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

So, the ".458 Lott Like Jack Built" was actually a .450 Watts Magnum superimposed in a SAAMI .458 Winchester Magnum chamber with no barrel setback,
and brass shortened to 2.800" maximum instead of the more difficult to make 2.850".
Ms. Piggy is blushing about that one.

Gary Sitton could write. Page 23 of the article:




Rest of it here:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/19193696/gary-sitton-loads

A great passage on page 22, related to why he was not interested in bullets lighter than 400 grains in his .458 Lott:

"... Besides, the factories catalog guns and loads
that do everything a down-loaded Lott could ever do.
They call them .45-70s."

A Gary Sitton celebration:
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...ear-from-handloader-in-1999#Post19196918


The SAAMI .458 Winchester Magnum is easy to down-load into a .45-70 equivalent,
or up-load to .458 WM+ to beat a SAAMI .458 Lott.

Jack Lott just became more understandable regarding his suicide.
1. He used a pre-existing .450 Watts Magnum reamer
2. in a pre-existing SAAMI .458 WM rifle,
3. trimmed the brass 0.050" shorter, and voila, named the "new" cartridge for himself.
Then he developed the backstory.
4. Did not tell that his first shot at a cape buffalo in 1959, with his new .458 WM M70 African, was a gut shot with the 510-gr RNSP.
5. Did not tell that his second shot with the 500-gr FMJ "Solid" from WRAC deformed and went squirrely because of the excessive muzzle velocity generated by the SAAMI .458 WM.
6. Exaggerated the extent of his injuries from the sick buffalo for sympathy and as raison d'etre for more velocity with crummy bullets that were not able to withstand the warp speed of the .458 Winchester Magnum.

Sextuple Stolen Valor.
Victims of it were James Watts, the .458 Winchester Magnum, and all of us.
Oh the shame of it all.

Since I posted my last update on the conversion of Ophelia to a 458 WM a couple of weeks ago, I snuck in a final weekend of deer hunting in Mississippi to see if I could put one more deer in the freezer. I had my Ruger No. 1A in 9.3x74r with me but unfortunately the only deer I saw were a bit too young so I decided to let them grow for another year.



Earlier this week I did a goose hunt in NE Arkansas but unlike last year, we had limited success. I still had a lot of fun sitting on an inverted 5-gallon bucket in a puddle of icy water for 12 hours.



While waiting for the Superbowl to start today, I worked on getting the crossbolts installed. Having never done this before, I was proceeding cautiously. I decided to get the rifle reinforced in its original configuration. Once I achieved that, then I was going to get the barrel replaced & fit it to the stock as the next step.



I used masking tape wrapped around the stock to align drilled guide holes & trace hardware sizes to gauge the placement of internal bracing. For a rookie effort, I was pleased with the results. The tolerances were tight & the rifle reassembled & functioned well. But the real test will come when I start firing some more powerful cartridges.



It’s time to get a new barrel ordered!

Well done sir.
F01

Sir Darryl,
Looks impeccable from here !
Strong work.
Same on the waterfowl hunting.
I learned to fill my Red Ball chest waders in Truman Reservoir, MO,
thanks to some kindly USAF Master Seargents who tried to teach me.
I wax nostalgic ...

From 1982 when men were men and rifles were rifles.

I'm sure that the photo of the left side of that rifle was probably taken because it was a good fit for the composition of his book cover...



...but for personal reasons, I like the right side of that rifle better. Mainly because I have an affinity for nice-looking bolt handles & that one definitely qualifies.



In the recent past, I've been on a scavenger hunt for a LH bolt action rifle in a larger caliber which is what ultimately led me to this thread. I didn't really have a pressing need for one, I just thought it would be a fun project to try to build a 458 WM. So I've been looking at a lot of rifles that would be suitable for hunting in Africa including those where the bolt is on the "wrong" side. While perusing, I saw this David Miller M70 in 375 H&H below at auction & thought that was some particularly nice engraving. He does good work.

Noticed the gold inscription No1 on the left side of the action.
Wonder if there was a N02? A .375 perhaps?

There were five rifles total in the series. They were sold as one-of-a-kind customs at the SCI (Safari Club International) conventions from 1982~1986:

David Miller of the David Miller Co. in Tucson, Arizona came up with the idea of commissioning other master gunmakers to create five one-of-a-kind rifles, each to commemorate a separate dangerous African big game animal.

Each rifle would feature the finest engraving, gold relief and gold line work based on original oil paintings by well-known artists who supported SCI.

Each would be fitted in a one-of-a-kind exotic wood and leather case, complete with appropriate accouterments, and each gunmaker would sign a certificate of authenticity guaranteeing the purchaser that the rifle would never be duplicated.

Since David Miller Co. was instrumental in creating the project, they would build the first and last rifle. The David Miller cased rifle set the standard for the other three gunmakers.

The first rifle in the series, called “The Elephant Rifle,” was based on a square-bridge Mauser action and chambered in .458 Winchester Magnum. It sold at the 1982 SCI Convention for $41,000. That was the highest price ever paid for a modern bolt-action rifle at the time.

The first rifle is the one pictured in the previous post above. Information on the other four rifles in the series is below:

Rifle Number Two, called “The Rhino Rifle,” was built by Champlin Firearms, Inc. of Enid, Oklahoma. The receiver was built entirely by Champlin and the octagon barrel was chambered for .375 H&H. That rifle brought $43,500 at the 1983 SCI Convention.









Rifle Number Three, called “The Buffalo Rifle,” was built by the Friedrich Wilhelm Heym Company of Germany. It was a side-by-side double rifle based on a Heym Model 88BSS action. That rifle brought $65,000 at the 1984 SCI Convention.



Rifle Number Four, called “The Lion Rifle,” was built by Paul Jaeger, Inc., of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. It was built on a pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 action and was chambered for the .375 H&H cartridge. That rifle brought $140,000 at the 1985 SCI Convention.



Rifle Number Five, called “The Leopard Rifle,” was made by The David Miller Co. of Tucson, Arizona. It was based on a redesigned Model 70 action that Miller helped design with U.S. Repeating Arms Co. – a redesign that now is known as the Winchester Model 70 Classic action. It was chambered in .338 Winchester Magnum. That rifle brought $201,000 at the 1986 SCI Convention.










So the series had our beloved 458 Win Mag, three 375 H&H rifles and a 338 Win Mag. If I was going to do a similar collection of rifles for myself, I would have probably picked a more varied assortment like 7x57, 300 H&H, 9.3x62, 375 H&H, 404 Jeffery, 458 Win Mag, etc. similar to the Boddington series of Ruger No. 1 rifles.

So many interesting cartridges to choose from.

Enaa baasee' Sir Darryl,

So, the Heym double rifle (buffalo) and the Champlin pushfeed (rhino) were both chambered in .375 H&H ?
Thank goodness the Paul Jaeger (lion) was a Pre-'64 M70 .375 H&H.
Way too much .375 H&H going on there for sure !
David Miller's M98 (elephant) .458 WM and M70 (leopard) .338 WM, #1 for 1982 and #5 for 1986,
are a complete battery, bookends for the light reading in between them,
though I certainly would not kick the Pre-'64 M70 .375 H&H out of her bed for eating crackers.

Sounds like SCI rifle #5 might have been the prototype for the Connecticut Classic M70 ?

Then the Winchester Custom Shop got the big head and did their own Big Five series with a greater variety of chamberings:

2000 A.D.: Lion .375 H&H
2001 A.D.: Elephant .458 WinMag
2002 A.D.: Leopard .338 WinMag
2003 A.D.: Rhino .470 Capstick
2004 A.D.: Cape Buffalo .416 RemMag

Those were still the days when men were men and rifles were rifles.

If I could have 3 of the 5, it would be the top three: They are all practical and spaced well. The .470 is a talk-about rifle that has little support and could do nothing that the .458 couldn't do. And the .416 is between the .375 and .458 in never never land that's inferior to the .458. Anything less than what the .458 needs doing can be amply handled by the .375 of .338. YMMV.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Sir Bob,
Get that .375 H&H slick so you can work the longer bolt throw fast as you work your 9.3x62mm.

Since the last few posts have discussed African series collections, in my previous post I had mentioned the 2008 Boddington Africa Adventure Series of Ruger No. 1's as an example of a more diverse collection of calibers:

Leopard - 7x57
Kudu - 300 H&H
Lion - 375 Ruger
Buffalo - 450/400
Elephant - 450 Nitro Express 3 1/4"

But as to be expected, everyone would probably want to tweak that caliber selection to reflect their personal preferences. Obviously, if I could only switch one, I would change the Elephant to 458 Win Mag. I imagine that most followers of this particular thread would agree that this would improve the collection. Ruger's unflinching support for their 375 Ruger as a preferred replacement for the 375 H&H makes their selection for the Lion rifle understandable. I wouldn't be surprised if Ruger never makes another 375 H&H again as it might be seen as an admission that the 375 Ruger is somehow wanting. It would negate a lot of marketing to persuade hunters otherwise if they ever chose the classic over their own creation. Maybe they selected the 300 H&H for the Kudu as a way to appease anyone who was disappointed the 375 wasn't an H&H.

I'm assuming variety wasn't as much of a concern for the SCI collection since there was no expectation that a single person would buy all five rifles. Looking at it that way, having the highly-popular 375 H&H as the most common repeated cartridge makes a bit more sense.

Everybody's different but if I had been in charge of a series, it probably would have looked something like this. The fourth slot would be the tough choice that I might have to puzzle over for a while. Of course my collection would be available in both RH & LH models :

7x57
9.3x62
375 H&H
450/400 or 404 Jeffery or 416 Ruger
458 Win Mag

This is reflective of my biases and somewhat resembles what I already have in my small gun safe:

Ruger No. 1 RSI - 275 Rigby
Ruger No. 1A - 9.3x74r
Winchester Model 70 Safari Express - 375 H&H
Winchester 1885 Traditional Hunter - 405 Winchester
Ruger M77 - 458 Win Mag

Everyone might not like my choices but hey, Vive la différence! I enjoy shooting them. As it was pointed out in the preceeding posts, taking the 458 WM from the top end & combining it with a single rifle from the lower end gives you two-rifle battery that covers a lot of situations often making the middle options somewhat superfluous.

As an observation and point of interest: EPPS sold four M70s overnight. All in very good to excellent condition. I can't give the exact designations but all were in nice wood: a .458 Win as excellent, two .375s, and a .416 Rem. They also sold a NIB M70 .338 Win Mag "special" for +$2300. The others went from $1700 to about $2000.

I suspect the four were from an estate sale, and obviously they went to a collector or another business. It's apparent they are in high demand.

Edit: I also suspect that whoever bought them didn't pay those full amounts since it's apparent they all went to the same buyer.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Sir Ron, thanks for the encouragement. Actually, I am working on that. The challenges are several: It's a LH bolt-action which should be normal since I shoot from that side, but I've used RH bolts most of my life and I only tried to switch by trading three in RH for two in LH. They were Browning A-Bolts SS with 26" barrels in .375 H&H and .300 Win Mag. The .300 worked out great but, as I've written on several occasions, the .375 had a serious flaw - the bore was off-center. It went back to the dealer for a copy in .338 Win Mag that became my .340 Wby, which I kept for ten years and put 1000 handloads through it. The .300 had previously been sold. Their actions were very smooth and bolt lift was only 60*.

The .375 H&H M70 Zastava had a rather rough LH action with a 90* bolt lift. But I'm getting used to it and rather like it now - but it's still getting worked over. No hang-ups or resistance in chambering. And extraction is excellent. I do believe the slopping cartridge has merit in those tasks.

Edit: It will go as my back up to the .458 in the Spring Bear hunt.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Sir Darryl,
Enaa baasee' again.
Good to know that chamberings list of the Boddington No. 1 series.
I have a baker's dozen of Ruger No.1 rifles, but nary a Boddington amongst them, from 6.5 Creedmouse to .500 A-Square.
At least I was able to snag the standard production version of 450/400 NE 3"
and I was able to have a .458 Lott re-chambered to .450 NE 3-1/4", cleaned it right up,
even though Daisy the .458 WinMag puts them all to shame.

The Ruger No.1 extractor/ejector handles all case types with aplomb.
Simply mahvelous rifle.

Funny story about the Boddington series for Ruger No. 1:

Early on in the chamberings expansion of the Ruger No. 1 post 2000 A.D.,
Ross Seyfried lobbied for Ruger to do the 450/400 NE 3-1/4" instead of the true origin cartridge,
the 3" version done by Jeffery in 1897 as the .400 S. Jeffery,
before the Nitro Express nomenclature even existed.
Craig wanted the 450/400 NE 3" instead, and Ruger went with that,
and by golly a whole series named for Craig Boddington !

Ross got his misguided feelings hurt by the snub from Ruger.
The 450/400 NE 3-1/4" was just a me-too that came after the 450/400 NE 3",
and it was a problematic cartridge compared to the original 3" version,
that was made with the thicker-headed, shorter brass.

Ross Seyfried tried to deny the 450/400 NE 3" just like he denied the .458 WinMag.
Laugh or cry ?

Here is a great resource:

https://archive.org/details/pub_american-rifleman?tab=collection

In the search box I put in "1956-04" and found the April 1956 issue of AMERICAN RIFLEMAN
and that is the earliest mention I have found, so far, of the ".458 Winchester."
Will look some more.

7th line down from top of 3rd column: "... newly announced .458 Winchester ..."

The Major General Julian S. Hatcher, USA (Retired) article from August 1956 is next, at top of page 191,
placed there as a locator aid for this never-ending thread.