does it still have any? In the 80's and even 90's before the internet connected everyone with custom gunsmiths, you wanted the most power in a hunting gun , a factory 460wby was usually where it was at. Whether it was necessary, pracitical etc and unless the fella you were talking to was the one in a million with a 577 nitro, then saying you had a 460wby made an impact. I assume in the 70's which was before my time as an adult, it would have been even more so the case.

So these days, does ''most powerful factory round'' still hold any macho factor, or is it ''just another fast 458'' looking small alongside the real big bores.

I haven't seen many Weatherbys at all over the years. I knew one guy that used to hunt with a 257Wby and another that shot BGR with the 460Wby. I don't think we went along with the hype. I personally haven't been interested enough to go looking for them, and thought the rifles looked overdone. I like timber and blued steel but the Wearherbys looked gaudy to me.

I'll admit that I've never been enamored with neither Weatherby cartridges nor rifles.

Don't know anyone who was either.

460wby just not on the radar in any fashion.

I've owned a 7mm, .300 and a .340. All went hunting. The 7 took a black bear and the .340 a moose. And I almost had my .458 Win Mag in a CZ550 reamed to a .460 Wby. I very much liked the three that I'd owned and used - all with handloads.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Another unnecessary big bore. A 458 Winchester will completely penetrate a Rhinoceros, all a 460 will do is hit the ground harder on the other side.

HitnRun is right on right on right on.
The old factory ammo had 500-gr softs that exploded on impact.
I shot a water buffalo in the chest, broadside, with one of those once upon a time.
At 50 yards, it just stood there bleeding from nose until I shot it in the neck with a .375 H&H and 300-gr Swift A-Frame.



I used to get that rifle out and shoot it on my birthday each year. I do not know why I did that.
Best target load was 115 grains of whatever 4350 with whatever 500-grainer, for about 2500 fps MV.
1/2 MOA for three shots at 100 yards, routinely.

So not much love for the 460 these days. My question probably related to an earlier era of guns, whereby if you wanted the biggest and fastest weatherby was the main choice. It had a run of about 35 years before the mbogos and nyatis and A-squares etc showed up. Nice gun there Ron. I got my first 460 when I had just turned 19, a lazermark, and was also my first bolt action rifle. Sold it 26 shots later after it had shaken a scope to pieces and my wallet in that order

I have to say I always found it interesting the US with its taste in muscle cars, trucks 2x as large as the rest of us use, Ar-15's etc, has british taste in big game rifles.

I think the 460 WBY is still an impressive cartridge I have never fired one, actually do not have a burning desire to.
I personally know only one person that owns a 460 WBY. I think he bought it because he is a Weatherby fan, and felt he needed one in the safe. I believe he only fires it on special occasions.
The 460 WBY has never really had an allure to me. Now the 416 version does.

Those three are my favorites of the Weatherby cartridge. I have a 300 WBY in a stainless M70. I bought it used, have never gotten around to firing it.
The 340, I have often thought of having one put together on a stainless M70. A buddy had one in a Mark V. I shot it a few times. It definitely grouped 225 Barnes X bullets very well.
The 7mm WBY is interesting, because I am a 7mm fan.

Could be my guess is that there are just not enough men left who enjoy getting the sh*t kicked out of them or ear fugged by a Pendleton brake to enjoy a 460. My 270 wthby mag in a mark V sporter is a performance favorite of mine....mb

ah yes the old pendleton dekicker. I think its recoil reduction was more pyschological than actual.

As a young dumb kid slap full of piss and vinegar, single, traveling about for work and living in Houston TX the 460 held much mystique to me, i couldnt get the 8092 ft lbs muzzle energy out of my head after reading it in countless gun magazines, one fine day in the spring of '87 i was in Carter Country Sports to pick up my first at what i thought was a big bore rifle, a 378 WBY Mag and a couple boxes of ammo, got a 2-7 gloss leupold in dual dovetail rings/bases mounted up and had those shot up in no time.

Long story short, i was back after more ammo and noticed the 460 ammo, bought a box along with a couple more boxes of 378, kept the 460 ammo for a year or so, when i settled back in Arkansas i bought a reloader set up and began the search for a 460, didnt take long to find one, was also with a bud whos dad was friends with an old winding stair/three sticks mountain semi truck/auto wrecker service, that old man had 10 boxes each of 500gr Hornady softs and solids sitting in a window sill out in his load shop, the weight of the bullets was about to mash themselves out of the sun bleached red and white paper boxes, i asked the old man about the bullets, he said im too damn old to shoot them, gimme 50 bucks, i grinned and took em all.

By then i had my 460 mounted in dual dovetail bases and rings, they held a gloss 1.5-5 leupold, factory loads ran 2600+ though that POS! red chrono i had at the time, guess everyone's had one at some point, all the stars and light had to align perfectly for the POS to work, anyway, i was after the 2700 fps the 460 was quoted to run, i got that with IMR-4350, not satisfied, was in the old mans shop that taught me to re load one day with a drop tube getting more 4350 in the 460 case, i wanted to try 500 grains at 2800 fps, the old man shook his head and said "son, you aint right" LOL

I learned three things with that experiment, i do know what 500grs at 2800 fps feels like, it's horrendous, brass lasts for two firings before the pockets loosen, and 6-48 scope base screws will shear at that level, took rifle to 'Smith for some 8-40's, loaded the remainder of the Hornadys at 2650 fps the time i had the rifle, it was a beautiful blonde stocked beast just like Sir Ron's above, we all know now those Hornadys would have never survived a collision with heavy game at those speeds, but by god i was going to smash those paper targets with 8092 FT-LBS!

Back in the early '90s at the first gun shop I worked at we got in a Lazermark .460 on consignment. Think it was something like $800 at the time. My best friend was a power lifter and loved "big guns" so he bought it, mostly as a "looky here what I got" gun. I shot it several times while he had it and it was indeed an experience. He eventually traded it to the guy that owned the gym he worked out at, another fan of big guns. Eventually he traded it off as well to a local well known restaurateur named John Paul who was very wealthy, a world wide hunter and quite a character. One day John Paul came into the shop, plopped a gun case on the counter and in his raspy, whiskey voice said "Come on the range with me and let's get my new toy on paper." I unzipped the case and there was that damned .460. I chuckled and said, "So you're the latest victim huh? I know this gun very well." As we walked back to the indoor range, I grabbed the strap on recoil shield off the peg. He looked at me and said "We don't need that pussy pad, we're men!" Now, he owned lots of other big guns, a .378, .416s, a .450 Ackley, etc and I had shot most of them. None of them kicked like this un-braked .460 and I told him so. He was defiant so into the range we went. John was about 140 pounds soaking wet and only had one eye. He wore a trademark black eye patch that made him look like a pirate. I volunteered to shoot it first and got as comfortable on the bench as I could. As expected, it rocked me pretty good. As we traded places he snuggled into it and I said "You sure you don't want that wimp pad?" "Hell no" he replied. When he touched it off, I swear I saw daylight between his scrawny ass and the stool and he nearly fell off of it. He slowly turned around, with his patch hanging off one ear and sheepishly said "Go get that f*cking wimp pad!" I can never think of a .460 Weatherby without thinking of John Paul.

Here's an old picture of him from that time period.

LMAO on gunner500’s & SCGunNut’s posts !!
I will admire the 460 Wby through others’ experiences.

Thats how it was for me too gunner500. I grew up on 303's, skk's and high capacity s/a shotguns. A 12ga slug was an elephant round as far as I was concerned. Then I read an article on the 470 capstick. The Foster 1 oz rifled slug had lost top spot! I got another magazine with figures on big game rifles , went right to the end of the list- 460wby, 500grain at 2700 and started calling gunstores the same minute. Early 90's, got one for $2300 which was a reasonable price in Australia at the time.

Scgunnut One thing about the lazermark is while its not considered good taste in todays big bore scene, it was quite visually striking to everyone else. Id pull it out of the case and people would ooohh and ahh.

Unlike the teenage whippersnappers, I was forced to delay .460 WBY gratification until age 29 y.o.
Then I was suddenly a Captain in the USAF making $40,000 per year including the flight surgeon bonus pay.
Having been previously pupated with .30-30 lever, .30-06 bolt, and 12 Ga pump,
I broke from my coccoon with a .458 WinMag Ruger No. 1 and a .460 WBY Mark V
that cost no more than $400 and $900 respectively, NIB in 1984 rural Missouri where elephant did not roam.
I only traded off that Mark V after having a BBK-02 built up to what I thought was a better .460 WBY.
Then the .500 A-Square and .470 Mbogo took the glow off the .460 WBY.
I finally met more than my match in the 12 Gauge from Hell 3.85" throwing 1400-grain slugs at 1800 fps with low-end loads.
Now, due to a willing spirit and older flesh and the wisdom of over a half century of shooting and handloading,
they all pale beside the .458 WinMag for any and all purposes.

AussieGunWriter has tales of 400-grainers at 2900 fps from his .460 WBY.
Makes a good deer rifle at +300 yards.
Inside of that range it is a bit destructive of venison.

I have no use for it, but I do admire it. I like the Mark V rifle and have several and have owned several others. I admire the rifle the same way one might admire a classic car. I currently owned a left custom shop Lazermark in 460 with a Accubrake that I lucked into at Cabelas. It was part of a collection that someone had sold, and it was priced about $1000 less than it should have been. I shoot it occasionally and for fun, but I have not use for anything bigger than a 375.

Amazing the prices quoted. In Australia by the end of the 90's the Mk v in big calibres was already over $2500( about 1600 in USD) . I havent even seen an advert for one for years but id bet they are pushing 4-5k now.

You bet ldmay and 158XTP, were i to use the 460 today, i would have long ago got a lifetime supply of Northfork 500 grain cup nose solid bullets and used them for everything, have read on other websites they're used successfully on everything from the tiny antelope to Elephant and Buffalo, a great bullet design that i may one day [depending on Woodleigh re-tool] wind up using in my 505 Gibbs, that 600 grain cup nose solid is a world beater.

Good stuff Ron, you've been there and done that, and then some.

I could never see the point of shooting a .460 Wby. If I thought I needed more power than the.458 Winchester, I would go the other way--.505 Gibbs or .500 Jeffrey.

I have some of the 350 grain North Fork Cup Points. I actually wanted the 325’s for 45-70 and 400’s for 458’s.
But, due to supply availability I am going to use the 350’s in all things of .458 diameter. I think though should work well on anything in Alaska at the distances I would use them.

https://reloadinginternational.com/...cbe1a1cce5350e81594c9fa&x=10&y=7

Yep, that is where I got the 350 grain ones.
I still do not see the 400’s in stock.

You may be able to special order them.

Betting when you chamber and fire one of those 350's into an animal you wont see it again, they should cover conus/Alaska very well.

I think you are probably right. Other than full lengthwise shot on browse stuffed moose might stop one. But, I think plenty of penetration and tissue destruction will happen with these relatively lightweights.

Teal: "I" am "enamored" with both my 240 Weatherby Magnum and my 224 Weatherby Magnum (German manufacture!)!
They are accurate and perform very well afield on small game, Varmints, predators and medium size Big Game (Mule Deer, Antelope and Whitetailed Deer).
I shot a 460 Weatherby once and do NOT wish to do so again.
So now you know someone who has used Weatherby Rifles and proprietary ammunition and IS enamored with some of them.
Happy New Year.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

here in Northern Minnesota many of us like the Weatherby magnum smaller cartridges , most of us use 257 Weatherby mags for deer. i own a few bigger African cartridges 458 Lott , 458 Win. 416 Rigby ,375 H&H ,338 Lapua , but maybe someday i may buy a 460 Weatherby mag. , but i am not sure i am man enough anymore to wanna squeeze the trigger with a 460 Weatherby mag. ,good luck ,Pete53

I have never been enamored with the 460 Weatherby or and of the Weatherby's for that matter. I have tried to talk myself into a 270 Weatherby more than once but just could not do it. My looneyism only goes so far.

For big bores I have comfortably settled on a 416 Remington mag in in a Model 70 Safari. Some may argue that a 416 is not a big bore, no matter to me. That is certainly where I am going to stop.

I hit my recoil limit with a 416 Rigby, and have shot a couple 458's, both standard and Lott. No desire to repeat.

That may be what it takes, our old buddy Evil Twin shot a Newfoundland bull moose in the chest with a 45-110 Sharps and 540gr cast lead bullet, iirc said he found the bullet in the paunch, explained the paunch to be a hundred pound sack of wet tree bark mulch and compacted grass, i need to get a moose hunt done while i still can.

I can load my .460 Wby down to .458 Win mag or .458 Lott levels.

Here is what I load in it now. Notice the velocity of 2060 fps. I am tossing the idea around of loading the 480 grain Woodleighs to @ 2400 fps.



Some varmints taken with the .460 Wby.


Shot was about IIRC 50-60 yards away and was using the above load.

Entrance....


Exit....


Shot this bunny with a 400 grain Speer at 2500 fps and it was around 70 yards away.


The spot where I hit it.


So yeah, the .460 is a brutal beast that is hardly worth the trouble.

I think most critics of the .460 tend to omit the value it provides in versatility.

There are very few riflemen in this world that have truly explored that versatility because of the fear of recoil which can be mitigated or adjusted to your own levels of tolerance when handloading.

As Riflecrank mentioned above, there is an established load using 500 grain bullets at 2500fps using 115gn or either 760/H414, IMR or H 4350 that will punch nice half inch groups with monotonous regularity and still have more than any other .458 option yet at a reduced loading.

If you want thump and you are a believer of Sectional Density, then 123gn of IMR 4350 will meet the Factory spec and get you your 8000FPE using the Swift A-Frame bullet. If you want more, 116gn of IMR 4350 under the 600gn Barnes got me 2460fps - Not corrected to Muzzle velocity - and 8064FPE.

My preference was the no longer available, yet never to be obsoleted, 400 grain Barnes X bullet where an easy shooting load of 110gn Varget/AR2208 coasts along at 2750fps and absolutely drills big animals or if you are hairy chested, 116gn of IMR 4064 will hit 2900fps and shoot flatter than any elephant thumper extant.

There are also a decent couple of 350 grainer's on the market today which reduce recoil further and shoot as flat as you want to shoot them. The 350gn Speer flat point I pushed as hard as 2860fps using 112gn IMR 4064 and as light as 2380fps using 90gn of AR 2206 so pick a load to suit you. The 350gn Barnes TSX is a terrific option for modern .460 loadings as is the 450gn TSX as an allrounder.

I am all for an argument or favoritism for a load or condemnation on a bullet that didn't stand up to a load but criticism of the .460 Weatherby in general, is a pretty weak argument and always has been.

It took me 12 different bullets using 15 different powders to learn what I have about this cartridge. How about its critics?

Most hunters can't handle the recoil of full-power loads in the .460 Weatherby which as stated is around 2500 fps for a 500 grain projectile. Those that can, will still have much difficulty doing a fast follow-up shot if needed because of the muzzle jump. Also many 500 grain bullets perform/performed erratically at 2500 fps. It was when handloaders started to download to about 2300 fps with a 500 grain projectile that the .460 started to be a viable proposition. However, you still have limited magazine capacity (like 2 rounds) because of the very large diameter belted case. Then there's the rifle its chambered in, many prefer controlled round feed for a dangerous game rifle as opposed to Weatherby's push-feed design and a 26" barrel on a double rifle is ok but makes for a long rifle on a bolt-action.

Good read there John. I recall reading your exploits with 550 grain woodleighs on American buffalo too. Was that in the Australian shooters journal magazine? I didnt have a 460 long enough to play around with it. Was just factory loads of 500 grain softpoints and FMJ in the old grey weatherby packets. Good memories though, even ordering ammo by mail before it became verboten to send through the postal system, miss those days

158,
I did write more for the Journal than the other magazines but that particular American series or articles was published in the Australasian Sporting Shooter Magazine. Lost my copies in a basement flood, my introduction to basements in the US, so I don't have a reference anymore unfortunately. That Woodleigh Weldcore was handloaded to over 2500fps and hit with the thump of an axe. The guide simple stated, "Good Lord".
John

I've got a bunch of Deluxe Weatherbys including a 378 and a 460. The lighter 378 recoils a lot worse than the 460. The 460 is actually quite tame even with full power loads.

I also own a Ruger #1 in 450 Nitro, tossing 500 grain bullets over 2400fps. The rifle only weighs 7.5 pounds and will knock you into next week. The 460 and 378 are little pop guns compared to that light weight 450 Nitro.

Tony

A couple of points.......
1. 2500fps is not a full power load with the 500 grain bullet and as stated above is just an established accuracy load. Full factory specs of 2700fps is reached using 123gn of IMR 4350, my load using the 500gn Swift A-Frame bullet.

2. Magazine capacity for the current Dangerous Game Mark V is 3+1. That custom drop magazine is also available from Weatherby and I fitted on to my rifle, so have some experience with it. 32,000ftlbs of energy in a single rifle can be comforting when you think it is needed.

Agree. I fired a Ruger No1 chambered in .458 Winchester that Mike McGuire owned for a brief period. It came back like a pile driver and was much more unpleasant than the .460. Even that smaller .458 was too much for that rifle design, at least for me. The .378 had a lighter barrel profile than either the .416 Weatherby, which I owned 3 of, (#1 was a custom 25" unbraked, #2 was a factory rifle with KDF style brake and #3 was a customer 26" with triple Magna-Porting) and the .460. The older .378's also had no muzzle break of any sort so tended to be quite rude if you needed to shoot a string. The modern versions have a break so should be both noisier and easier to shoot. Again Mike had 4 of these from the Custom Shop at one stage, so he would be the one to ask about this cartridge as I am not sure whether they changed the barrel profiles on the later versions.

Given the extremes in temperature from the Yukon in mid-winter to the tropics in late October-early November, I'd want to be using H4350 for a 500 grain load. If the load tested wasn't reasonably accurate at reasonable pressure, then it wouldn't be an acceptable load. That is why I classed 2500 fps as a full-power load with a 500 grain projectile, as opposed to a "moderate load" of around 2300 fps. The 3+1 theoretical capacity when using a drop magazine is misleading. Unless you're a PH, you're going to have a guide on a buffalo, elephant, hippo hunt and they're usually not going to let you walk around all day with a round up the spout. When you come across what you are after, you're not going to stuff around trying to load an extra round into the chamber with a full magazine...even if it is a push-feed. Most of the time you will only need one shot, but for those infrequent times when you need more than one shot, I'd feel more comfortable with a greater magazine capacity.

A friend had one that he special ordered without a muzzle brake. It was not too bad to shoot. However his 50 BMG on a magnum Mauser action was unpleasant!

I have this really cool Weatherby cartridge display piece that my father in law picked up somewhere a long time ago. The largest I have ever fired was a .300 Wby Magnum, looking up the scale at the 378, 416, and 460 makes me timid. I must admit the 460 downright scares me. I don't think I have big enough stones to shoot that caliber, and I have done some sketchy [bleep] in my life. Of all of these the only one I would like to own right now would be the .257. I had one but it was a left handed #1 profile 24" barrel, just didn't like it enough to keep it. I want a righty in a 26" barrel.