Accuracy shooting 458 Win Mag from 458 Lott rifle

[Nhoro]

A good buddy of mine has a 450 ackeley, he uses 458 lott ammo since he cannot source the ackeley ammo.
A client left some 458WM ammo for him and some 300WM ammo behind about 18months ago. He chrono'd the Hornday WM vs some Lott ammo and had faster recorded speed with the WM over the Lott in his ackeley.

Accuracy was more than dependable, it was as good as anything was supposed to be.
Any ideas (or guesses) as to why that would be?

Hornady use their own proprietary powder to get 2150 -2190 fps with 500 gr. You can do the same with handloads although someone will be along to tell you that I am talking rubbish in just a second. Lott factory rounds will make 2250 to 2300 fps and I have personally got 2350 fps with a handload although in Zambezi Valley heat, that load is overpressure.

I regularly shoot 458 win mag in my Lott. It is a win mag reamed to Lott. Interesting fact is that a standard win mag has a very long throat anyway- Longer than a factory Lott chamber. So the reamer just took the chamber a little longer.

I cannot see any practical difference in accuracy. People can pontificate about MOA accuracy in large bore rifles but I have never met the man who can cloverleaf a 458 -even at 50 yards- with any regularity.

So is a 458 win mag less acurate in a Lott- Not that I can tell.

Does it leave any noticeable ring in the chamber not that I can see. I clean with a pull through and the chamber is shiny and clean. Throat erosion- as I said above, the original win mag throat is longer than the Lott throat so I dont see that it will erode any more than standard. Also these calibres are not speed freaks or highly overbore so throat erosion is not much of a worry to me. If I am lucky enough to shoot out the barrel on my Lott, I will consider myself very lucky to have shot so much !

 

[Forrest Halley]

I think you’ve misunderstood me.
he compared the 458 wm to the 458 Lott and found that the WM produced better speed. Both factory loaded 500gr ammo

I did for a second think he was shooting .300WM out of a .450 Ackley and was quite puzzled by it being faster.

Hey Forrest,
Could you shoot a .375 h and h out of your Lott and let us know if it would be accurate enough to kill a Buffalo at short range?
Thanks!
CEH

Oooh I can, but barring the apocalypse there is no way in hell that I will. That rifle is my baby! I see your mischief.

 

[SLG]

I know this thread is a bit older, but since at least one member regularly shoots WM in his Lott, I was wondering if doing so caused any issues for reloading? Does the extra chamber length affect the brass in any meaningful way?

I have been shooting WM though my Lott, and when I went to resize the cases, I found that after a first firing of factory ammo, the brass was all around 2.490" When I resized it, it was all around 2.510" Seems like .020 is a lot of brass to trim, no?

 

[C.W. Richter]

Good for practice. Not good for hunting due to the severe velocity (pressure) drop from barely acceptable in a WM chamber from the get go!

 

[C.W. Richter]

458 WM using 375 350s in HDPE sabots (.458" O.D.) are all the rage on TV these days. Just Do It!

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Personally I have had little experience shooting .458 WM or .458 Lott.

i would ask the question does the .458 WM feed in a .458 Lott rifle?

 

[CBH Australia]

I am curious about the chamber and throat erosion regular use of Old Clumpy might cause in a Lott.

Poor "Old Clumpy" , it seems it's never gonna live it down.

I've had a .458wm, thought about Potting it but didn't have justification except for just because.

Back to the O.P. and original question.

Perhaps it affects accuracy, presumably it's a slower round so my first thought is it's going slower and hitting lower.

Under 50 might not mean much for point of impact.

Does the longer chamber affect the accuracy, I'm not sure we have a definitive answer.

If you develop a load for the .458lott rifle using .458wm brass it will be as accurate as the load you develop.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Personally I have had little experience shooting .458 WM or .458 Lott.

i would ask the question does the .458 WM feed in a .458 Lott rifle?

My CZ Lott feeds WM cartridges without any issues. Maybe I just got lucky? LOL

 

[saswart]

I have a 458 Express, It is same case as WM and Lott, just 3" long, whereas the case length for the WM is 2,5 and the Lott is 2.8. Basically the Express is to the Lott, what the Lott is to the WM. Only difference is reduced pressure, and I can, if I want, which I do not, gain more velocity than a Lott. Have achieved 2300fps with ease, the recoil is linear to the velocity...

Have I shot WM and Lott in the Express, no issues with feeding at all. However I do not shoot the Lott and WM in it as often, I tend to stick to the express cases.

On accuracy I cannot say, within 50 meters where I shot the Lott and WM at targets, it was similar to the Express. Maybe if you chase groups at 100m/200m, but I do not know a lot of people that use a WM/Lott/Express and wish they could get a 1/4 Moa group vs a 1/2 MOA...

Same applies to the Lott and WM, I have not seen anything that indicates any issues.

But, whether it is the Express with Lott and WM, or Lott with WM, I suggest using what the rifle was made for, and if in a jiffy you can use the other one.

 

[SLG]

There are no feeding issues with my Lott shooting WM, and there are no accuracy issues either. I'm also quite sure there is no meaningful velocity drop, but I will put it over the radar this weekend and see. My only concern is the brass for reloading.

 

[SLG]

Just got in from shooting the 458's over the radar. Out of my 23" barrel from the R8, the WM averaged 2125 at the muzzle, and the Lott averaged 2270 at the muzzle. Both were 500g Federal factory ammo. If there was any loss at all from the WM being fired in a Lott chamber, then I'm not sure why anyone buys a Lott today, lol. I will say though, that, unlike the first time I fired the Lott last week, today the Lott ammo seemed to be gentler than the WM ammo. Either way, if you can show me an animal that can tell the difference, under any circumstance within 100 yards, I'd be amazed. The difference in velocity at 100 yards, btw, was less than 70 fps between the two cartridges. 1911 or so vs 1980 or so. (out of memory, not looking at the 100 yards velocity right now).

 

[SLG]

Just checked, it was actually 1924 for the WM and 1980 for the Lott at 100 yards.