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

The natives are getting restless at the Hammer Bullets web site,
so I printed this there, when some of them griped about no blood and guts yet,
and also claimed the .45-90 was of greater case capacity than the .458 WM.
To the Hammer Heads:


I'll be hunting deer soon with the 404-gr Shock Hammer.
The zone I am in has no limit this year, 4 was the limit last year, they need thinning out.
I should be able to get some necropsies on deer.
Sir Jerry's report on cape buffalo and African plains game with the 404-gr SH is in the pipe, be patient.
Twice to Africa for me has been enough, I want more Alaska.
I will never get enough of Alaska, and the 404-gr SH is perfect for anything there.
Might even make a great sheep and goat bullet from the right rifle.
I'll get a lot of mileage out of that concept.

.45-90 is a 2.4" rimmed cartridge case.
If it is bigger than the 2.5" case of the .458 WM, that is a surprise to me.
Starline .45-2.6" brass, for the .45-100-2.6" Sharps Winchester Throated
aka the ".45-70 Elko Magnum" exactly as shown in CIP,
is 2 grains water bigger than the .458 WM.

In W-W Super, Hornady, or RP brass cases, trimmed to 2.500" after firing and not re-sized,
gross water is 95 grains, just like the default in QuickLOAD says.
However, the Norma .458 WM brass case is bigger in gross case capacity than those, by about another 4.2 grains H20.
So, 95.0 to 99.2 grains H20 gross for the .458 WM depending on brass.

So a 3.380" COL with Norma brass gives same net case capacity as 3.480" COL with W-W Super or Hornady brass
in the .458 Winchester Magnum.

Those are good COLs with the 404-gr Shock Hammer using 2.500" brass when crimping on the 2nd and 3rd troughs of the 5 in the PDR bands.

Here are some loads chronographed from a 25" Shilen barrel with the 404-gr Shock Hammer in W-W Super (Winchester) brass,
at 3.480" COL
F-215 or GM215M primer
at 86*F
corrected to MV from 5-yard chronograph (BC = 0.419),
consider these maximum or too hot for your rifle until proven otherwise,
starting from 10% below:

H4198 72.0 grains: 2514 fps
H322 78.0 grains: 2510 fps

At 39*F, earlier date, other load specs and rifle same as above:

AA-2230 81.0 grains: 2517 fps

At 40*F, earlier date, other load specs and rifle same as above, except using greater capacity Norma brass:

AA-2230 84.0 grains: 2545 fps

From 25" to 20" barrel shortening, subtract about 20 fps per inch as estimate.
Below 20" barrel length, losses increase more rapidly per inch.
Above 25" length, gains decrease more rapidly per inch.

Remember that these results are made possible by the throat of the SAAMI .458 WM.
I put that same throat on my .45-2.6"-100 Sharps (Ruger No. 1) and thus recreated the .45-70 Elko Magnum.
That "70" in the Elko must be for 70 grains of non-compressed smokeless like H4198 instead of for 70 grains of compressed BP.
Heh heh.
Any loads for the .458 WM that might be over 60,000 psi or over 3.340" COL
I call .458 WM+ loads.
Load data for the .458 WM+ (with W-W Super brass)
and the .45-2.6-100 SWT (with StarLine brass) are interchangeable.
COL is just 0.100" longer in the latter.