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A good faith teaser, I am working on it.


Chapter 2
Father of the .458 Winchester Magnum: James A. Watts

The first book written by Calvin R. Pappas (1996) was entitled:
JAMES “.450” WATTS: RECOLLECTIONS OF MY LIFE
This was essentially a transcription of a half-year of Sunday evening, tape-recorded conversations from early winter 1994 to late spring 1995. James “.450” Watts passed away at age 82 on December 19, 1995, in his Anchorage, Alaska home. Sadly, for all hunters and firearms enthusiasts, Cal “.600” Pappas was called to the Happy Hunting Ground too soon, at age 66, on May 22, 2022 at his home in Willow, Alaska. These two men had much in common. Their collaboration on the book was a God Wink. I like to think they are continuing their conversations at the hunting camp they now share up there.

Here is the story of how James Watts conceived the .450 Watts Magnum (2.85” H&H-belted case) and .450 Watts Short (2.50” H&H-belted case) and pestered WRAC until they homologated the SAAMI .458 Winchester Magnum. Cal also reported on James Watts’ inventions of the “.450 Alaskan,” “.416 Taylor” and “.40-348 Watts Improved.” I believe Watts was the first wildcatter to fire-form a .375 H&H to .458-caliber, full-length, straight-tapered dangerous game stopper in 1949. He may have had his first glimmerings of doing so in the summer of 1939. Watts was then arising from a dunking in a creek after a charging grizzly he had fully perforated with a .375 H&H struck him with paw. That swipe tore the .45 Long Colt revolver off his hip as the bear ran over him and died on the other side of the creek. That was the inspiration. Baptism by bear.

James A. Watts was born in 1913 in Mulvane, Kansas. His father (George) was a Methodist minister and his mother (Rebecca) was a school teacher. James was an All-American boy, well-adjusted, adventurous, energetic, intelligent, loved outdoor pursuits, hunting, camping, and firearms. He started shooting at 8 y.o. with a Stevens single shot .22 RF. Before graduating high school he had graduated to a .45-70 Springfield Trapdoor and a Savage M95 .30-30 WCF. After college he taught history and English in western Kansas and owned a 12-gauge Western Field pump and a Winchester Model 71 .348 WCF. He ordered a Winchester Model 70 .375 H&H in 1937 and by the spring of 1938 he was planning an Alaskan adventure. James said his .375 H&H was the seventeenth M70 made in that caliber.

Young James’ first contact in Alaska was none other than Judge E. B. Collins, mayor of Fairbanks, who had facilitated the introduction of bison from Yellowstone park to the Delta Junction area in 1928. The Judge’s daughter, Mrs. Mary Lou Howard, had relocated to El Dorado, Kansas and spoke in church of her Alaskan experiences. She provided the contact information also for a Methodist minister in Alaska through whom James also explored employment prospects. After mailing and receiving replies to several letters, James headed for Alaska with his .375 H&H Winchester M70, having sold his .348 and .30-30 WCF.

He traveled by bus from Kansas to Seattle, Washington. Then a freighter carrying railroad materials took him by steerage passage to Seward, Alaska. There he met the Methodist minister during a ten hour layover, drove around the Kenai Peninsula a bit with the pastor, then hopped back on the ship headed for Valdez ...