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

And this afterthought by me about the Hornady ammo, more old hat at the Square Table,
but some on other forums have not heard it:

Hornady, bless their heart, continue to improve their bullets.
The DGX and DGS are their best so far.
We can only hope someday they will get it all alright.

What they do produce in the way of internal and external ballistics needs no improvement.
It is just the terminal ballistic performance of the bullets that is still wanting.

I have been checking MV of the Hornady 500-gr DGS factory load for the .458 WinMag over the last 5 years.
Hornady claims 2140 fps MV in a 24" barrel. They are RIGHT ON.
Ruger No. 1 with factory 24" barrel, 1:14" twist
DGS 500-gr, 5-shot mean = 2145 fps MV at 52*F

Winchester M70 Super Grade (Cabela's) with factory 23-7/8" barrel, 1:14" twist
DGS 500-gr, 5-shot mean = 2135 fps MV at 46*F
DGX 500-gr, 5-shot mean = 2146 fps MV at 46*F

Custom FN M98 with Pac-Nor 24-1/4" barrel, 1:10" twist
DGX 500-gr, 10-shot mean = 2145 fps MV at 86*F
Standard deviation = 7.42 fps
Whenever st.dev. in fps is less than number of shots fired,
that is excellent.

Same lot of ammo for each DGX or DGS above.
Several other rifles tried over the last 5 years.
23" to 25" barrel lengths.
Twist 1:14" for all but the one 1:10" twist.
Groove diameters all within 0.458" to 0.459".
All have SAAMI .458 Winchester Magnum chambers.
Temperatures all within 40*F to 90*F range.

All results very much equivalent to Hornady advertising claims for 500-grain bullet MV.
They got that right.

One ".458 Winchester Special" custom KRAB 98 Mauser rifle I have
has a shorter throat by 0.200" than the SAAMI .458 WinMag chambering.
I got it used, said to be Douglas barrel, has a 1:14" twist, groove is 0.458, barrel length 24-1/4"
from breech face to muzzle crown.

Custom KRAB M98 with Douglas 24-1/4" barrel, 1:14" twist, non-SAAMI short throat:
Hornady factory ammo:
DGX 500-gr, 10-shot mean = 2196 fps MV at 86*F

Pressures and velocities were higher with the shorter throat.
That is how the .458 Lott works.
The SAAMI .458 Lott throat is even shorter than the one on my .458 Winchester Special.

I bought 100 each of the DGS and DGX factory loads about 2018.
The last reported MV above was done in the latter half of 2023.
Shelf life of Hornady .458 WinMag must be pretty good.
At least 5 years with no worries.
Stored at about 70*F and normal central heating and AC home humidity.

The 1957 vintage Winchester ammo was good for 64 years.
Sometime after 1957, the Democrat voters took over the ammo factories.
Last edited: Yesterday at 3:35 PM