.458 lott Velocity with 20 inch barrel ?

Dear Gentlemen,

A CZ550 in .458 Lott is coming my way with a 20 inch barrel.

Could anybody tell me what velocity I can expect to acheive with a .458 Lott CZ550 with a 20 inch barrel ? 500gr bullets are to be used.

Will it achieve 2150 fps ? As I understand this is the minimum for dangerous game. Please advise me if I am wrong.

Also does anybody have experience using this round with a barrel of this length ?

All advice appreciated.

Regards Craig.

i dont have a chronograph, but i have two .458 lotts, one with 22 inch barrel which which worked fine on elephant and buffalo. the other has a 21 inch barrel and i havent used it on anything big yet, but i am sure it would work just as well as my 22 inch barreled one does. i am sure some of the hand loaders on here will be able to help.

Craig, a telling factor on the answer to your question lies in the quality of the barrel on that CZ.

There are barrels and then there are barrels.

My 22" barrelled (Pacnor) Lott does 2280fps in mild, well put together handloads. This particular barrel is almost like new having had less than 300 rounds through it and therefore still very "tight".

You could expect to loose anywhere between 35 - 50 fps per inch less of barrel from the above.

Will you get 2150fps ?, well if the barrel is any good and you test and build up loads to suit then yes I do beleive you'll get close to 2200.

Cheers,

Paul.

The only way you will know is to run some loads over the chrony, as you cannot rely on the manuals to say what speed your gun gives. As to the minimum? The .458 Win mag has a pretty good reputation on DG and usually runs close to 2000fps, sometimes less with 500 grs. From the old days a rifle that threw a 400 gr bullet of .40 caliber or more at around 2000 fps was considered good for all DG. You dont have to reach 2150 to make the Lott work.

Originally Posted by roughshooter

....

Will it achieve 2150 fps ? As I understand this is the minimum for dangerous game.
....

Where did you obtain this information? Laws or a PH suggestion, Article, ?

Originally Posted by BRICKBURN

Where did you obtain this information? Laws or a PH suggestion, Article, ?

Sir,

These figures are only information I have gleaned from articles on the net. I am new to this area of hunting and am still on a quest for knowledge. P196 of Terry Wielands book on Dangerous game rifles refers to the fact that barrel length is often as low as 20 inchs on dangerous game rifles but I can find few images of rifles in .458 with barrels of such length.

I have read that the magic figure for DGR is a 500gr bullet@2150fps, the original .458 WM failed to acheive this (powder caking issues accepted), hence the wildcatting that produced the lott.

I know their will be a drop in fps from a standard barrel of 25 inches (on the CZ550). Now the barrel on this one is 20 inches, my question being is this still long enough to allow the bullet time to get to 2150fps ?

Regards Craig.

Sir,

I did feel I should actually give an example of accepted effective killing velocitys for .458 Lott.

If I may be allowed to quote another forum member on this point the following is a quote from Mr Ray Atkinson on the effectiveness of .458 Lott at 2150 fps.


"I used one for awhile and after shooting several buffalo I loaded it down to 2150 to 2200 FPS, got very mild pressure, and it killed buffalo, elephant, Lion and about everything else very well indeed."

If this gentlemen has proved its effectiveness at that speed then it would do for me.

Regards Craig.

Roughshooter, your 458 Lott will perform just fine at 2150! At 2200, the recoil starts to tell and at 2250>, it starts to get ugly!
My 20" standard 458 in model 70 using Federal Premium ammo with Sledge Hammer solids (when I could get them, amongst others) has dispatched 40> Elephant without ever a hitch!
Trust me, it'll do the job if you place the bullet correctly!

The idea of 2100 as a safe minimum for DG is what I work with also.
You should be able to achieve 2200fps which is more than sufficient in most cases.
Approx 30fps loss per inch.

Originally Posted by roughshooter

If I may be allowed to quote another forum member on this point the following is a quote from Mr Ray Atkinson on the effectiveness of .458 Lott at 2150 fps.

Just PM Ray, he's always prepared to help if he can..