416 Taylor Info and Advice

[Rez Exelon]

The bolt face would be fine, you would need to rechamber and rebore the barrel, however chances are the action would be to short for the Lott cartridge.

That's a great point....

 

[Boyd Brooks]

That's a great point....

Sorry went to edit my post but screwed it up and deleted it, to redo, not realizing you had answered. Was going to add , just buy a rifle built as a Lott, you can’t have to many rifles.

 

[Rez Exelon]

Sorry went to edit my post but screwed it up and deleted it, to redo, not realizing you had answered. Was going to add , just buy a rifle built as a Lott, you can’t have to many rifles.

No problem at all... my goal is buying a Lott as well, so I'm in no danger of messing with this one. Hence the reason I've held onto these rounds as long as I have. Now, the 300H&H I have, I don't know if that'll meet the same fate --- those seem to be even harder to find, let alone find a deal on, than the 458 Lott's. But at least in this case curiosity got me going. I'm not super familiar with how all the cartridges share characteristics at this end of the spectrum. My biggest rifles to date being 375 H&H I know they parent the 7mm and 264, but that's about as much as I've practically got into that subject.

 

[Boyd Brooks]

A buddy just had a standard action rifle chambered for a 458 Lott, but left the 458wm label on the barrel. The lott would be loaded into the chambered and 458wm’s in the magazine for follow up shots if needed. The empty brass will eject fine, it is load ammo that won’t clear the rifle.

 

[Rez Exelon]

That's interesting --- I wouldn't have thought you could have it kind of both ways like that. Seems like it'd make sense that it would or wouldn't chamber+extract, not that it could be split.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Here's another fun wildcat: A .416 Lott. Neck down the Lott case and put a .416 chambered barrel on your Lott rifle. I tried doing this awhile back with my Taylor dies just partially sizing the Lott case, but I had the sizing die screwed down a little too much and crushed the case a bit. When I get more time I'm going to revisit this. Why? Like MANY things on AH, there's no reason why, it's just do or die. LOL

 

[Boyd Brooks]

Here's another fun wildcat: A .416 Lott. Neck down the Lott case and put a .416 chambered barrel on your Lott rifle. I tried doing this awhile back with my Taylor dies just partially sizing the Lott case, but I had the sizing die screwed down a little too much and crushed the case a bit. When I get more time I'm going to revisit this. Why? Like MANY things on AH, there's no reason why, it's just do or die. LOL

The 416 Hoffman is a 375h&h necked up to 416. It has a COL 3.60 vs 3.340 for the 416 Taylor. The 416 Rem mag is a 8mm Rem mag necked out to 416.

 

[CoElkHunter]

The 416 Hoffman is a 375h&h necked up to 416. It has a COL 3.60 vs 3.340 for the 416 Taylor. The 416 Rem mag is a 8mm Rem mag necked out to 416.

I didn't know that about the Hoffman cartridge? I do know that the inventor of the wildcat .416 Hoffman, George Hoffman, was extremely "displeased" when Remington basically stole his design and created the .416 Remington Magnum in 1989 (w/o naming it Hoffman or giving him any credit) which is virtually identical to Hoffman's wildcat and the Remington cartridge can be fired out of a Hoffman chambered rifle but not visa versa. I had just assumed the Hoffman cartridge had been wildcatted off the 8mmRM cartridge too? Several years ago at a gun show, a guy was selling a like new .416 Hoffman on a LH Remington 700 Custom Shop rifle for $750. A box of .416 RM cartridges was going with the rifle. I thought that was odd. I never wanted to be a lefty more in my life than at that time. LOL Anyway, I then did some research and found the info. above.

 

[Rez Exelon]

All I'm saying is that my eyes are both rated 20/10 and if I find a deal on a leftie then I'm learning to switch hit.

 

[Rez Exelon]

The stock looks so much nicer in person. Found out a couple other things -- bedded, and has a "bold" trigger in it. Safety works. Overall not bad condition. Definitely not bad (IMHO) for a rifle that hasn't been made since 1942.

The journey to find dies and brass has so far met the cold harsh reality of 2024 though. So sadly it's going to sit there for a while till I get those sorted. Then I may have to hope someone with a Woodleigh or A-Square book might want to send me the Taylor pages, because none of my other books, nor the ones at my local reloading shop have any data to work from.

 

[MontanaGrant]

I have a copy of Ken Waters “Pet Loads” articles from Handloder magazine. He has an article along with loads and comments on the .416 Taylor. I can easily upload a copy of the article if it would help at all.

 

[MontanaGrant]

I had the book here and I tend to be forgetful so I went ahead and took some pics. They’re large so I could email them if you prefer or just post them up

 

[Boyd Brooks]

View attachment 587429
The stock looks so much nicer in person. Found out a couple other things -- bedded, and has a "bold" trigger in it. Safety works. Overall not bad condition. Definitely not bad (IMHO) for a rifle that hasn't been made since 1942.

The journey to find dies and brass has so far met the cold harsh reality of 2024 though. So sadly it's going to sit there for a while till I get those sorted. Then I may have to hope someone with a Woodleigh or A-Square book might want to send me the Taylor pages, because none of my other books, nor the ones at my local reloading shop have any data to work from.

I will post the pages from the Woodleigh book when I get home. Unfortunately that’s not until April. Unless someone else posts them first.

 

[Rez Exelon]

Thanks to both of you guys, I appreciate it for sure!

 

[MontanaGrant]

Here’s the remainder of the article. Ken waters was a wealth of information. Very meticulous loader and did a lot of research. Only bad part is it was long enough ago many bullets or powder is no longer available. But it gives a starting point at least.

 

[mdwest]

Waters pet loads is my go-to for my 416 Taylor’s…

Excellent resource

 

[CoElkHunter]

I’ll try and find the entire article but I screenshot these some time ago. Fred Barnes developed and owned the Colorado Custom Bullet company and started in his Basalt, Colorado garage making them. It eventually became Barnes Bullets. I have and reloaded some 400gr. Barnes Original bullets in my Taylor. Author John Wooters didn’t have much of a choice in .416 bullets when he went to Africa with his Taylor in the early’70s.

 

[Altitude sickness]

I love mine in a 21” barreled model 70. It’s just perfect.

 

[Altitude sickness]

It’s very tolerant and shoots TSX and Barnes solids equally well
Hope to try CEB solids and Safari Raptors next

 

[CoElkHunter]

It’s very tolerant and shoots TSX and Barnes solids equally well
Hope to try CEB solids and Safari Raptors next

The felt recoil for me is much nicer with the Taylor in my Whitworth versus my heavier CZ .416 Rigby. Go figure?