Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only mystique of the 460wby

I have some of the 350 grain North Fork Cup Points. I actually wanted the 325’s for 45-70 and 400’s for 458’s.
But, due to supply availability I am going to use the 350’s in all things of .458 diameter. I think though should work well on anything in Alaska at the distances I would use them.

Yep, that is where I got the 350 grain ones.
I still do not see the 400’s in stock.

You may be able to special order them.

Betting when you chamber and fire one of those 350's into an animal you wont see it again, they should cover conus/Alaska very well.

I think you are probably right. Other than full lengthwise shot on browse stuffed moose might stop one. But, I think plenty of penetration and tissue destruction will happen with these relatively lightweights.

Teal: "I" am "enamored" with both my 240 Weatherby Magnum and my 224 Weatherby Magnum (German manufacture!)!
They are accurate and perform very well afield on small game, Varmints, predators and medium size Big Game (Mule Deer, Antelope and Whitetailed Deer).
I shot a 460 Weatherby once and do NOT wish to do so again.
So now you know someone who has used Weatherby Rifles and proprietary ammunition and IS enamored with some of them.
Happy New Year.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

here in Northern Minnesota many of us like the Weatherby magnum smaller cartridges , most of us use 257 Weatherby mags for deer. i own a few bigger African cartridges 458 Lott , 458 Win. 416 Rigby ,375 H&H ,338 Lapua , but maybe someday i may buy a 460 Weatherby mag. , but i am not sure i am man enough anymore to wanna squeeze the trigger with a 460 Weatherby mag. ,good luck ,Pete53

I have never been enamored with the 460 Weatherby or and of the Weatherby's for that matter. I have tried to talk myself into a 270 Weatherby more than once but just could not do it. My looneyism only goes so far.

For big bores I have comfortably settled on a 416 Remington mag in in a Model 70 Safari. Some may argue that a 416 is not a big bore, no matter to me. That is certainly where I am going to stop.

I hit my recoil limit with a 416 Rigby, and have shot a couple 458's, both standard and Lott. No desire to repeat.

That may be what it takes, our old buddy Evil Twin shot a Newfoundland bull moose in the chest with a 45-110 Sharps and 540gr cast lead bullet, iirc said he found the bullet in the paunch, explained the paunch to be a hundred pound sack of wet tree bark mulch and compacted grass, i need to get a moose hunt done while i still can.

I can load my .460 Wby down to .458 Win mag or .458 Lott levels.

Here is what I load in it now. Notice the velocity of 2060 fps. I am tossing the idea around of loading the 480 grain Woodleighs to @ 2400 fps.



Some varmints taken with the .460 Wby.


Shot was about IIRC 50-60 yards away and was using the above load.

Entrance....


Exit....


Shot this bunny with a 400 grain Speer at 2500 fps and it was around 70 yards away.


The spot where I hit it.


So yeah, the .460 is a brutal beast that is hardly worth the trouble.

I think most critics of the .460 tend to omit the value it provides in versatility.

There are very few riflemen in this world that have truly explored that versatility because of the fear of recoil which can be mitigated or adjusted to your own levels of tolerance when handloading.

As Riflecrank mentioned above, there is an established load using 500 grain bullets at 2500fps using 115gn or either 760/H414, IMR or H 4350 that will punch nice half inch groups with monotonous regularity and still have more than any other .458 option yet at a reduced loading.

If you want thump and you are a believer of Sectional Density, then 123gn of IMR 4350 will meet the Factory spec and get you your 8000FPE using the Swift A-Frame bullet. If you want more, 116gn of IMR 4350 under the 600gn Barnes got me 2460fps - Not corrected to Muzzle velocity - and 8064FPE.

My preference was the no longer available, yet never to be obsoleted, 400 grain Barnes X bullet where an easy shooting load of 110gn Varget/AR2208 coasts along at 2750fps and absolutely drills big animals or if you are hairy chested, 116gn of IMR 4064 will hit 2900fps and shoot flatter than any elephant thumper extant.

There are also a decent couple of 350 grainer's on the market today which reduce recoil further and shoot as flat as you want to shoot them. The 350gn Speer flat point I pushed as hard as 2860fps using 112gn IMR 4064 and as light as 2380fps using 90gn of AR 2206 so pick a load to suit you. The 350gn Barnes TSX is a terrific option for modern .460 loadings as is the 450gn TSX as an allrounder.

I am all for an argument or favoritism for a load or condemnation on a bullet that didn't stand up to a load but criticism of the .460 Weatherby in general, is a pretty weak argument and always has been.

It took me 12 different bullets using 15 different powders to learn what I have about this cartridge. How about its critics?

Most hunters can't handle the recoil of full-power loads in the .460 Weatherby which as stated is around 2500 fps for a 500 grain projectile. Those that can, will still have much difficulty doing a fast follow-up shot if needed because of the muzzle jump. Also many 500 grain bullets perform/performed erratically at 2500 fps. It was when handloaders started to download to about 2300 fps with a 500 grain projectile that the .460 started to be a viable proposition. However, you still have limited magazine capacity (like 2 rounds) because of the very large diameter belted case. Then there's the rifle its chambered in, many prefer controlled round feed for a dangerous game rifle as opposed to Weatherby's push-feed design and a 26" barrel on a double rifle is ok but makes for a long rifle on a bolt-action.

Good read there John. I recall reading your exploits with 550 grain woodleighs on American buffalo too. Was that in the Australian shooters journal magazine? I didnt have a 460 long enough to play around with it. Was just factory loads of 500 grain softpoints and FMJ in the old grey weatherby packets. Good memories though, even ordering ammo by mail before it became verboten to send through the postal system, miss those days

158,
I did write more for the Journal than the other magazines but that particular American series or articles was published in the Australasian Sporting Shooter Magazine. Lost my copies in a basement flood, my introduction to basements in the US, so I don't have a reference anymore unfortunately. That Woodleigh Weldcore was handloaded to over 2500fps and hit with the thump of an axe. The guide simple stated, "Good Lord".
John

I've got a bunch of Deluxe Weatherbys including a 378 and a 460. The lighter 378 recoils a lot worse than the 460. The 460 is actually quite tame even with full power loads.

I also own a Ruger #1 in 450 Nitro, tossing 500 grain bullets over 2400fps. The rifle only weighs 7.5 pounds and will knock you into next week. The 460 and 378 are little pop guns compared to that light weight 450 Nitro.

Tony

A couple of points.......
1. 2500fps is not a full power load with the 500 grain bullet and as stated above is just an established accuracy load. Full factory specs of 2700fps is reached using 123gn of IMR 4350, my load using the 500gn Swift A-Frame bullet.

2. Magazine capacity for the current Dangerous Game Mark V is 3+1. That custom drop magazine is also available from Weatherby and I fitted on to my rifle, so have some experience with it. 32,000ftlbs of energy in a single rifle can be comforting when you think it is needed.

Agree. I fired a Ruger No1 chambered in .458 Winchester that Mike McGuire owned for a brief period. It came back like a pile driver and was much more unpleasant than the .460. Even that smaller .458 was too much for that rifle design, at least for me. The .378 had a lighter barrel profile than either the .416 Weatherby, which I owned 3 of, (#1 was a custom 25" unbraked, #2 was a factory rifle with KDF style brake and #3 was a customer 26" with triple Magna-Porting) and the .460. The older .378's also had no muzzle break of any sort so tended to be quite rude if you needed to shoot a string. The modern versions have a break so should be both noisier and easier to shoot. Again Mike had 4 of these from the Custom Shop at one stage, so he would be the one to ask about this cartridge as I am not sure whether they changed the barrel profiles on the later versions.

Given the extremes in temperature from the Yukon in mid-winter to the tropics in late October-early November, I'd want to be using H4350 for a 500 grain load. If the load tested wasn't reasonably accurate at reasonable pressure, then it wouldn't be an acceptable load. That is why I classed 2500 fps as a full-power load with a 500 grain projectile, as opposed to a "moderate load" of around 2300 fps. The 3+1 theoretical capacity when using a drop magazine is misleading. Unless you're a PH, you're going to have a guide on a buffalo, elephant, hippo hunt and they're usually not going to let you walk around all day with a round up the spout. When you come across what you are after, you're not going to stuff around trying to load an extra round into the chamber with a full magazine...even if it is a push-feed. Most of the time you will only need one shot, but for those infrequent times when you need more than one shot, I'd feel more comfortable with a greater magazine capacity.

A friend had one that he special ordered without a muzzle brake. It was not too bad to shoot. However his 50 BMG on a magnum Mauser action was unpleasant!