Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Anyone love the 458win mag

I have 2 458wm's and I'm buying a 3rd custom number 1 ruger. I love this caliber. Reloading to 45/70 levels is simple & easy on my shoulder.

Anyone else love this caliber?

Anyone hunting hogs with this?

Yep. I've used 500gn hard cast lead projectiles at 1,600fp on pigs. Unless they hit bone, the projectile will exit, but it still does a number on them. Feels like I'm firing a 308.

I have another load with a 405gn hard cast lead projectile using Trailboss at 1,000fps ie sub-sonic. I haven't tried it on pigs yet. I have used it on rabbits though because it's quiet and accurate and it was the only rifle I had with me at the time.

I haven't gotten around to using reduced loads with jacketed projectiles yet. Standard loads with 400gn jacketed projectiles are somewhat excessive for pigs.

Although there are a few notable gun writers who write disparagingly of it, ( although admitting having no personal experience with it ), a majority of African PH's still love it and the more I play around with other big bores the more I appreciate the standard 458. With modern powders it easily reaches the 2150fps with a 500 gr bullet, which Jack Lott stated was all that was needed and what he was looking for with his creation.

And with cast bullets it can be loaded to slow 45-70 ballistics and makes pleasant plinker and great whitetail hunting round.

I have 2 and like them both but it is far from my favorite African caliber. Guess that honor would be shared equally by the 375H&H and the 416Rigby. Actually have never taken a 458WinMag to Africa though I would not hesitate to do so with confidence.

famous names in Africa, including John Kingsley-Heath, Richard Harland, Harry Selby, Mike LaGrange and Finn Aagaard all spoke glowingly of the 458.
Between them Richard Harland and Mike LaGrange killed over 10,000 elephants! and both claimed they preferred the 458 Win.

I love my .458WM !

I've hunted hogs with it, but have yet to kill one with it.

I have shot everything from 500gr Hornady solids down to 300gr cast bullets in mine.

I haven't shot an elephant. Yet.

Ed

Yep, I love my .458 too, it's easily my favorite caliber.
I'm taking mine to Tasmania in a months time to hunt fallow deer with it.
Am loading a 250gr copper hollow point @2900fps and I'll keep you
posted on how it goes..
I know it's not an elephant but our fallow get pretty big...

That's pretty fast

Doc D, ya best go to tghe Australia Forum and go back a bit. The boys from the land of OZ appear to try making anti-tank guns out of some hunting rifles. Good guys but a tad on the nutz side

The .458 is a popular sambar rifle in Oz because these stags live in heavily treed mountain ranges with lots of fern and brush filled gullies. Sambar have a reputation for not dropping at the shot so a blood trail is helpful if you get the chance for a shot.

Yep that's how we roll...

I had an Ruger M77 .458 at one time. I swear on my children I shot through a 24" thick oak tree with a 500gn Brass turned Barnes solid. My buddies were speechless. It was one of the most accurate rifles I ever owned. My one friend suggested I used it as my varmint rifle. it would stack 350 Hornady's at 100 yds. That is the one rifle I truly wish I never would have never got rid of.

This is really the best feature of the Win Mag. The reloading options with great variety of bullets. It properly fits a standard action and there are a lot of used guns available for reasonable cost.

Loving it is fair enough, but; please dont jump in and say it is 'better' than something else for some other purpose. Or that when nothing better was available it got the job done.

The 30/30 Model 94 is a great gun. I hunt with it, I 'love' it. It is loosing popularity. Why? Maybe great and successful as it is- is no longer 'best' choice cartridge for a new buyer. And no history of near death experiences to taint its legacy.

The 30/30 was and is a great saddle gun in a 20" lever action. Few hunt that was today.

I never had a saddle and it is still a great woods rifle. Light to carry all day, fast handling for iron sited use hard to beat. But it is what it is and it is not a scoped 7mm in short light synthetic wonder.

I love it. I wouldn't hesitate to take it to Africa. BUT my Double 500 nitro would get the nod.

I have 2, a Model 70 and a custom built on a P14 action. Love them both. Probably will end up selling one but I'm having a pile of fun deciding which one.

Fox.......
I like the Model 70 because it is relatively short and maneuverable in brush.

John

The first 458 M70's I saw were factory 22 inch barrels and push feed. Since then, I though they were all 24 inch. I never though of a 24 inch bolt gun as "relatively short". Then who can afford a double, got short? Any bolt rifle can be cut shorter( maybe 21" even) not really specific to a M70 or the caliber.

Clarification......
I have owned many Model 70's and all were and are pushfeed 22 incher's.

The performance and accuracy I have experienced is unchallengeable so I never swapped out for claw extraction.