Found a few old photos of my 450 Ackley

[rifletuner]

Very nice! Is the butt of the stock larger than "normal?" I only ask because I'm building my second A-Square Hannibal clone and use a copy of their "Coil Check" stock that has the enormous butt so that it shoves your entire upper body and not just your shoulder. It really works. I also put two recoil reducers in the stock. My new one will be a .458 Lott. I'm going to put scope mounts on it, but was half afraid to ever put a scope on it. But I see you're running one. Ever knock you in the noggin'? If not, I may give it a try. On my .375 Weatherby with the same stock and only one reducer, videos show the distance from eye to scope never changing. That big butt really works. So maybe I'll try a scope on the .458. Mine won't be as pretty as yours, though, as I had to go composite to get that stock

Yeah, the Coilcheck stocks always got a lot of hate. I have never shot one myself, so have no opinion on the functionality.

Yes, the butt is a bit wider than normal. That stock is a duplicate of a Rigby pattern and I have noticed several English best rifles to a lot of surface area on the stocks of rifles built with large bore cartridges.

 

[rifletuner]

@rifletuner
Only one problem with that lovely rifle. You need to find a different gunsmith, he put the bolt handle on the wrong side for me. I'm a left hander but unfortunately right eye dominant so have to shoot right handed.
Bob

A friend of mine is left handed, but shoots a lot of original early English bolt action rifles off the left shoulder. Of course none of the UK rifles from the pre WW2 period are left bolt, so its a matter of adapting if thats your preference.

My son actually has the opposite issue. He is right handed, but left eye dominant. He taught himself to shoot off the left shoulder as a 5 year old, and has shot my left bolt rifles since he got his junior shooters permit.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Very nice! Is the butt of the stock larger than "normal?" I only ask because I'm building my second A-Square Hannibal clone and use a copy of their "Coil Check" stock that has the enormous butt so that it shoves your entire upper body and not just your shoulder. It really works. I also put two recoil reducers in the stock. My new one will be a .458 Lott. I'm going to put scope mounts on it, but was half afraid to ever put a scope on it. But I see you're running one. Ever knock you in the noggin'? If not, I may give it a try. On my .375 Weatherby with the same stock and only one reducer, videos show the distance from eye to scope never changing. That big butt really works. So maybe I'll try a scope on the .458. Mine won't be as pretty as yours, though, as I had to go composite to get that stock

My 404J bloodied me the first round fired. I just acquired a new 1-4x "tactical" scope (sans illuminated Christmas tree reticle) with 4-4.5" eye relief. Picking it up tomorrow. The old Weaver 3x I have on the gun now has about 3" eye relief which might suffice for most folks, but I have a Neanderthal brow that (literally) cuts into scope relief significantly. I think with a similar 4" relief model you should be safe scoping your 458 thumper.