.458 Winchester Magnum
The American hunter and shooter has always
been a difficult creature to figure out. He virtually ignores dozens of useful
cartridges and allows them to fade away into obsolescence, and then a cartridge
of extremely limited usefulness comes along and wins his heart. Such cartridge
is the .458 Winchester Magnum. Except for use on a couple of the world's
big game animals most American hunters will ever see except for on T.V. or
in magazines, the .458 Magnum might be considered a useless cartridge. But
a lot of .458 rifles are sold in the U.S., mainly because Americans like
powerful cars, powerful cartridges, and the .458 Magnum stands near the top
of the heap in punch.
All of this is not meant to say that the .458 Magnum is not an excellent
cartridge. For hunting African Elephant or Cape Buffalo, few cartridges do
a better job than Winchester's biggest cartridge. Since its introduction
in 1956, the .458 Magnum has become the most popular big bore cartridge among
African professional hunters, not only for game population control work but
for keeping clientele out of trouble when mixing it up with dangerous game.
A few Alaskan guides and outfitters who specialize in hunting Brown Bear
are also quite fond of the .458 for backup use.
A number of excellent big game bullets are available for the .458 Magnum.
When maximum penetration is needed for elephant, Cape Buffalo, and the like,
the Speer, Hornady,
Barnes, and A-Square 500 grain
solids are good choices. Listed among the better 500 grain softnose bullets
are the Speer, the Hornady, the A-Square,
and Barnes. For a reduced recoil
elk or moose load, try the Hornady
350 grain bullet. The .458 Winchester Magnum performs best with relatively
fast burning powders such as
H335, H4895,
IMR-3031, and
Reloader 7.
Source: Hodgdon Data Manual, 26th Edition
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