Hey guys,
I'm at home sick (not Covid!) and I'm bored so I thought I'd share my .458 journey with you all.
I have personally owned 5 .458's over the years but my latest one is a keeper. Every time I've sold one I have ended up regretting it so I'm not selling this one!
My first .458 I bought after reading an article in Australian Shooters Journal magazine by John Woods.
It was a CZ550 Safari Magnum with the hogsback stock. I fitted it with a Tasco 1-4x scope (hey, I didn't know any better at the time... but the scope survived!) and it was a nice rifle.
It didn't feed that well but it was my introduction to big-bores.
I fed this rifle a mixture of Winchester 510gn Super X ammo and some reloads consisting of the 300gn Sierra on top of a min load of AR2207 for a chronographed 2650fps.
My intention was to originally ream this .458 to the .458LOTT - and I even got a quote for this job off a gunsmith, but when I found I was easily getting the velocity I was after out of the standard .458, I kept it as is, thus starting my love affair with the .458 Winchester.
I owned this rifle for a while but I found that my reloads and factory ammo didn't feed through the mag that well, and instead of getting it fixed I eventually ended up selling the rifle... which I regretted.
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The second .458 was also a CZ550 but with the American style stock.
I spent a bit of coin on this rifle, sending it to the respected gunsmith/ gun maker Kudu Services in Melbourne for some custom touches.
I had the fore-end shortened and a buffalo horn tip fitted for that safari look. Also has a couple of cross-bolts fitted and the action smoothed out as it wouldn't feed at all when first purchased. The barrel was shortened to 21" and a barrel-band sling swivel was added.
It was topped with a Pentax 2.5 scope.
This was a really nice looking rifle and was my introduction to hand loading long to suit the magnum sized magazine of the CZ.
A very easy load of AR 2206H achieved a spot on 2150fps with the 500gn Woodleigh PP through the 21" barrel.
I ended up selling this rifle to a well known gun writer in Australia to fund my next .458 purchase...
Looking at the photo's of this rifle I probably shouldn't have sold it...
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My next .458 I purchased was a Winchester M70.
This was a great rifle but before I owned it, it was apparently a bit of a lemon.
I remember reading on forums about this actual rifle and how it had to be rectified to make it work satisfactory.
So when I purchased it I felt like I knew it already.
I fitted the same Pentax 2.5 scope to it and I fed this rifle the same loads I fed through the CZ - except they were too long. So what I did was seat the projectiles of these reloads deeper so that they would fit in the Winchester mag.
These rounds were very compressed and chronographed over 2200fps and kicked accordingly.
I ended up regretfully selling this rifle as I needed the funds and it just wasn't being used. I can happily say though that I have kept track of it and it's still going strong and killing the hell out of big stuff up in Queensland.
I regret selling that rifle...
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After selling the Winchester there was a void in my life because I no longer owned a rifle that could kill an elephant... so I rectified that by buying a Zastava M70 with the Walnut stock.
I bought this rifle from a gunshop in Queensland (who were very rude) and was informed that this rifle was on its second stock - having split the first one before a box of shells had been put through it.
I was then rudely informed that if the second stock split it was my problem. I bought it anyway as the price was right.
I paid $700 for this rifle and straight away took it to Bob at Kudu Services again to get the stock strengthened, cross-bolted and to get a buffalo horn tip fitted.
Bob took one look at the stock and in his usual blunt, to the point style said it was a waste of his time and my money doing that work as the stock was rubbish!
He then went out the back and brought out a Hogue pillar bedded synthetic stock and said I was better off fitting that. I left the rifle with him to fit as the safety needed modifications.
This rifle also taught me a valuable lesson to having to buy quality scopes for big-bore rifles - as it chewed through 3 before I finally bought a Leupold 2-7x33 which survived.
I fed this rifle a reload consisting of the Woodleigh 480gn RNSP over 74gn of 2206H which delivered a spot-on 2150fps and cloverleafed 3 shots at 50m.
This rifle was built on a budget and I have to say that it fed and ejected flawlessly from the start - no 'smithing was needed.
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It was about this time that deer hunting became my passion and as good as the .458 was, it wasn't the ideal deer rifle.
So I ended up trading the Zastava for a Weatherby Vanguard in .300Wby to a young guy who worked at a gunshop I frequent.
Talking to the guys who work there, apparently he took it out once - with my reloads, fired some and promptly said 'stuff that' then sold it!
Who would've thought that an elephant gun kicked???
But inevitably that void of not owning a .458 soon hit me, so I began the search for another one.
My poor wife agreed with the one proviso this was to be my last .458...
I was chatting to a friend who put me onto some leads, but when googling I found that Owen's guns in Queensland had some brand new. And for only $940.
I quickly purchased one and I now owned my 5th and last .458.
The first thing I needed to do was replace the stock as experience told me that this would be necessary. I put out the feelers on Australia's largest shooting/ hunting forum that I was after synthetic stock to suit a FN Mauser and straight away found another Hogue stock - but this one had the full aluminium bedding block, not just the pillars.
After modifying the safety myself (a simple 5min job) the Hogue was fitted and it was awesome. Nice and stiff and free floated.
After my learnt lesson with scopes last time, I straight away purchased a Leupold 1.5-4 in Leupold mounts/ rings.
I was told by a big-bore expert that these mounts weren't up to scratch so they were replaced with Warne rings and mounts.
Even though the 480gn Woodleighs performed perfectly I wanted to try something different with this rifle, so I purchased some 550gn Woodleigh RNSP.
I contacted Geoff McDonald of Woodleigh and he said to try 73gn of BM2 (BENCHMARK) for around 2100fps.
This I did and got a chronographed 2080fps in my rifle... pretty close! I got a total spread of 4 fps!
Recoil was pretty noticeable (sucked) with this load but it did put bullets in the same hole at 50m.
To be absolutely honest this load, in this rifle, calculated to 80ft/lbs and exceeded my recoil tolerance shooting off the bench. Off hand its unpleasant, but manageable... just.
I haven't tried this load on game yet, but I think it's obvious that it'll be pretty effective putting out 5200ft/lbs of energy.
I actually think that this latest Zastava might be my favourite. It just feels perfect in my hands and I love everything about it.
This one's a keeper.
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When I purchased my latest Zastava and went to purchase some factory ammo I found out that Winchester had stopped making it's cheap Super X stuff with the 510gn Powerpoint. Brass - when you could find it was expensive and this left me with a dilemma... what to feed it!
I called around and luckily came across someone who had an unopened case of some .458 factory ammo... from the 80's! It was the white and orange box stuff and I wondered if it would still be ok?
Well, not only was it ok it also was the fastest factory ammo I'd personally ever fired through a .458.
Most factory stuff - even fired through a 25' barrel of a CZ, only reached around 1970fps, where this stuff was doing 2015fps. This was only 25fps less than the box said. It was also super consistent and super accurate (like all .458's are) once again putting 3 bullets in one hole at 50m.
To be truthful I only bought this ammo to shoot off as quickly as possible so I could use the empties, but this ammo was so good, I used it for all my deer hunting for quite a while. I've only now just started using the 550's - but this stuff has proved to be great.
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So there's my .458 story.
I love the .458 and it is without a doubt my favourite round.
All the horror stories you have heard or read are ancient history and the .458 is a simple round to load. It's also super accurate.
Hope I didn't bore you and thanks for reading!
Russ
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550gn Woodleigh handload at just under 2100fps... When you absolutely, positively need to put something on it's bum!
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2 factory Super X rounds that completely penetrated a big Gum tree at 50m... coz everyone knows the .458 doesn't penetrate...
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480gn Woodleigh vs Fallow at 150m
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Sambar taken with the .458 loaded with factory stuff
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My first Red taken with the .458 in miserable conditions... also with factory ammo
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Needs no explanation...
