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

Thanks RC. I loaded the 250 FTX's at 2975 in my 458, no usage on bucks yet, but man they bust the hell outta rocks!

The 250-grain Hornady, 258-gr CEB, 300-gr CEB, 300-gr Hammers too !
So as not to get mind boggled, I am sticking with 400-grainers today.
Bubba prefers to use 500-gr TSX to make these exactly 400.0-gr bullets, since that is no great loss.
Cutting and drilling, reaming and chamfering a 450-gr TSX into a 400-grainer borders on unethical.

For the 400-gr X-TSX bullets by Bubba, 5 grooves means made from a 500-gr TSX.
4 grooves means made from a 450-gr TSX:



S. 400-gr X-TSX BOL 1.170"
T. 400-gr X-TSX BOL 1.165"
U. 400-gr X-TSX BOL 1.301"
V. 400-gr X-TSX BOL 1.350"
W. 400-gr X-TSX BOL 1.400"

400-gr X-TSX (W) made from a 500-gr TSX was preferred before there was a 404-gr Shock Hammer.

Finally, the 400-grain "solid" bullets, slim pickings:





X. Barnes Buster FN BOL 1.079"
Y. Thompson Center Bone Crusher BOL 1.148"
Z. BBMT's X-BBS Brass FN BOL 1.233"

The Barnes Buster has copper jacket filled with soft lead, with the FN meplat having a central pinhole sometimes visible.
It will bulge the nose on impact at 2500 fps, might even rupture. Best at hot .45-70 Gov't. impact velocities.

The TC Bone Crusher comes from TC in a plastic sabot for use in .50-cal muzzleloaders.
I SWAG it was made by Hornady for TC.
It has the same construction as the Hornady "Encapsulated Solid" with RN brass/bronze capsule and copper base plug around lead core.
That was abandoned when Hornady developed their ogived-FN DGS "solid" with steel jacket.
The Bone Crusher being a round-nosed "solid" is bound to veer inside game even if it does not expand or fragment.
The shortness of the bullet is its only plus for stability inside game.
Funny thing that the Bone Crusher when crimped on the existing factory cannelure will give a 3.340" COL in the .458 WM.
It must be an abandoned Hornady design for the .458 WM that TC bought out for stuffing muzzleloaders.
Bless their hearts.

Thus Bubba had to cut off the "Barnes Banded Solids" to make a 400-gr brass FN.
Either 450-gr or 500-gr BBS may be used.
Bubba notes that the brass is easier to work with a bastard file than copper.
He stopped at 400.2 grains on the specimen shown here.
No nose-hole to ream or drill to get it exactly 400.0 grains.
And the rebated base makes it hard to chamfer in 0.1 grain weight reduction increments.
Breaking the sharp edge is about all that can be done, but it seats easily for hand loading.
Bubba is going to be out of business if Hammer ever brings out the copper FN solid "Alpha Bullet."

Re-cap, best 400-gr Monometal Softs, excluding Bubba, Hammer on the right below is tops:

Best available soft and solid 400-gr combo until Hammer brings out the copper FN, sorry Bubba:

I have been a bit preoccupied in helping my Wife deal with the death of her Mother.
Will have to make another trip to Florida soon to square away some things.
I am hoping Easter may be a great comfort for my Wife, she being a Methodist Minister's daughter and knowing
both her parents are now gone to be with Jesus.
The celebration of the resurrection of the .458 Winchester Magnum will continue in the Happy Hunting Ground also.
Jesus has already built a Square Table there for the true believers.
The Lottites will have some 'spaining to do, to Saint Peter at The Pearly Gates.

The 250gr MonoFlex (monometal) is in the docket for a bear... sighted, etc. A modest amount of 5744 gives it 2610 fps from my Ruger No.1H.

Since my former Ruger No.1 in .45-70 LT would have been nearly identical to your 45-90 in use and effect, I loaded the 300gr TSX at 2650 fps for bear.

(Hope this doesn't detract from Sir Ron's excellent presentations on the all-around usefulness of 400s, especially the 404 Hammer, which I'd sure like to locate somewhere North of The Border!)

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

It’s very accurate in my rifle. I’d bet out to 300 or so it should be a good killer.

Need to run it into some jugs and see how it holds up to the speed.

No detraction at all Sir Bob.
King .458 Winchester has instructed his hand to review the load data of Sir Scotty and that of Hand of the King, yours truly.
Reference is also given to a load that was pressure-tested by Sir Michael at MIB.
It was a CEB 250-grainer, but does illustrate low pressure with compressed H4198 and such a light bullet.
Graph below: Green Line was done with Sir Scotty's 22"-barreled M70 Winchester rifle and a COL of 3.200" with the Hornady 250-gr Monoflex at 3.200" COL.
Red Line was done with my 24" Ruger No. 1 and a COL of 3.340" with same bullet and larger charges of compressed H4198 required,
to get same satisfactory pressure and velocity.
Sir Scotty's loads and mine have been corrected to MV.
The one load from Sir Michael is shown as a range of velocities (vertical ORANGE LINE)
plotted from instrumental velocity and upward, as explained on the graph.

First, the pertinent COLs:





The pertinent graph:

Sir Scotty has naught to fear for the integrity of the monometal copper Monoflex, however fast he wishes to drive it into deer.
His only concern is to minimize meat damage by wise placement of the bullet.
And I am sure that will be easy since it shoots accurately for him.
Here is a sample indicating best accuracy with maximal H4198 and even better accuracy with the starting load of AA-5744
in my Ruger No. 1.
Let this guide the quest for accuracy nodes in all the King's rifles:

The accuracy load with which your brass will last forever is detailed here.
Since the BC of the bullet is so low, there is little gained by maximal loads with this bullet at practical hunting ranges.

Another 250-gr bullet good for short-range hunting with the .458 WM:

Here are the cartridges used for the above testing:



Here is the degree of compression required with H4198 (use of drop tube will reduce amount of compression)
compared to NO FILLER NEEDED with AA-5744:

Here is the humorous LongCOL load which pushes this bullet into .458 WM+ territory by 0.005" of excess COL:



The SAAMI .458 WM chamber is 2.520" long.
Wildcatted .458 WM+ max brass = 2.505", trim to 2.500".

I might try seating it a little deeper to suck that 3rd round in. Shooting prone off the ground is a pile of fun with this rifle though.

Sir Scotty,

Are you trying the longer COL in comparison to your previous 3.200" COL ?
Are those 100-yard groups ?

Official salutation of Knights of .458 Winchester Magnum: "Winchester is here!"
Used instead of "aloha."

The "Light Hammers":



.458 Cal-250g Shock Hammer
This 250g Shock Hammer was designed specifically for the 45-70 Gov.
This pure copper bullet will work well in the old trap door models as well as the lever action and modern rifles.
With the big 1/4″ hollow point it will be a hard hitting performer with excellent velocity for hunting big game.
Recommended minimum twist rate is 1-30″
Bullet length is .885″
Nose length is .4375″
Bullet weight is 250g
Recommended use: Big Game Hunting
g1-bc= .116 estimated



.458 Cal-300g Shock Hammer
This Shock Hammer with it’s 1/4″ hollow point will be a heavy hitter in the 45-70 cartridge.
Good weight with high vel will be tough to beat.
This Shock Hammer should not be overlooked in the big .458’s for dangerous game. Hard hitting without excess recoil.
Required minimum twist rate is 1-30″ or faster
Preferred twist rate for dangerous game is 1-25″ or faster
Bullet length is 1.05″
Nose length is .450″
Bullet weight is 300g
Recommended use: Big Game Hunting / Dangerous Game Hunting
g1-bc= .272 estimated

The "Long Hammer"



.458 Cal-674g Target Hammer
We have been working with Kirby Allen of Allen Precision Shooting to develop an extreme long range bullet for his 458 Maximus.
This is the 1st version that we settled on for his 1-12″ test rifle.
He was able to run this 674g Target Hammer at 3220 fps from a 1-12″ twist 41″ Lilja barrel.
This confirmed a bc of .540 g7 out to 2500y. At 3000′ elevation this will hold supersonic to almost 3200 yards! Simply amazing!
This bullet has our patented PDR radius drive band design and is a bore rider style of bullet.
This means that it will seat the boat tail junction in the case neck and be a single feed only bullet.
Recommended minimum twist rate is 1-12″
Bullet length is 2.632″
Bullet weight is 674g
Recommended use: Long Range Target Shooting
g7-bc= .540 calculated from shot drops out to 2500y

Wonder how that PDR radius drive band affects obturation?

If applied to shorter bullets that shape would also have to be shortened proportionally I guess!
The other surprise is how far back on the shank it is located.

Winchester is here, the foremost authority on the 458 WM+ & 458 WM