mooshoo,
Congratulations. You have arrived.
swiftshot is not to be believed regarding accuracy life and yardage.
That may apply to him alone.
Not you.
For varmints, deer and antelope, you have your choice of 250-grainer at +3000 fps to 400-grainer at +2500 fps in a SAAMI .458 WinMag.
Flat enough for easy shooting within 300 yards, but wind drift will be tricky with the 250-grain Hornady GMX monometal-ballistic tip (poor BC).
Heavier and slower bullets can be used too.
What is your style ?
I personally have so many good loads for the .458 WinMag
that you will have to name a bullet type, weight and velocity range of interest to you to give us a starting point for suggestions to you.
The .458 WinMag is King of Versatility.
Well, here is my starting point, for suggestions to me:
My favorite deer load is a 400-grainer with either 80 grains of AA-2230 or 76 grains of H322 for about 2500 fps in a 24" barreled .458 WinMag.
Hornady brass case and F215 primer.
COL can be adjusted from 3.340" to 3.395" depending on accuracy and velocity tuning, and the particular 400-gr bullet you choose.
That COL range works in my factory M70 which has an inside-box length of about 3.42".
As usual, start low and work up to my favorite load if you choose, like a responsible handloader.
Your mileage may vary.
A 400-grain, .458-caliber bullet at 2500 fps MV will kill anything on the planet with proper bullet-type selection.
Or a 450-grainer at 2300 fps MV.
Or a 500-grainer at 2100 fps MV.
A hardcast 480-gr FN at 1300 fps MV will Bagwell also, if you are a good enough shot and can handle the trajectory.
H4895 cannot cause over-pressure problems in the .458 WinMag with 400-grain bullets unless you work at it with a drop tube fill of case to top
before trying to seat a bullet into the case.
But, a usual 100% LR/net fill with H4895 for a maximum load with any given bullet
may be reduced to 60% of the maximum load for a reduced load, with or without filler.
Even I could get by with H4895 alone if I had to use only one powder for loading the .458 WM.
I have used H4895 to get the 400-gr Woodleigh PPSN to over 2600 fps MV from a 25" barrel, with 3.425" COL,
and likely higher than SAAMI MAP.
One could also do a 400-grainer at 1800 fps for rainbow trajectory varmint, deer, and antelope loads.
That is a 100-yard elk load too, according to Elmer Keith.
