Doug3006
AH legend
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- Namibia (X2), Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa
As always, our friend HH provides the definitive answer! The shorthand……with modern bullets and powders, the 458 Winchester Magnum is everything it was ever intended to be and more. Go hunt with confidence!The answer to this question needs very careful historical and ballistic assessment.
When Winchester introduced their .458 Winchester Magnum caliber in 1956, velocities were advertised as 2130 fps (although the actual chronographed velocity was 2087 fps when fired from the 25” barrel of a Winchester Model 70 as per an H.P White laboratory report). Factory loaded ammunition employed a 510Gr soft point & a 500Gr round nosed THICK steel jacketed FMJ solid. When freshly manufactured ammunition was being used, all was good. But the ammunition was plagued with a short shelf life, due to the compressed charges of Winchester ball powder propellant inside the short 2.5” length cases. This would cause the powder propellant to clump and lead to partial ignition (which thusly led to predictably but abnormally unacceptable velocities). In the heat of humid African hunting terrain (such as the Zambezi valley or Rift valley or Kalahari desert), the short shelf life would become EVEN SHORTER. Quality control was also an issue. Winchester was manufacturing certain batches of .458 bullets which were undersized. And certain boxes of factory loaded Winchester cartridges had rounds which were loaded with both ball powder propellant and extruded powder propellant IN THE SAME BOX.
In 1961, Remington introduced their line of .458 Winchester Magnum ammunition. Velocities were advertised as 2130 fps (although the actual chronographed velocity was also 2087 fps when fired from the 25” barrel of a Winchester Model 70 as per an H.P White laboratory report). Factory loaded ammunition employed a 510Gr soft point & a 500Gr round nosed THIN steel jacketed FMJ solid. It was plagued by the same shelf life problems which the Winchester ammunition was suffering from. With 2 added disadvantages:
1) On account of the thin steel jackets, the Remington solids were noticeably more prone to distortion/bending/riveting/breaking apart than the Winchester solids.
2) Remington cases had even less powder capacity in them compared to the Winchester cases. And thus, the ball powder propellant charges would be requiring slightly MORE compression.
But to Remington’s credit, their .458 Winchester Magnum ammunition did not suffer from the quality control problems that were prevalent in the Winchester ammunition.
Sectioned .458 Winchester Magnum round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solid bullets manufactured by both Winchester & Remington (pre 1969). Observe the thickness of the Winchester steel jacket compared to the Remington steel jacket.
Photograph Source: “NDLOVU: The Art Of Hunting The African Elephant” by Richard Harland.
Comparison of powder capacity of different brands of .458 Winchester Magnum cartridge cases. Observe how Remington cases hold the least amount of water.
Photograph Source: Finn Aagaard Selected Works
Here you can see vintage pre 1969 Winchester factory loaded ammunition for the .458 Winchester Magnum, owned by a friend.
Here are some of the cartridges from these boxes opened up. Observe the grotesque degree of clumping. My friend had to use a screwdriver in order to dislodge the clumped & compressed powder.
In 1969, Winchester (and subsequently Remington) did 2 things which had disastrous effects for the already problematic .458 Winchester Magnum:
1) They reduced the powder charge in an attempt to prevent the powder propellant from clumping up. Velocities were now advertised as 2040 fps, even though the chronographed velocities were now in the range of 1950 fps. But the shelf life problems were now solved.
2) In an attempt to reduce manufacturing costs, they replaced their proprietary steel jacketed .458 bullets with cupronickel jacketed .458 bullets that were being manufactured by Hornady.
The result was that all available factory loaded ammunition for the .458 Winchester Magnum was now underpowered and weakly constructed (becoming notorious for frequently failing to penetrate and/or breaking apart when being used against large dangerous game).
In 1982, Winchester and Remington both started using Hornady round nosed steel jacketed FMJ & soft point bullets in their .458 Winchester Magnum ammunition (Joyce Hornady sensibly decided to switch back to steel jackets during this time, for his solid bullets). Bullet quality improved, but the achievable velocities were still not high enough for reliably taking large bull elephants with frontal brain shots. Bullet quality deteriorated once again in 1995, when Hornady again reverted back to the “More economically viable” choice of cupronickel jackets for their solid bullets.
This continued up until Winchester and Remington both stopped manufacturing .458 Winchester Magnum ammunition in 1997. From 2006-2010, Winchester briefly manufactured ammunition for this caliber again, using 500Gr Nosler Partitions and 500Gr Nosler flat nosed monolithic solids (which were manufactured by Norma). Advertised velocities were 2100fps (and to their credit, chronographed velocities were a good 2085-2093 fps), but shelf life was quite low and Winchester eventually stopped loading for this caliber once again in 2010.
In 1993, Federal started loading ammunition for the .458 Winchester Magnum. Choices of bullets were either a 500Gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw soft point or a 500Gr flat nosed brass jacketed Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer FMJ solid. Advertised velocities were 2150 fps. But shelf life problems emerged once again, this forcing Federal to reduce their powder charge. Current advertised velocity from Federal is 2090 fps for their Trophy Bonded Bear Claw loading and 1950 fps for their Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer loading. Occasional batches of poorly constructed Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer bullets from Speer (once Jack Carter ceased to be affiliated with Federal) have also been a problem for the Federal .458 Winchester Magnum ammuntion.
In 2000, Hornady designed a factory loading for the .458 Winchester Magnum which they termed as the “Heavy Magnum“ line. Bullet offerings comprised of a 500Gr round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solid & a 500Gr Interlock soft point.
Advertised velocity was 2150 fps, but shelf life was so short that Hornady themselves instructed purchasers of this ammunition to use the cartridges up within 6 months of fresh manufacture. The Hornady Heavy Magnum’s production life was quite short lived.
The modern Hornady Dangerous Game Series line of ammunition (introduced in 2006) appears to have finally solved the shelf life issues with the .458 Winchester Magnum. 500Gr flat nosed steel jacketed Dangerous Game Solids (DGS) and 500Gr Dangerous Game eXpanding (DGX) soft points are now advertised as being capable of achieving 2140 fps. Indeed, chronographed velocities are around 2134 fps even from boxes of ammunition that are more than 5 years old. But only time will tell if the shelf life problems have really been solved.
There are two solutions for making the .458 Winchester Magnum a very reliable dangerous game performer:
1) Drop bullet weight down to 450-475Gr in order to achieve increased powder capacity. Sectional density gets compromised a bit, but not unacceptably so. And velocity is improved without compromising shelf life.
2) Use 500Gr bullets but only in fresh hand loads with extruded powder propellant. Load your ammunition up just a few days prior to the hunt and store in a cool gun safe with little packets of silica gel, in order to keep out the moisture.
Indeed, the last factory loaded .458 Winchester Magnum offering from Remington employed a 450Gr Swift A Frame bullet. And today, 450Gr Barnes TSX hollow points & 450Gr Cutting Edge Bullets Safari Solids would be absolutely amazing for the .458 Winchester Magnum.
Retired Tanzanian game ranger and white hunter, the late Terry Irwin exclusively used his .458 Winchester Magnum Mannlicher Schoenauer (one of only 77 ever to be built) to take upwards of 1500 African elephants from 1964 to 1969 (when he shot his final elephant). His ammunition of choice consisted of fresh hand loads employing IMR3031 powder propellant and 500Gr Hornady round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solids (fortunately for him, Hornady was using steel jackets in their solid bullets until 1969). And 500Gr Hornady soft points for lions. The 26” barrel and short throat of his Mannlicher Schoenauer also greatly contributed to the good velocity which his hand loads were achieving (2097 fps). The notion of only using fresh hand loads in the .458 Winchester Magnum was also endorsed by Colonel Arthur Alphin (of A square) and the late Harry Selby.
For the elephant culling programs in Zimbabwe during the 1980s, Colonel Alphin was supplying the National Parks with large consignments of specially loaded .458 Winchester Magnum ammunition. 500Gr Hornady round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solids were loaded into Remington cases with IMR3031 powder propellant in order to achieve a chronographed velocity of 2128 fps. Shelf life was low (just as the Colonel had anticipated), but the ammunition was excellent when used fresh. The same applied for A Square’s commercially offered ammunition (which employed 465gr monolithic solid bullets). A consignment of this ammunition supplied to the National Parks in 1991, had the powder propellant in all of the cartridges get seriously clumped by 2000.
Richard Harland (very deservedly so) gained good reputation for successfully using the .458 Winchester Magnum against thousands of African elephants in the Rhodesian corridors during his elephant control duties up until 1968. He was using a game department issued Mannlicher Schoenauer in this caliber (identical to Terry Irwin’s rifle) and ONlY used FRESH consignments of Winchester factory loaded 500Gr round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solids. He did not hand load for the .458 Winchester Magnum until 2007 (when he developed duplex load for this caliber by using 475Gr DZOMBO flat nosed brass monolithic solids and 2 kinds of Somchem powder). But he used these hand loads very few times as he retired from dangerous game hunting shortly afterwards. He personally owned 2 rifles in .458 Winchester Magnum: A BSA Majestic (which was gifted to him by the late Paul Grobler) and a Flaig’s FN Mauser action custom piece (which American client Zachary Miller originally had custom built for himself but gifted to Richard after a safari in 1973).
In conclusion, If you are buying a brand new dangerous game rifle… then, there are several better options available on the modern market than a .458 Winchester Magnum. But if a .458 Winchester Magnum is easily available to you and/or you already own one, the there’s absolutely no need to feel discouraged and discard it.
When I went on my life’s first African Safari to Kenya in 1974, I noticed that the game department law stipulated a minimum bore size of .400 caliber for hunting elephant & rhinoceros & Cape buffalo & hippopotamus. Due to Kynoch completely ceasing manufacture of centerfire ammunition in 1970, there were no commercially available cartridges for the traditional British large bore rifles of .400 caliber or above (since Kynoch was the only firm to ever manufacture any ammunition for them back in those days). And hand loading was illegal in Kenya. So basically, the .458 Winchester Magnum was the only caliber for which commercially manufactured .400+ caliber ammunition was available in Kenya (only Winchester since no gun shops in Kenya ever imported any Remington brand ammunition).
My white hunter, Mr, Cheffings considerately & discreetly permitted me to take my Cape buffalo (my life’s first one) with a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum (a BRNO ZKK-602 loaded with 1 RWS Kegelspitze 300Gr soft point & 5 RWS round nosed steel jacketed 300Gr FMJ solids). And I developed an immense life long respect for the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum immediately.
But I did later use a .458 Winchester Magnum to take this Cape buffalo on my 3rd African Safari (to Tanzania). It was a Belgium made boxlock ejector double rifle (a “Guild Gun”) and the ammunition comprised of hand loaded 500Gr Hornady soft points and round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solids. The fresh hand loads served me extremely well, and the Cape buffalo eventually folded after the first 2 shots. Although the rifle’s ejectors did fail to extract the expended cartridge cases from the breech after my 2 shots.
