Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Barnes .458 Win Mag 350 gr TSX for the big stuff in North America?

Would this work fine for the big brown bears, or bison or muskox? Would it be better than a .375 H&H for stopping a charge?

Looking for excuses to keep my .458 Win Mag Model 70 Safari. The 500 grain Hornady DGX max loads are a little on the brutal side for me. With the TSX 350 grainers at 2300 fps, I might put an aluminum floor plate on it and tote it around grizzly country in northern Canada. I think it would weigh around 8.5 pounds. :-)

Thoughts?

No good intel about the 350 TSX on bear, bison or muskox, but man, I can't think it'd be a bad combo and it'd be a great excuse to keep the big gun!

I have no experience with the .458 WM and I haven't shot a brown bear, bison or musk ox so this is speculation, but I would think that it should work pretty well. My experience with larger calibers and dangerous game is limited to two buffalo taken with a .375 H&H using 270 and 300 grain TSX bullets.

A TSX bullet is not likely to lose much weight and should penetrate well even in a light for caliber bullet like the 350 grain .458. Plus you get the stopping power of a large caliber with less recoil. I would think it's worth a try. You might try shooting a bison and see how that works before moving to big bears.

338 Win mag will do the job, for years 30-06 with 200 Partitions killed a lot of bears, buffalo and musk ox

I would not be afraid to use the 350 TSX in the 458 for bears

Me either. Probably one of the better choices for US use and easy to emulate .375 recoil levels.

Phil Shoemaker recently recommended it here, the 350-gr TSX, for big bruins.
No doubt he would prefer it in a .458 WM, as in his handle.
2500 fps is the usual recommended load.
We of the Knights of the Four Five Eight have been known to joust with ours at 2700 to 2800 fps.
It is an easy trick by loading it crimped in the last of its 3 grooves and using H4198 for great accuracy.

That's pretty interesting.

I sold the Marlin .45-70 with the reasoning that a .338 WM would probably work better in a bolt rifle I find easier to live with, and that my .458 WM would let me play with the caliber in a cartridge with more leeway. My .375 H&H is pleasant to shoot compared to my 500 grain .458 experiences in WM and Lott, so I like the notion of a 350 grain .458 mono being sufficient for anything in North America with lower recoil and lower pressure.


What's the drop at 300 yards with the 350 gr at 2500 fps?

EDIT: read a bit more and sounds like about a foot.

I'm not a gun-writer but feel I can offer something on this one. While involved in a water buffalo cull that had 100 animals per week as the goal I had concerns about just how much day after day recoil I could take. Partly as a fall back, and partly as an experiment I thought that 350 gr TSXs might be a way of turning a .458 into a .375 level recoil rifle. As it turned out I ended up shooting about 60 buffalo and about an equal number of pigs with that combo, and none of them asked for a refund. I ran it past Barnes for fun first, but they were sure interested in my results afterwards.

You could do well with that bullet in North America if you just want to use your rifle. Never mind that you wouldn't be better served with a 300 Win, or 350hornadys in your .458; it'll work just fine.

This coming from a guy who doesn't even like barnes much.

They’ll work great. I used a 458 with 350s for a few years in Alaska when I lived there. I used the Barnes and the Hornady on bears and deer. Never caught one of either flavor though I did see some evidence of the Hornady breaking up and one coming completely apart.

I was using 70 some odd grains of H4198. Good accuracy at 2550 and much easier to shoot than the 500s.

I've made reference to Model 70 Guy's results a few times ln my blogs, as well as from personal tests in tough mdedia compared to several other bullets at impact velocities simulating 100 yard impacts from a .458. The 350 TSX (two fired) completely penetrated the test media (15.5 inches of hardcover books and dry glossy magazines, plus 2 planks of wood, 1.5" each). To compare with others: the 350 Hor lost its core and penetrated 4.5"; the 500gr Speer African GS made 6.5" and lost it's front core, retaining 310gr (one of the 350 TSX was stopped at the last panel of the last box with a penetration of 15.5" and 100% weight retention). Several solids penetrated completely. But the 350 TSX at 2750 fps MV impacted a bear frontally at 100 yards and never expanded according to a best analysis. It was a smallish bear where the bullet made exit in the right flank and the bear ran in a semi circle and expired forty yards behind the bait. I've killed lots of bears with .45-70s and .458s, and that was a first. The bullet is very tough and needs both speed and adequate resistance for expansion. I've no doubt it would be great on game like bison and big bears. As Ron said, it's also very accurate using H4198.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

just go with the 404 Hammer and be done

That's about what I expect from TSXs or any other mono bullet. If you don't want your animal dieing someplace else when you're using a mono break something that is holding it up.

That is generally my experience--though have found it effective with non-mono bullets as well....

And just plain old 180s and 200/220s.

Ain't that the truth.