Darn near tore off my shoulder yesterday,,,

.458 Winchester is a tame little beast, compared to some of the other big bores (and some medium bores).

Shooter new to big bores are often quite startled at what the .458 does to them. But, once you play with some of the heavy-hitters (.450 Nitro 3.25", .416 Rigby, the .577s, etc), you come back to the .458 thinking "Oh, man... I could shoot this all day." ;)

It's not all in the "power" of the cartridges or weight of the rifles, either. A lot of it comes back to the technique you learn along the way. The big boys beat you up, if you don't learn to shoot them a little differently than the "little" cartridges like .30-06 and .300 Win Mag.

One easy way to see if you are using good technique with your "little" .308 or '06... Grab a big bore, and fire a snap shot at a target. If you get clobbered, your technique is wrong in some way (for all rifles). ;)
 
My 7 and 3/4 Lb 458WM - "The Beast"
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458 comparied to a 308:
458Reload_101710.JPG
 
frankenmauser said:
Grab a big bore, and fire a snap shot at a target. If you get clobbered, your technique is wrong in some way (for all rifles). ;)
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I'm pretty sure the wrong technique begins with shouldering the dang thing and ends with actuating the trigger! ;)
 
Try a 1918 T-Gewehr! They were carried by a two man team and alternated after 2 or 3 shots since the shooter would have dizziness and headache after shooting it correctly. Shooting it incorrectly could result in a broken shoulder.. I'll stick to the 8mm mauser thanks!
 
Friend bought a used Ruger 77 in .458 Win. Shot it once and got up off the ground and traded it in for a Weatherby .300.

Another friend was going to Africa so spent an afternoon on the bench with his .458 Win. Next day at work he couldn't lift his right arm. His arm, shoulder and whole right side were BLACK (he was a white guy) from that monstrousity.

Worst thing I ever (used to) owned was a Mossberg 835 3-1/2" 12 gauge firing UP at geese flying over. The recoil charts show that equals the .458 mag recoil. At least the ones I found. I woke up after hunting and it had jammed my back so bad (shooting up) I could only crawl on my hands and knees and couldn't stand up my back hurt so bad. Took a day to recovery and promptly sold it.
 
My largest rifle is a Winchester Model 70 .416 Remington Magnum. I shot a bison with it and my handload of the Speer 350 gr. semi-spitzer at a chronographed 2650 fps. It went down bang-flop with a shot at the shoulder/neck junction. My guide said he could hear the slug whistle through the trees 150 yards past the buff.

MediumBores-2.jpg


Recoil is very stout, but not unmanageale. When working up loads and sighting in off a bench, I use a PAST recoil shield. I'm good for around a dozen shots off the bench before even the PAST pad isn't enough. But in hunting with it, I've never noticed recoil of any kind. The intensity of the hunt takes all your attention off the kick.
 
Muzzle brake my big arse. A few years back I had an acquaintance who was headed to Africa to hunt rhinopotamus, or some such exotic varmint and wanted to try out his new Model 70 in .458. He stopped by and we went out back under a big shade tree to give it a whirl.

He showed me how it had been ported so that it would be easier to control. ( Some slots cut into the barrel near the front sight ) When he touched it off it damn near kicked him down and blew a ton of leaves out of the tree and maybe a couple of squirrels too. Not to mention the concussion porting it produced. Having shot them before I took a turn. It was just as brutal as any other I had fired, but with a lot more muzzle blast.

He fired several more shots and each time it rang his bell. He had enough and packed it up to leave. As we walked back to the house I told him that he better kill whatever he was shooting with the first shot, as recovery time for the second was measured in minutes, not seconds, or fractions thereof.

His trip took place and I heard he killed a couple of beasties, I know not which, presumably with the Model 70, but I’ve lost track of him over the years.
 
Well.... I have shot many magnum rifles before and after a rifle specific brake, not porting, was installed by a top notch smith and the reduction in recoil and muzzle jump was amazing. On the .300 Wby I could watch the bullet hit through the scope and follow up shots were not a problem.
 
I went over to say hello,,,
He offered me a shot at his rifle,,,
I had never fired a .458 Winchester Mag before.
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That's excellent. I've always wanted to fire one.

Recoil doesn't bother me too much but the nasties I've fired don't compare to that .458.

I hunt with a Savage 110 7mm Rem Mag and a Ruger No. 1 45-70. That 7mm has a pretty sharp recoil. The 45-70, while it certainly does have some recoil, isn't nearly as bad as the 7mm in my opinion.

My buddy owns a .357 H&H in Ruger No. 1. That thing will eventually get to you but I don't find it too bad until you put more than a few through it.
 
Many moons ago I built a 458 mag on a Mark X action with express sights on top of a heavy sporter barrel. It makes one heck of a turtle gun but it requires two guys to hunt turtles. See, the game is to aim just under the turtle in a tank and it'll blast his but outa the water about 8-10 high. The second person, with a shotgun, has limited time to shoot. The load is 77.0 gr IMR4198 under a 300 gr Speer HP that comes out of the barrel at just a hair over 2800'ps. It's a fun gun to shoot but it has one annoyance. After it goes off, you have to wait for the blood to go back into your shoulder and arm.
 
A few years back, after the magnum rifle craze had subsided a bit, I began to notice various ads for used .458 rifles. This peaked my interest so I began to phone them. In almost every case they had a rifle that had only been shot a couple of times plus a box of cartridges with only 2 or 3 missing. -Hog Buster

That also explains the Rugers in .375 and .416 that seem to be quite comfortable in the used gun rack @ my local Cabelas. :D
 
I have to side with Peet. I would have told the gentleman No Thanks and went back to my Neos.

The only "scope bite" I ever received was from a 300 Weatherby magnum when I was going to help my brother sight it in. The super big bores and magnums have no place in my collection.:)
 
Never tried a .458 Win Mag. I've fired a few things that had substantial recoil including my Marlin Guide Gun with Level 2 (not safe for Trapdoor Springfield) loads and my NEF single-shot 10ga with both 1 3/4oz slugs and 18-pellet 00 Buck, but far and away the hardest kicking gun I've ever fired was a Mossberg 835 that my dad owned briefly loaded with 3 1/2" #4 Buck (54 pellets). This particular gun kicked so hard, that when my dad (foolishly if you ask me) tried to fire it as fast as he could cycle the gun it knocked his glasses off onto the ground on the third shot. Needless to say, my dad didn't own that gun very long.
 
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