The .458 Winchester Magnum is a fairly modern cartridge, but its story begins back in 1898. That’s when John Rigby, an Englishman famous for building high-quality double-barrel rifles, loaded the case of the old .450 Black Powder Express with 70.0 grains of a then-new high-nitroglycerine-content smokeless propellant called cordite and renamed it the .450 Nitro Express 3¼ inches. Advertised velocity for three styles of 0.458-inch bullets weighing 480 grains was 2,175 fps, but since they were from 28-inch pressure barrels and mixed with a pinch of exaggeration, actual velocity from the 26-inch barrels of double rifles usually ranged from 2,025 to 2,075 fps. Cordite had a tendency to become less potent as it aged, with velocity sometimes falling short of 2,000 fps. Even so, that level of performance obviously proved to be quite sufficient for taking on the biggest game Africa had to offer.
To quote professional ivory hunter John Taylor from his classic book “African Rifles & Cartridges” (1948), “The .450 Nitro Express 3¼” became the most popular and widely used caliber for all heavy and dangerous game throughout the world. It took the big game hunting world by storm and immediately became a standard caliber in the British gun trade. The full-patch (solid) bullet is excellent for elephant; the soft nose is quite effective when taking side-on shots at buffalo and frontal chest shots on lion. For a broadside shot on lion, the split-jacket soft nose is preferred.”
During about the first three decades of the 20th century, the cost of an African safari was beyond the reach of most Americans. That eventually began to change, and among American manufacturers, Winchester was first to respond to the demand by offering the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum in the Model 70 in 1937. In the hands of a cool-headed hunter and good shot, the rifle was capable of handling all African game, but when the chips were down, larger calibers had proven to be more reliable stoppers of elephant, buffalo, and rhino.
During the 1940s, Alaskan school teacher James Watts began planning a lengthy safari in Rhodesia and decided to duplicate the performance of the .450 Nitro Express 3¼” by necking up the .375 H&H Magnum for 0.458-inch 480-grain bullets made by Kynoch and fireforming the case to straight taper with no shoulder. He called it the .450 Watts, and obtaining a rifle was as easy as switching barrels on a Winchester Model 70 in .375 H&H Magnum. Except for being 0.050 inch longer, the .450 Watts case is identical to the .458 Lott introduced about 30 years later.
Jack O’Connor wrote about using a custom rifle in .450 Watts on buffalo and other dangerous game, and the cartridge took off like a rocket. Fully formed cases with the proper headstamp were offered by Dick Speer of Lewiston, Idaho, who founded Cascade Cartridge Co. and was a brother to Vernon Speer, founder of Speer Bullet Co. Today, .450 Watts cases are made by Quality Cartridge of Hollywood, Maryland. I have rifles in the Watts and Lott chamberings and use Hornady .458 Lott cases in both. Reloading dies and load data are interchangeable.
During the early 1950s, Winchester began planning a new family of belted magnum cartridges for the Model 70, with .45 caliber first on the list. The .450 Watts was seriously considered, but at the time, military-surplus 1898 Mauser rifles were abundant and cheap, and gunsmiths across the country were busy building custom rifles around them. So the entire family of Winchester cartridges was made short enough for the Mauser action. The .450 Watts case was shortened from 2.850 inches to 2.500 inches and introduced in 1956 as the .458 Winchester Magnum.
The original goal was to match the performance of the .450 Nitro Express, but in the spirit of one-upmanship, bullet weight was increased to 510 grains for the softnose and 500 grains for the solid, both at 2,125 fps. Claimed muzzle energies of the two loads were 5,140 and 5,010 ft-lbs compared to 4,110 ft-lbs for the .450 Nitro Express. Advertised velocities of the two bullet weights were later reduced to 2,040 fps.
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Not long after the .458 Win. Mag. was introduced, complaints of drastically reduced velocities caused by excessive compression of the powder charge in factory ammunition began to trickle in from professional hunters in Africa. Winchester eventually corrected the problem, but it would haunt the cartridge for many years.
Despite that very large bump in the road, the “four-five-eight” became a favorite among sport hunters headed to Africa and among professional hunters there who used it for backing up their clientele. Various African game departments adopted the Model 70 and other rifles chambered for the cartridge for animal population control. Many thousands of elephant and buffalo were taken over the years. During my first hunt for buffalo in Rhodesia during the 1970s, I saw several tons of biltong drying on racks in the sun, all of it harvested by government-employed cullers using rifles in .458 Win. Mag.
There are several reasons why the .458 Win. Mag. eventually became hugely popular around the world and remains so today. For starters, when Kynoch ceased production of all calibers of rifle ammunition in 1970, an abundant supply of .458 ammo was available from Winchester and Remington at far less cost. Once Winchester sorted out the velocity variation problem, the performance of the cartridge on large, dangerous game left nothing to be desired, at a level of recoil easily tolerated by experienced hunters. Last but certainly not least in importance, the Winchester Model 70 African was durable, reliable, and accurate enough, and for the money, it was the world’s greatest big-game rifle. It had a 25-inch barrel and weighed 9.25 pounds. There is some recoil, and the Model 70 Super Express I have today, weighing 10 pounds with a 1.5-5X scope, leather sling, and three rounds in its magazine, is none too heavy. A custom rifle on a Weatherby Mark V action
I used to take a dozen buffalo weighed 10.75 pounds, and carrying it on 25-mile treks under an African sun was never a task.
Handloading Tips
Hornady, Swift Bullets, Federal Premium, Barnes Bullets, Norma Shooting, and Winchester continue to catalog ammo, and it is not unusual for some to exceed the long-standing 2,040 fps rating from a 24-inch barrel. Handloading the .458 increases its versatility by making an elephant rifle suitable for use on deer. Hornady and Winchester offer unprimed cases, and since the mouths of cases have to be belled slightly prior to bulletseating, die sets contain a third die. To ensure a uniform roll crimp, virgin cases are trimmed to the exact same length. Cases can lengthen slightly with each firing, so keeping them trimmed to 2.490 inches is important.
Due to the limited capacity of the .458 Win. Mag. case, only a few powders of fairly high density have the correct burn rate for producing the desired velocity with 500-grain bullets. As illustrated in various reloading manuals, many powders of lower density can be used, but charge compression is often excessive. Some compression is needed. It is important to keep in mind that a heavy roll crimp alone may not prevent bullets in cartridges in the magazine from being pushed more deeply into the case due to recoil. In addition to increasing chamber pressure, this can cause feeding issues, something that cannot be tolerated with ammunition to be used for taking dangerous game. Choosing a powder with a density that allows a maximum charge to be compressed just enough to prevent bullet shove-back while delivering adequate velocity is important.
When the Hornady and Swift 500-grain bullets are seated with the front edge of their cannelure aligned with the mouth of a case measuring 2.490 inches long, their bases rest 0.625 inch from the mouth of the case. In other words, 25 percent of the powder cavity is occupied. After shortening a case by 0.625 inch, I used a seven-inch drop tube to determine the charge weights of various powders of the correct burn rates that would fill the case to the bases of those bullets.
Beginning with H335, 71.5 grains filled the shortened case to the brim, and increasing it to a maximum of 74.5 grains for a 500-grain bullet resulted in just enough compression in a full-length case to prevent bullet movement during recoil. Moving to Accurate 2230, 68.0 grains filled the case to the base of the bullet with a maximum of 72.0 grains, resulting in about the same amount of charge compression as with H335. Only slightly less dense, 66.0 grains of Accurate 2460 was a 100 percent density load with a maximum charge of 74.0 grains compressed only slightly more than H335 and Accurate 2230.
Everything considered, those are the best commonly available powders for use in .458 Win. Mag. handloads. Accuracy is quite good, and when loaded behind a 500-grain bullet, they are capable of exceeding a velocity of 2,100 fps as promised by Winchester back in 1956. Regardless of which is chosen, the Federal 215 and CCI 250 Magnum primers ensure uniform ignition.
Handloading properly constructed 450-grain bullets in the .458 Win. Mag. has become popular among many hunters because they take up less space in the short case and recoil is noticeably less. A sectional density of .300 or greater has long been the benchmark for bullets to be used on large game, and due to the .307 rating of a 450-grain bullet along with its slightly higher velocity, penetration on the largest game has proven to be equal to that of a 500-grain bullet of the same construction. From my rifles, the Swift 450-grain A-Frame and the Cutting Edge Bullets 450-grain Safari Solid shoot to the same point of impact at 100 yards.
Moving down another step in bullet weight, the Swift 400-grain A-Frame is constructed to perform at .458 Win. Mag. velocities. One of my brown bear guides carried a .458 for backup, and its magazine was filled with the 400-grain Swift handloaded to 2,375 fps. He called it the deadliest little bear-stopper in Alaska. For those who do not load their own, Federal ammo is loaded with the 400-grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw.
Winchester hit a home run with the .458 Magnum back in 1956, and for close-distance stopping of elephant, buffalo, Alaskan brown bear, and other big animals capable of hurting you, it remains one of the best friends you can have on your team.
Gun makers and dealers in California will be required to block firearms sales to anyone they have “reasonable cause to believe is at substantial risk” of using a gun illegally or of harming themselves or others, under a new law that Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that he had signed.
It’s a subjective requirement that goes farther than current background checks or prohibitions on selling guns to people prohibited from owning them.
The regulation is part of the new law creating a good conduct code for gun makers and dealers that also allows anyone who suffers harm from violations to sue.
The bill was one of more than a dozen adding to California’s already strict gun regulations that were sent to Newsom, a Democrat, by state lawmakers before they left for their monthlong summer recess.
The National Rifle Association said the requirements are vague and represent an attempt to hold gun dealers and makers liable for the actions of others. The new law, the group said, “seeks to frustrate law-abiding gun owners” with the goal of driving gun makers and dealers “out of business with frivolous litigation.”
The state’s firearm industry standard of conduct, starting in July 2023, will require those making, importing or selling guns to “take reasonable precautions” to make sure the weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands through sales or thefts.
That includes having “reasonable controls” to prevent sales to arms traffickers, straw buyers, those prohibited from owning guns, and anyone deemed to be at “substantial risk” of using the gun improperly.
The law is patterned after a New York measure that took effect last year to skirt a 2005 federal law blocking most liability lawsuits against gun-makers or dealers.
The New York measure declared such violations a “public nuisance,” taking advantage of a federal exemption that allows lawsuits when gun makers break state or local laws regulating the sale and marketing of firearms.
Delaware and New Jersey just enacted similar laws, and all contain provisions requiring firearms dealers to act responsibly, said Tanya Schardt, senior counsel and director of state and federal policy at the Brady gun control advocacy organization that sought the laws.
“There may be indicators or things that you see beyond just passing the background check that indicate to the dealer that they shouldn’t sell the gun,” she said.
“I would say the California law is more specific,” Schardt said. “But substantively I think it creates the same set of requirements, the same standards with regards to engaging in safe business practices.”
“It’s not asking someone to be psychic,” she added, but to take reasonable precautions in the same way that an automobile dealer could be liable for selling to a customer who is clearly drunk, for instance.
“It’s not creating liability, it’s not expanding liability beyond what’s reasonable … which is really the same standard that every other industry is measured against,” she said.
A federal judge in May rejected a challenge to the New York law by gun manufacturers and sellers.
Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, expects the California law will be challenged on the argument that it violates the federal law.
“The ability to be sued for doing something bad is already there,” he said, noting that gun makers and dealers are liable for any illegal activity. “This is the anti-gun side’s way of looking for a deep pocket.”
The law will allow the California attorney general, city and county attorneys and victims of gun code of conduct violations to sue gun retailers or manufacturers for civil damages.
“Nearly every industry is held liable when their products case harm or injury. All except one — the gun industry,” Newsom said in a video Tuesday announcing that he had signed the bill on Monday.
With the new law, he said, “gun makers will finally be held to account for their role in this crisis.”
California’s law allows gun makers and dealers to also be sued for alleged violations of other laws, including false advertising, unfair competition or deceptive acts or practices.
“Hitting their bottom line may finally compel them to step up to reduce gun violence by preventing illegal sales and theft,” said the bill’s author, Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting.
The law will also prohibit manufacturers and retailers from making, importing or selling guns or related products that are “abnormally dangerous and likely to create an unreasonable risk of harm.”
That could include kits for building untraceable “ ghost guns,” “ bump stocks ” that increase the rate of fire for semi-automatic weapons, or “ bullet button ” assault weapons that allow for rapid reloading.
These shotguns look mighty high end to me! Maybe I should go on Welfare out here! (Oh Hell No!) Grumpy
It was December 7, 1944, and PFC Akio Shimizu faced his imminent death resolutely. After the spectacular attack on Pearl Harbor, the world had seemed ripe for conquest. Since then, however, so much had changed. Now he sat, lost in thought, strapped inside the bowels of a lumbering Ki-57 transport as it droned toward the Philippine island of Leyte.
What had begun as glorious victory had inexorably turned into something else entirely. The sleeping giant awakened exactly three years before had ground its way across the Pacific like some kind of ghastly leviathan. Now it stood poised to threaten Shimizu’s home islands. For that, and his emperor, Akio Shimizu was now prepared to die.
The B-29 Superfortresses rained death down on his country every day the weather allowed, and each week there were quiet rumblings of some new battlefield defeat or other. His company commander, Captain Ogawa, had explained with great verve how this final parachute assault would finally turn the tide of the war back in favor of the Empire, but Akio wasn’t a fool. Shimizu and his comrades would spend themselves fruitlessly against this great steel monster, like waves against the rocks, but they would die with honor and glory. That was what was important.
PFC Shimizu was distracted by a flash outside his porthole window. He suddenly saw another of the transports disintegrate under the concentrated fire of an American Marine Corsair. This indeed frightened Shimizu. He wanted to give his life in combat with the enemy, not in some random ball of fiery chaos. To his relief, after some exceptionally violent maneuvering, the jump light showed red. Shimizu and his mates stood up, fastened their static lines, and made ready.
They jumped lower and faster than they ever had in training, but at least he was outside of that accursed airplane. Yellow tracers arced across the darkening sky like strings of fiery pearls, connecting with many of his friends during the descent. Miraculously, PFC Shimizu hit the tarmac more or less intact.
Shimizu released his parachute and rolled into the grass alongside the freshly built runway. He retrieved his TERA Type 2 paratrooper rifle from its case and assembled it by feel in the dark, an action he had performed hundreds of times blindfolded. Using rote muscle memory, he mounted a five-round stripper clip atop the open action and rolled the bolt home. PFC Shimizu then took off toward the growing flames at a trot.
PFC Shimizu jogged around the corner of a shipping container and ran headlong into a young American about his same age. The look in his wide eyes was one of utter terror. Shimizu reflexively raised his rifle, but the American had the better angle. His three carbine rounds struck the luckless Japanese paratrooper in the chest.
The youthful soldier bled out across the pierced steel runway material beneath the last mournful rays of the dying sun. The following morning, the American aviation mechanic relieved Shimizu’s corpse of his rifle, cigarettes and letters home. The weird paratrooper takedown weapon made it into his duffle bag, and eventually, it came to me.
The Fight
Japanese airborne forces conducted three different paradrop assaults during the course of World War II. The third operation involved some 750 elite sky soldiers marshaled as a strategic reserve to be spent in a decisive assault that was actually hoped might turn the tide of the war. This bold undertaking was obviously doomed from the outset.
Half of the transports fell to Allied fighters and anti-aircraft guns en route. The static line failed on one plane, violently spilling its entire stick of airborne soldiers onto the rocky Philippine earth when none of their parachutes deployed. The surviving paratroopers hit the airfield at dusk and were eventually obliterated. They destroyed a handful of L-19 Bird Dog spotter planes, but otherwise died for nothing. The following morning the victorious Americans claimed their souvenirs, burned off the ammo, and buried the bodies in a communal grave.
The Japanese invested a fair amount of effort and treasure developing specialized weapons and equipment to support their modest airborne arm. A dedicated paratroop version of the Type 99 machinegun had a removable buttstock and a folding steel pistol grip. Once broken down, the entire gun could be readily carried by a single soldier. Their TERA Type 2 paratrooper rifle was held together by a clever threaded steel wedge. Many, if not most, of the Japanese paratrooper weapons available on the surplus market today were captured in this one battle on Leyte.
The TERA Type 2 Paratrooper Rifle
The TERA Type 2 paratrooper rifle was an evolutionary development of the standard Type 99 that was itself an improvement on the previous Type 38. TERA is a contraction of the Japanese term Teishin Rakkasan, which translates literally as “Raiding Parachutes.” The Type 38 fired a modest 6.5×50 mm round. The subsequent Type 99 was chambered for the more powerful 7.7x58mm machinegun cartridge. The Type 99 was one of the first military rifles to be equipped with a chrome-lined barrel.
A total of 3.5 million copies of the standard Type 99 were produced in nine separate facilities by the end of the war. One factory was in China, and another in Korea. The other seven were in Japan proper. Designed in 1942, all the Type 2 paratroop rifles were produced at the Nagoya Arsenal between 1943 and 1945.
The Type 2 fed from the top via five-round stripper clips. The action cocked on closing like that of the esteemed British Lee-Enfield. The safety was an oversized round button on the back of the bolt. The best way to manage this component was to press in with the palm of the hand and rotate.
There were originally several disparate takedown paratrooper designs. The Type 2 was the most common, with some 21,200 copies produced. Most of these paratrooper rifles incorporated the ludicrously complicated folding anti-aircraft sight of the early standard infantry rifles. This contraption sported folding wings, each of which was marked with a “2” and a “3.” The theory was that one might use this device to determine lead for a passing enemy aircraft. The numbers refer to the speed of a crossing airplane in hundreds of kilometers per hour. Good luck figuring that out while under fire.
Denouement
The Type 2 Japanese paratrooper rifle was a curious footnote to the pantheon of small arms employed during World War II. This inspired takedown design would indeed fit into a leg bag for parachute operations. The Type 2 allowed the individual paratrooper to jump with this primary weapon on his person rather than in some separate, hard-to-find weapons canister. However, none of that really mattered.
Despite their undeniable gallantry, those 750 Japanese paratroopers were dead before they even took off that fateful night. Most of them likely knew this as they kitted out. Regardless, they climbed aboard those rickety planes and jumped over a hostile airfield in a doomed effort at slowing the oncoming American juggernaut. That they failed so utterly was certainly not for lack of courage.
Special thanks to World War Supply for the cool replica gear used in our pictures.