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

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

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.

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.

Although the 458 was branded with a bad reputation due to a number of intentionally misleading articles written by high profile dilettante/writer/journalists, It retains a solid reputation in Africa and Alaska by those who actually give it a fair trial.

After one noted writer wrote a scathing piece about it, while glowing about the virtues of the old African rounds, I decided to do a comparison.
Using alternating stacks of wet and dry magazines I fired a 404 Jeffery with a 400 grain Swift bullet at over 2200fps into the stack and then a Hornady factory 458 with 500 gr Interlock bullets from my 20" bbl rifle.

As you can see from the photo of both recovered bullets resting by their respective holes. This is the last magazine (18 inches of penetration) where the 404 came to rest and the hole on the right shows the additional damage where the 458 continued on for another 6 inches. 25% more.

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

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.

458 Lott is what the 458 WM should have been from the start. 45-70 is much better for deer.

Reduced loads are great and is really a different branch of reloading as is cast bullet shooting.
Leaving squib loads aside for a moment, the best reduced loads come with a powder that is one or two burning rates faster than used for full powder. So in a 300 Win or 270 Win then powders like Varget, 4064, 3031.

Such powders will (in 300 Win) duplicate 30/06 maximum loads but with lower pressure. As a bonus reduced loads often give the top accuracy and with great consistency.
They also have that same sort of feeling you get toddling around I a big V8 manual compared to the little 4 cylinder in manual.
In the case of big kickers, say from 375 H& and up the reduced loads allow you to shoot the rifle for lots of shots.
Another advantage of using a bigger case, say 270 Wby as compared to 270 Win, is there are countless loads you can use in the 270 Wby that will duplicate max 270 Win ballistics. If the goal is to get at least 3100 f/s with a 130 grain 270 projectile and top accuracy I can guarantee you that with the 270 Wby (or 7mm Rem etc.) my chances are better than using a 270 Winchester. I simply have a much greater variety of powders to use and charge weights to use.

In addition brass and barrel life is better with say a 270 Wby loaded to equal 270 Win when the 270 Win is at maximum.

If I wanted the performance of a 25/06 then I would get a 257 Wby or 25/300 Win. The 22/243 equals maxed out 22/250 ballistics and the 22/243 is just idling.


For reasons which I can’t explain when loading back the muzzle blast is not as severe or sharp as the smaller case loaded to maximum. For example, the 378 Wby with 85 grains of Varget or 4064 usually gets 2600 plus with 270 grainers and very low pressure. But the blast is “softer” than the H&H loaded flat out.

I often get a laugh from posters who are trying to get 2500-2600 with 300 grain 375 H&H and are juggling powders and bullet type. One combo gets the velocity but not the accuracy or another combo gets the accuracy but not the velocity. How much easier is a 375 RUM/378 Wby to get the velocity/accuracy combination.

I could go on and on but you get the idea.

One thing I would add is when developing reduced loads it is a big advantage if you can reload at the range or wherever you are shooting.