375 H&H performance and recoil. The full patch 500gr loads really do knock the snot out of you, and other then finding out if you can handle the recoil, not much use in NA.

The lott is cast friendly, just make sure you remove any/all copper fouling before shooting cast. You can paper patch 45 handgun bullets for plinking loads, unique is a good fuel for 1100-1200 fps and very mild recoil with 300-350 gr cast bullets. I've found with cast, in general the bigger the bore the more friendly/less picky the gun is to producing an accurate load.

I was going to build a Lott and then I asked my gunsmith if I could shoot regular 458WM in the rifle. He said bad idea,would cause problems with the barrel throat. I took his advice and built a 458 African instead.

Thanks for the bad advice, Genius; I bought a box of Basic Magnum brass and ran it through my full length die. The first piece was ruined as the brass is so big in diameter that it caught on the edge of the die and peeled it like a banana. I had to chuck my die up in the lathe and skive the start of the die down with a cermet insert. I then ran a couple of pieces through and sized them down, way down!

When I went to set up my seating die I noticed that they weren't the same length. The basic brass is .090" longer than the Lott brass. They won't chamber in my rifle. They are now either scrap or I have to come up with a way to shave .090" from the end of 49 pieces...

Live and learn