Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 450 HOWELL

I have a .404 cas thats been fireformed to what I think is a .450 Howell.
I have searched the net and found very little on this round.
If any one has any info on the case dimentions then I would be gretful for any help.
If it is a .450 Howell, then I am thinking of sending it to PTG and have a reamer made and re-chamber a .458win mag which I think would be a great project.
If any one has a fired case, then I would be happy to buy one and cover postage costs.

Have not seen anything on the 450 but there is some info on the 416 Howell on ammoguide.com. A few loads listed as well.

I used to have the issue of handloader that detailed the round (might still have it but if so it's buried in a box). As I recall the 450 Howell was trimmed to 2.55", the 416 howell was trimmed to 2.50". Years ago I got Ken's 416 reamer but ended up trading it to a gunsmith. As I recall Ken never had his 450 completed at his gunsmith absconded with his parts.

I would recomend posting on the Accurate reloading big bore forum, I know there are some guys over there that would have the dimensions for the 450 howell. You might try googling the 450 or 458 Accurate reloading, it's a rem ultramag based round but very closer to the 450 howell, and in discussions of the AR chamber, there have been comparisons to the 450 Howell.

Thanks for the info. The case I have is 2.68" o/l so could be trimmed back to 2.55" its 2.24" to the shoulder. 0.54" at the base and tapers slightly to 0.52 at the shoulder.
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Another photo of the .450? along side a.458 win mag and .458Lott. I have just finished my .458Lott and I am enjoying playing with loads. I know I will need a future project and I think that this may be it......what ever it it is!
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Just wondering if the case is a .450 Majoor
http://www.huntnetwork.net/modules/...can%20Cartridges%20the%2044%20Magnum.pdf
no info on the round just a photo.

Here's a picture of Doctor Howell's, 450 Howell, Dr Howell gave me this rifle, it was not complete and needed to be finished, I gave it to Kaywoodie, and he completed the build, Miles Patton, and Ed Bryant, and me worked on forming 404 jeffery brass to 450 H, and load development, Dr Howell gave me the dies and 200 pieces of 404 brass, and a ammo can of .458 bullets, Hornady, Spear,Woodleigh..I have lowered the scope with med. Warne rings,since the top picture was taken. Rio7

That rifle is the reason I wanted my own .450 Howell! It is a sweet shooting firearm.

Yeh, Ken, it shoots very well, as you know, and it kills like lighting, l have taken some big critters with it.all 1 shot DRT. Rio7

RIO7, would you know what velocities you get with 500 grains projectiles and the barrel length?

In his book on custom cartridges, it's listed as having an length of 2.500. No loading data is listed.

Another cartridge that is even lesser known and almost exactly the same dimensions was built by Jack Lott called the .450 G&A Short Magnum. He used 80grs of IMR4895 and 82grs if IMR4320 to get 2200fps from a 22" barrel. It's main reason for existence was to use the existing bolt face and OAL of the .458WM and open the chamber up to the larger .404 Jefferey body to safely get 2200 fps from the .458. These loads were supposedly 200fps faster than factory rounds of the day. This data is almost 40 years old btw.

I expect this is a shortened version of the .460 G & A which is a proprietary case. I wonder if he used the same 15 degree shoulder angle as the .460 G & A. I suppose it would not be proprietary? If he used the existing bolt-face of the .458 WM, he would have to rebate the rim if using the 404 Jeffery case or alternatively open up the bolt-face slightly as the 404 rim is slightly larger than the .458 WM rim. Exactly the right velocity that I wanted too.

The rim is only .005 larger, and from what he wrote, they didn't bother with machining it although you could if you wanted. Yes, it was the .460 G&A shortened 1/2 inch.