CLASSIC AFRICAN CARTRIDGES - HuntNetwork

More documents

Recommendations

Info

CLASSIC AFRICAN CARTRIDGES I have fired all of the .416 Magnums, .45-70, .450 “WSM”, .458 Win Mag, .450 Nitro Express, .460 G&A and the .460 Weatherby Magnum. The recoil is mostly manageable, but the Weatherby is up there. The .45-70 and its variants will in all likelihood be chambered in a lever action or single-shot rifle. The hunters who bring these rifles to hunt Cape buffalo will likely use hardened lead bullets with wide, flat meplats, and will ascribe wondrous performance to them. Do not get between the true believer and his belief! The .458 Win Mag’s cartridge case is just too small. Winchester probably was trying to stay within the constraints of the .30-06 length action in choosing the case length. Energetic loads are thus compressed loads. Compressed loads, which ignited poorly in Africa, were the reason that the factories changed the original .458 load from 2130 fps to 2040 fps. Newer powders have changed the outlook, and one of the newest might offer a way out. Hornady’s Light and Heavy Magnum loading combine a cooler burning propellant and proprietary loading techniques to wring more velocity from smaller cases - and bigger cases too. Hornady has added the .458 Win Mag to their Heavy Magnum program. They already have bullets highly thought of in Africa for their terminal ballistics performance. If the field performance is as good as the claimed muzzle velocity would indicate, they would have a solution. Hornady, if they can pull it off, could rescue a lot of existing .458 Win Mag rifles. The .458 Win Mag is readily available in left and right hand actions, with an expected magazine capacity of three or four. I included the .450 HESAM and .460 HESAM from Heavy Express because the case used is the same case that Winchester is busily cranking out as Winchester Short Magnums or WSMs. Although Winchester says it is a totally new cartridge, a little research will show you that the case is the .348 Winchester with the rim turned off and an extractor groove added. Jim Busha did so to develop his Heavy Express cartridges, and early experimenters such as Ralph Payne did the same. Of course the .348 Winchester was itself based on a previous blackpowder cartridge. I don’t expect Winchester to introduce a .458 WSM. I had one of Jim Busha’s .450 HESAM rifles for testing, it was a converted Ruger M77 Mark II short action rifle. The .458 Lott is based on a slightly shortened and blown out .375 H&H Magnum case. It does the job, and A-Square offers loaded ammunition for it. The Lott chamber will also accept .458 Win Mag cartridges, which may then easily be resized in .458 Win Mag dies 4 . So if your ammunition comes adrift on the way to hunt, you can fire locally available .458 Win Mag ammunition. The Lott cartridge requires a longer action, but such animals are easily available now, when they were not in the 1950s. Many .458 Win Mags have been rechambered for the Lott, but quite a few haven’t had their magazines properly lengthened. A Lott rifle with a proper magazine is a custom rifle proposition, or a rebarrel of the right factory rifle. As of this writing Ruger and CZ have announced production rifles .450 Bore Bolt Action Cartrodges from left to right: .458 Winchester Magnum, .458 Lott, .450 Auckley, .460 Short A-Square, .460 Weatherby Mag, .450 Dakota and .450 Rigby Pegasus and Rigby Head Size from left to right: .450 Dakota, .450 Rigby II in .458 Lott, Weatherby will also sell you a Mark V, and Winchester offers it from their Custom Shop. All of these signs indicate that the .458 Lott is the current winner in the .450 race to the marketplace. Expected magazine capacity is three, four or five depending on the rifle. The .450 Ackley is based on the full-length .375 H&H case, blown out. Many wildcats of very similar configuration have been designed over the years. None have made it to factory status. A-Square furnishes factory loads in this calibre. The Ackley design has parallel section in the case neck, while the Lott tapers all the way to the case mouth. A-Square says .458 Win Mag ammunition can be fired in an Ackley chamber, but at lower velocity. Such cases cannot be reloaded in .458 Win Mag dies. A-Square offers ammunition. Remington could offer a .450 Remington Magnum by necking their 8mm Rem Mag/.416 Rem Mag case up to .458, and thus standardizing the cartridge. They already have the brass, the actions and the barrels, but I don’t know if they have the inclination. I have sent them a letter, and received one of those responses from the marketing department. You know, “Thank you for your suggestion, and we do make new things all the time”. This would be about a $1200 rifle, available in left hand and right hand versions. Expected magazine capacity is three or four. The .460 G&A for Guns & Ammo is attributed to Tom Siatos and Jack Lott, and has demonstrated excellent results in the field 5 . It is based on the .404 Jeffery, whose head size is larger than the .375 H&H head size. I don’t know of any brass with the proper headstamp. Necking the .404 case up to .450 leaves mighty little shoulder to headspace the cartridge, less than any factory would load. Thus, this is strictly a handloader proposition. The case doesn’t have a belt. Col. Jeff Cooper thinks highly of this cartridge based on his hunting experience with it, so his disciples talk it up as well. Remington could also introduce a cartridge based on their Ultra Mag case. This is a custom rifle proposition, so you could have a left or a right hand action. Expected magazine capacity is three to five rounds, depending on magazine size. The .460 Short A-Square is an Art Alphin design using a shortened .460 Weatherby case. The case is a larger head size than either the H&H or .404 Jeffrey, and has a belt. A-Square furnishes ammunition. Penetration is outstanding. The A-Square rifles start at $2995, and are available for left and right hand shooters. Expected magazine capacity is two to three. The .450 Rigby is the .416 Rigby case necked up to accept .458 bullets. This one is available in a factory magazine rifle from Rigby, although cost may be prohibitive, unless Ruger steps up to the plate now that they have a .416 Rigby. The ammunition is being loaded under the Kynoch label, now licensed by Eley Ltd. and formerly loaded for them by Wolfgang Romey of Petershagen, Germany. Expected
CLASSIC AFRICAN CARTRIDGES magazine capacity is three. (The Ruger M77 Mark II Magnum Rifle is available in .416 Rigby at $1550). The Rigby starts at 9000 pounds Sterling, although there was a working rifle for sale at the Safari Club annual convention a few years ago for $9000. It certainly was a great rifle, and it came equipped with the most wonderful open sights I have ever seen on a rifle. J. Rigby & Co. is now Americanowned and .375 H&H Head Size Cartridges from left to operated by Geoff right: .458 Win, .458 Lott, .450 Auckley Miller in Paso Robles, California. The .450 Dakota is another Art Alphin design, this time for Dakota, inspired by the .416 Rigby case. Art told me that he actually based this cartridge on his Excalibur case that has small differences from the Rigby. Dakota’s smaller bores all have their cartridges based on the smaller diameter .404 Jeffrey case. The .450 Dakota case has enough capacity for almost anything, and its outside dimensions reflects that. It is proprietary to the Dakota Model 76 .416 Rigby African rifle, and that rifle is about $4250 or so. Available in left and right hand versions. Expected magazine capacity is four. Well, if the .458 Win Mag isn’t good enough, then you just buy a Weatherby .460 Weatherby Magnum. I mean, after all, nobody does it like Weatherby if you need more velocity. Well this is good as it goes, except the Weatherby drives a 500 grain bullet at 2600 fps. This is really too much of a good thing, as penetration with the 500 grain load peaks between about 2300 fps and 2400 fps, and decreases both above and below this window. The .460 Weatherby is known to all and sundry, and its exterior ballistics are impressive. The case is essentially the Rigby case with a belt. The problem, as noted, is with its terminal ballistics. Most .458 diameter 500 grain bullets, either softs or solids, exhibit the effects of too high striking velocity from the Weatherby. Recoil is sufficient to interfere with accurate shot placement and follow-up shots. Penetration is not as good as with the .460 Short A-Square, unless range is far enough to bleed off velocity. Magazine capacity of this huge belted case is only two rounds. The factory rifle has a 26" barrel with a muzzle break. Right hand only in this calibre. Newly on the horizon is the .465 H&H, based on the .378 Weatherby cartridge case as is the .460 Weatherby. The design though features the Holland case design hallmarks: belted with lots of taper for easy loading and extraction in hot weather use. Ammunition is under development by Wolfgang Romey, and according to sources at Holland is not quite ready for commercial distribution. So what do I recommend? Well, the answer to velocity problems in a given case is to stop flogging the dead horse, and move up to a larger case. The other way to go is to boost the operating pressure. The highpressure approach is not a good fit for African conditions. The .450 rifle is designed for use on large animals at ranges from 10 yards to 100 yards. Anything that interferes with penetration must be avoided. Good bullets are essential, but the velocity can make or literally III break a bullet. Apparently, velocities below 2100 fps are not sufficient. The window from 2200 to 2400 fps appears to give the best penetration, while over 2400 fps again begins to show decreasing penetration. The Weatherby is too far over the upper limit, and the Winchester has been too far below. The Dakota is right on the border line of going the way of the Weatherby. The .460 Short A- Square has the case size problems of the parent .460 Weatherby case, but delivers on penetration. The Rigby has the same comments as the Dakota, but it sure is magical to hunt with any cartridge with a Rigby label. Velocity is slightly lower from this lowpressure load. The case doesn’t Weatherby Head Size Cartridges from left to have a belt. Recoil is reported to be right: .460 Short A-Square, .460 Weatherby lower as well. The .460 G&A is strictly a wildcat, with no ready source of brass with the proper headstamp. I lean toward choosing this cartridge because of Col. Cooper’s endorsement, and because it doesn’t have a belt. A- Square will make short runs of custom brass, but I haven’t determined the minimum order size. The .460 G&A is not regarded as a candidate for a factory cartridge by Arthur Alphin, loading by an experienced handloader being necessary. You may think this case head stamp business is splitting hairs, until you are the boyo having your ammunition confiscated, putting a hunt costing five figures in jeopardy. The .450 Ackley is not strictly a wildcat, as A-Square makes cases, cartridges and rifles. A-Square also loads .458 Win Mag cartridges to higher velocity using slightly lighter bullets as does Remington, and their stuff works in Africa. The Hornady Heavy Express loads are promising. There are a lot of .458 Win Mag rifles out there in what may be called the installed base.The .458 Lott has recently transitioned from the wildcat category to the factory standard now that Hornady is offering ammunition and Ruger and Winchester are making rifles. CZ has also announced that it will chamber its 550 Safari rifle for the .458 Lott; availability is reported to be the spring of 2004, with some 60 rifles in an initial lot being imported into the USA. As also reported earlier in African Hunter the .465 H&H is also on the horizon, but it is not quite available yet. While I am busy working with the .376 Steyr and .400 H&H, I will wait a bit for the .465 H&H too. 1Frank C. Barnes, Cartridges of the World, 7th ed, 1993. 2 Mike LaGrange, Ballistics in Perspective, 1990. 3 John (Pondoro) Taylor, African Rifles & Cartridges, 1948. 4 A-Square catalog, 1995. This practice is not recommended by Arthur Alphin for more than a few rounds, as too short brass means that parts of the chamber are exposed to erosion from gases. 5 Craig Boddington, Safari Rifles, 1990.
Page 1: THE AFRICAN HUNTER'S BI-MONTHLY BUL

CLASSIC AFRICAN CARTRIDGES - HuntNetwork

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?