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

Holy smokes.. Now that is a great picture.. I could get away with having an ape like picture of me, but not even need to alter the picture

Jerry, awesome hunt buddy! Looks like you worked that 458 out properly! Man, you are hard to keep pace with big buddy!

Looks like mine which is electroless nickel plated and I have 2 stocks for it, walnut and plastic of course.
A very practical .458 for any occasion.

Sir Woods,
Aye, you have the most practical of rifles.
For fun I like to think of ways to extend its range of applications,
like trying it as a muzzle loader:

Before re-barreling a wondrous .458 WinMag to faster twist, for King of Two Mile competition,
I figgered I should spiff up a disappointing .458 B&M that already has a 1:10" twist PAC NOR on it,
by giving it a SAAMI .458 WinMag throat and loading it to a COL of 3.340".
It will have the same net capacity and load capability as a .458 WM+ loaded to 3.6" COL.
Thus shall be born the .458 BMW.
Even with the 19.75" barrel length and 3.00" magazine length and rebated rim cases,
it should serve as a surrogate for load trials, by single-shot loading.
Hopefully the slightly fatter and shorter case of same gross capacity but with slight bottleneck
does not cause any unpleasant surprises.







The Barnes data above is for .458 Lott with 26" barrel length.
The .458 WM+ and .458 BMW ought to be capable of doing at least that with 24" barrels.

Sir Ron, many thanks for the pics and write up, doe 1 was hit very tight in the crease behind her left shoulder to exit flank, i wanted a clean hit to see if the big 450gr TSX would expand on such a light target, it did indeed as can be seen by the leather punch like pattern in the flank exit, range, 110 yards.
Doe 2 was hit not as far back as i would like due to brush, i knew i was going to exit shoulder at the angle she was standing, fortunately not too much damage, range, 48 yards.
Doe 3 was a cluster, any man here that's hunted a fair bit has had this happen, animal in weapon sight, committed to trigger pull, animals moves, OH SHIITTT!, BOOM, felt recoil...........all six of those actions happen at once, i ran over to have her look at me, one quick 300gr hard cast from the 454 at the base of the neck ended it, all within 30 seconds, range, 44 yards.

It was a hell of an exhausting fun day, my old butt dragging three deer out of a clear cut had me wishing for 35 years of age. i have one Arkansas buck tag left and iirc till the 19th of December to make it happen, there's a big tall wide and heavy horned 10pt that calls that area home, he may be holed up resting and eating after the rut.

Sir Larry, using this 458 WM+ on these light big game animals is perfect practice for Africa, i now know animals from the tiny 10 up to Buffalo and Hippo can be handled with 450gr TSX's at 24000+ fps, with a three inch high zero at 100 through the scope, large plains game can be easily had out to 300, pretty dang versatile setup.

LOL Big Scotty B, man it was a fun day, all three deer are hanging at butcher shop for 5 full days, he'll then work his magic getting them ready for the freezer, if i didn't mention it, all three dropped at the shot, not one step was taken.

Sir Jerry,
Congratulations on your immediate successes.
Excellent work as usual.
You are ready for anything with your .458 WM+.
Big buy a donkey for sharing the field test report.

Thank You Sir Ron, it remains my pleasure, as we all know, those Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solids at 2358+ fps held in reserve will easily handle anything else.

I would have zero hesitation about using the 458 on anything in North America. I believe in the “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em”. That 450 TSX at your velocity is definitely a performer. That hide exit certainly removes any doubt that bullet expanded.
In my guesstimation, all bets are off to “the eat right up to the hole” once bone pieces are being flung around, regardless of bullet. I unzipped a coyote once, by a 338 Winchester 225 TSX traveling lengthwise down the spine. Coyote tenderloin was hanging 4’ high on spruce limbs behind him. Damnest hole I have ever seen.

You bet Larry, first animal on the list this fall up on the Limpopo is Red Hartebeest, Wife wants one, PH said they like to hang in the open and be prepared for up to 300 yard shooting, the 458 WM+ with 450's at 2400 will do it all, save for walking and shooting whatever other light game shows with a 1921 year model British 303 double and 215gr Woodleighs, if a large cape buffalo is found that will be a nice test for the 450 TSX's.

LOL on the coyote, i unzipped one a little lower kneeling and shooting between cattle, hit him in the tailpipe with 22-250 and 55gr ballistic tip, unzipped his guts, he spun counter clockwise circles biting at himself till the lights went out, wretched bastards anyway ; ]

Awesome report Gunner. I believe I need to find some of them 450's! That was too damned cool to watch this unfold in words. I am sure you had a good time out there!

I once shot a bobcat at 25 yards range with a .223 Rem (Cooper single-shot bolt action) with a 50-gr Nosler Ballistic Tip.
I was able to find the skull for mounting, happily with no teeth missing from the explosive death.
As you were.

The .458 BMW has been born.
Re-throated the .458 B&M with a SAAMI .458 WinMag reamer.
So simple a caveman can do it.
Hand-reamed with barrel in place on the Winchester M70 Classic.

It is a short-barreled, ballistic research surrogate for a fast-twist .458 WM+ with suppressor and muzzle brake interchangeability.
Heavy bullets subsonic and quiet for short range targets,
or heavy bullets supersonic and LOUD for long range targets.













Stay tuned for exciting developments for the .458 WM+ and .458 BMW after muzzleloader deer season.

Great info Sir Ron

That's pretty good stuff RC. It never ends. A 1-10 twist 458 barrel would really get some things moving too.

Sir Ron,
LMAO regarding the bobcat.
That Linda Lovelace BMW may prove interesting.
Your research is tireless.

Definitely a versatile load. I hope a Big Buffalo gives you the opportunity.
Agree on those coyotes. Their ability to adapt is pretty amazing. Sneaky little varmints.

Sir Jerry,
Congrats on the Success! Fill that Freezer, and Enjoy!

I shot a coon once, that with five or six others were depleting my bear bait site of goodies for the bears. Since this was my friend's turn to shoot a bear (I'd killed one the previous week), I told him to shoot the coons, since coons don't come in numbers like that with a bear being close by. He shot a couple with his .308 win and the others scattered into the bush. I chased one down and shot it at about 25 yards using my "bear load" of a 500g Hornady RN at 2185 fps from the #1 Ruger in .45-70 LT. It literally exploded with bits and pieces hanging from the branches of trees! That's what I'd shot the bear with the previous week!

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

On a new deer lease with lots of coons messing with our feeder, one of our party set several traps around two feeders. The number of coons caught and dispatched was astounding! But, there were no coons around when the deer season began.

Sir Larry,
Buy a donkey for the flowers.

The tornadoes missed the farm but scattered some debris on it.
I picked up a pit of metal roofing, vinyl siding, foam insulation, and fiberglass insulation on the far southwest field.
Buildings were lost elsewhere !
The morning was shot by rain and wind.
The afternoon was sunny and just a mild steady breeze with cold front coming.

I sat in the woods in a ground blind.
A stupid little buck with one spike and a button came within 50 feet of me and studied me for about 5 minutes.
Finally he put his nose in the air, snorted and turned away.
He stopped 100 feet away and looked back at me through the trees.
I waved bye-bye to him and he really hightailed it.

Wallking out at sunset a big doe waved bye-bye to me from 200 yards away across the middle field.
I had spotted her and soon as I got my crosshairs on her I saw her swap ends and raise the white flag.

Gee, tornadoes and muzzleloader season is getting in the way of R&D.

.458 B&M Winchester-throated Fast Twister



7 pounds 2 ounces without the scope and rings.
8 pounds 14 ounces with the fun little 2.5-10x56mm Mildot "Eurolux" 30mm tube in medium height Burris XTR rings.





The .458 BMW is a .458 B&M retrofitted with a SAAMI .458 Winchester Magnum throat.
This one has a 1:10" twist Pac Nor barrel 19.75" long, on a Connecticut Classic M70 300 WSM action.
A .30-'06-length action and a longer barrel would be a further improvement,
but as is, when loaded single-shot style, it will serve for extrapolation purposes to mimic a fast twist .458 WM+.
The .458 BMW at 3.340" COL is equivalent to a .458 WM+ at 3.600" COL,
with any bullet long enough to be loaded in both.

Interstingly, the .458 B&M in its short-throated proprietary version has a maximum brass length of 2.250", trim to 2.240".
The .458 WinMag has a SAAMI chamber length of 2.520" for brass length accommodation,
so a trim-to-length of 2.500" is appropriate for the .458 WM+, max brass 2.505".
The .458 BMW should maintain a trim-to length of 2.240".
The .458 BMW is 0.260" shorter in brass length than the .458 WM+, 2.240" versus 2.500".
The two cases have the same gross capacity at these lengths when both utilize R-P brand brass.
It is not surprising that both also have the same net capacity when the .458 BMW COL is 3.340"
and the .458 WM+ COL is 3.600".
Both are capable of opening a can of whoop ass on the SAAMI .458 Lott.