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

Sir John,
Components are sitting on the reloading bench.
Too many ol'lady things going on lately.
Will do.
The Woodleigh manual actually has data for BENCHMARK with the 400-gr PPSN.
Will try that at 3.48"-3.58" with the 404-gr Shock Hammer in the 2.5" brass of the .458 WinMag.

I will do it properly this time, starting low and working up.
Last time I started with H4895 and the maximum .458 Lott load with 400-gr PPSN in the .458 WinMag with COL of 3.425", IIRC.
COL with that bullet in the .458 Lott should be about 3.470".
Loading Manual MV for the .458 Lott was supposed to be 2570 fps.
I beat that with the .458 WinMag at COL that was 0.045" shorter than in the Lott.

.458 Lott: 2570 fps MV, 3.470" COL crimped on factory cannelure.
.458 WinMag: 2627 fps MV, 3.425" COL crimped on a secondary cannelure,

That was with 87.0 grains of H4895, compressed load in the .458 Lott also.
To be fair, my .458 WinMag had a 25" barrel.
The Woodleigh .458 Lott barrel might have been 24".
A one inch barrel differenece from 24" to 25" ought to add no more than 15 fps.
No excuse.
The .458 WinMag still wins.

Instead of starting at the top with heavily compressed H4895 and Woodleigh bullet,
I will start low with BENCHMARK and work up. with 404-gr Shock Hammer and BENCHMARK.