Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots .405Win Barrel

I have a Miroku High Wall in .405Win that I'm seriously considering re-barreling to .460S&W.
My question is... Would there be any interest in that take-off barrel? It has about 20 rounds
through it and it's octagonal. I was wondering also what it's worth. Thanks gang...

As you no doubt know, the .405 appears to be pretty hard to feed right now. When I was looking, I used to see quite a few of them for sale, but I lost interest over the availability of brass. The right person might want it, but who is it?

Other options would be to keep the barrel and restore the rifle to original if you don’t like the .460, sell the whole rifle and buy a factory .454 or .460, or have it rebored to .444, which would be my choice as I’ve always liked that cartridge from afar. Not sure about the dimensions of the .444, but I suspect it would work, and .444 brass and ammo are available. Heavy bullets from it would come pretty close to .405 power, and there are plenty of those out there.

As someone who also owns a High Wall in 405 Winchester, my gut instinct is that this would be a barrel that would have limited appeal. If someone wanted a 405 Winchester rifle, these are one of the more affordable falling block chamberings to acquire without building one or re-barreling. A 405 high wall rifle sold on GB a couple of weeks ago for $1,121.

Personally, if I wanted a High Wall in 460 S&W, I would sell the 405, use the money to buy a factory 454 Casull & say "close enough" since the 460 S&W is just a "long version" of that cartridge. If I really needed the extra energy of the 460 S&W, then I would just stay with the 405 Winchester instead.



But I don't know why you want to re-barrel to a 460 S&W so I don't want to dissuade you from doing that since you may have specific reasons for wanting to. I have 1885's & Ruger No. 1's and I like both of them a lot. Since Ruger chambered the No. 1 in 460 S&W and one sold at an RIA auction a couple of months ago, I would probably just wait for another one of those to appear again since I generally don't rebarrel or rebore to chamberings that are available in factory models. I only do that for chamberings that are unobtainable otherwise. But again, that's purely a personal preference on my part.

What I actually did as opposed to what I’ve daydreamed about, is buy a .44 magnum Low Wall years ago, and within my personal range with iron sights, it’ll kill anything I’ll ever encounter here, while being a whole lot easier for me to drag around the woods. I owned a High Wall .45/70 back in the B78 era, and it was a serious load, definitely more than I prefer to carry these days. I take the .44 out now and then, but haven’t fired it in anger yet. I’ve always wondered why they never offered the Low Wall Traditional Hunter in .38/55 or .30/30, which would’ve been a great woods rifle, but instead made the HW version for both.

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide…..

It's not about the money and I have a 444. Turnbull color cased hardened it for my Pop twenty plus years ago.
I have thousands of .452 bullets... And I think too muck... I think...

Here's one that would help you get rid of those bullets. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1046778196

That’s a common, almost universal problem😛. I’m trying to wind down some myself due to age, but the wheels keep turning…..

Some of those bullets may be too soft for .460 pressures, unless they’re “magnum” types. Anyway, that’s something I read years ago. Hornady makes, or used to, magnum-capable ones, though certainly you don’t have to run them hard to be effective.

The link that tmitch posted above to an 1885 in .45 caliber would be a great option in my opinion. I have that same model in .44 magnum & it dropped its first deer this past season with a single shot through the heart. It is significantly smaller & lighter than my full-sized 405 Winchester. Since I was only going to be using it during primitive season at ranges of less than 100 yards, I decided to make a project out of it & got my gunsmith below to add an optic to it for me. It's a fun rifle to shoot:

.405 Brass and ammo is definitely available, just expensive! So far bullets are in pretty good supply, both Hornady and Hawk, to name two sources.

If you're craving a .460 S&W single shot, then the Miroku is probably a good option. The Ruger .460s command big premiums, especially the ones with 22" barrels. Ruger has also made a run of .450 Bushmasters in the #1, and some of these are out there for semi-reasonable prices, but they are in the stainless & laminate wood models. The .450 Bushy of course also uses .452 bullets so a wide variety are available. .450 brass is readily available. The Number One in .450 is the only one that came from the factory with a threaded 20" barrel, so it is also set up well to run a can. That's what finally got me to buy one.

And I am with Pappy - the Low Wall Winchester, in modern steels would be awfully interesting (and effective) as a lightweight .30-30. I've thought about getting a .22 Hornet or .223 Low Wall rebored to .30-30

yes buy another barrel in a 460 SW barrel but save the 405 Win. and make your rifle a switch barrel ,now wouldn`t that be kinda neat ? Pete53

I’ve seen some new-production LWTHs in .357 recently. One of those could be rechambered to Max or maybe even the Buckhammer with some additional work on the extractor.

As best as I can remember, I have five “deer rifles” that haven’t made their bones yet, so it’s doubtful (not impossible!) I’ll be tackling such a project, but I’d love to see yours!😛 I’m full of good ideas, and sometimes something else…….

Another action that could take the .30-30 is the original Stevens 44½. CPA and I traded emails, and they say the originals are strong enough for the .30-30, as long as one doesn't get stupid about loading hot. I bid on a .25-25 on GB, but did not win the auction. Since then, the originals I've seen for sale were too expensive to use as donors. CPA does make a "new" 44½ action, but it is somewhat wider than the original, and presumably heavier.

One of the Miroku Low Walls should already have a stock suitable for using a scope, which is what I'd prefer with a .30-30

I own 6 Ballard rifles in .40-70 Ballard cartridge, and was buying .405 Win. brass to feed them. I was thrilled when Hornady decided to reintroduce the .405 and I immediately ran out and bought 200 cases. Figured even with multiple rifles it was enough. Then I decided to get some more and it was nowhere to be found! I contacted Hornady directly and they basically told me they didn't know when they'd make another run!
A couple years later I got an excited call from a buddy telling me Gary Reeder Custom Guns had .405 brass and to call them quickly! I called and a nice gentleman said they did indeed have 20,000 cases for sale, but limited each person to 500 cases. Surprisingly he also told me their price was old school at $25 per box of 25! I ordered the maximum 500 pcs. and got the order in just a few days.
I'd still buy more if I found them and the price wasn't stupid. I feel bad for guys who bought new guns in this old cartridge and now have no brass to reload. If I had a .405 chambered rifle I'd be tempted to rechamber it to .40-85 or 90 Ballard and then you can fire form 9.3x74R brass out to .40 caliber and there's plenty of brass in the 9.3x74R to have reasonably.

I'd be very interested and so would some other people.

You could post on the 405 Aficionados tab in the Lever gun area below

I need to pay more attention. I didn't know they had started a forum dedicated to that caliber recently. Thanks!

Thanks Bryan. I'll pull the barrel and let y'all know when it's ready to go.