Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only The great 458 Winchester. Everyone should own one at least once

The Brits and Americans traveled similar leapfrogging paths of firearms development.
These sights on a .461 Gibbs No. 2 are almost as amazing as the final winning leap to the .458 Winchester Magnum:



There are graduations labeled for both 570-gr and 360-gr bulleted loads at various yardages.
570-gr bullet with 90-gr BP
360-gr bullet with 100-gr BP

The Brits were actually quite slow on the breech-loader cartridge development compared to the Americans,
and they have taken credit for some developments that were American.
There were drawn brass cases in the U.S for rimfire rifle cases of .44- to .58-caliber starting in 1860.
The .50-70 Government centerfire arrived in 1866, while the Brits were still fussing with coiled cases for the likes of the .450 BPE.
The Brits finally got into drawn brass cases about 1872.
Belted cases were in use in the U.S. before H&H claimed the development about a half century later.
Historical notes from a cartridge collector's catalog:



From a 1952 GUN DIGEST article by Paul Foster:





Oliver F. Winchester was quite the pioneer, culminating posthumously in his namesake supreme:











In the 1870's the Sharps business was hot and heavy.



Sharps may have never sold any rifles in .45-cal. 3-1/4" case length,
but Winchester surely took advantage of the Sharps name after the Sharps Rifle Co. went belly up ...