Factory 460 Weatherby ammo

[TennesseeHunter]

Recently I acquired some 460 weatherby ammo from another member off the classifieds. This ammo is the original stuff with the elephant on the box and listed at 2700 fps with a 500 grain bullet. One of the boxes had 1978 written in it so I assume they’re that old.

I had looked all over the internet and couldn’t find an actual velocity measurement of this ammo, just people talking about how it’s 2700. I also couldn’t find anyone talking about actually being about to reach that velocity on reloading. So I was especially curious to try It and now am posting it here for anyone else who wants to know

So I fired two fmjs and soft points each through a chrono and they all were between 2610 to 2625 fps. This is from a Japanese lazermark mk v with the porting. So actual barrel length is about 24”. I’m sure that has an effect but doubt that it being 2” shorter would make that much of a difference in velocity. Perhaps the ammo being 46 or so years old might have an effect but too I wonder if Roy was a bit optimistic with the velocity rating. This was at 75 degrees.

Additionally, brand new ammo listed at 2600 fps is pretty much exactly that out of my gun. The 450 grain at 2700 fps is actually closer to 2730 for me. The 460 weatherby factory ammo are usually very consistent but I had one 450 grain factory load measure almost 2800 fps at the muzzle! I immediately noticed the recoil before looking at the chrono. Not sure what to make of it but it was interesting.

Also this is my first posted thread. I usually just stalk around so hopefully I’m doing this right.

 

[grand veneur]

I know the old ammunition from Weatherby, I still have a box left. I also think that in a normal hunting rifle of this caliber, 2600 fps is a rather realistic muzzle velocity. This old ammunition from Weatherby never fired accurately in my old custom Brevex rifle without any recoil reducing device and in Africa, in the hot climate, there was overpressure. I was forced to reduce step by step the load to make a accurate cartridge for the tropics. My current muzzle velocity must be around 2500 to 2600 fps because the recoil of the rifle is very similar with that when I use the factory loads below. I have never measured the velocity, but the loads work well.