460 weatherby , mostly big.

[wboggs]

A pretty common response. The thing that makes it so offensive is the sharpness of recoil due to the high pressure load. That is one reason the old British big bores are comfortable with their low pressure

 

[BobT]

I’ve not hunted Africa, but the folks I’ve talked with that have almost to a man report that the PH carried a 375H&H to back your shots.

I know several PHs and none of them carry a .375 for a back up rifle in big game country. When I hunted Tanzania the 3 PHs in camp carried a .458 Winchester, .458 Lott and a .470 Nitro. All three of them did recommend a .375 for a client rifle for a buffalo/plains game hunt. If dangerous game only on the menu then they suggested a .416 if the client could shoot it well. I carried a .375 H&H loaded with 300 grain A-frames and 300 grain CE solids, it served well.

 

[Ggmac]

So here is some chronograph data. 31" barrel, 300gr barnes bullet over rl19.
120gr 2565fps
122gr 2607fps
124gr 2678fps
126gr 2746fps

500gr interlock
2592 average. So not too far off.

If I'm being honest the speeds are underwhelming. 3 different manuals all show 3000fps range with these loads. Maybe I'm missing something but 250fps is quite the difference.

Good news is all the loads are printing less than 1" @100. Average is .761 for 3 shots . So accuracy isn't bad. Not benchrest but not bad.

I’ve got some old boxes of hornady 500 gr solids i use to shoot . They were a shoulder killer .

 

[MClark]

I have a 460 I bought used. Japanese with oil finish mesquite stock, iron sights, somebody paid a lot for it new. Added a muzzle brake bead blasted to get rid of the shine and reblue. Leupold 1.5-5.
I originally sighted in without the brake, hits so hard I wanted to cry after each shot. With brake it’s fun to shoot.
I get a 1” group shooting 5 different 500 grain bullets, Factory soft, factory solid, Barnes TSX, Barnes solid, Hornady Interlock.
PH in Africa said he likes it because it doesn’t look like a Weatherby. Three times he asked, "let me borrow your 460. When he used it for backup when friend was after lion (Lions bite, I want biggest gun in camp) I ask what bullet from above list did he want to use. He said "I believe you have given this far more thought than I have." Handed him the Hornadys.
I ended up shooting an Eland and PH a Hippo that had been wounded by another hunter. Both with TSX. A TSX will go through a hippo.

You haven’t hunted jackrabbits till you’ve used a 460.

 

[Steel Mover]

I built my Lott as an anti-rhino rifle, it works, not seen a rhino on the beach since....drats. Seen several hippos though, out of season. Buddy built a 50 BMG, a ton of brass and bullets, with a huge coxale 50 BMG press....the new wore off that real quick.

 

[Bottom Fodder]

My shoulder hurts just reading all this

 

[durand mortenson]

I built my Lott as an anti-rhino rifle, it works, not seen a rhino on the beach since....drats. Seen several hippos though, out of season. Buddy built a 50 BMG, a ton of brass and bullets, with a huge coxale 50 BMG press....the new wore off that real quick.

A neighbor has two big bore rifles. The newest is a Weatherby that he waited quite sometime for. I asked him if he wanted to take it to the range. He said it was sighted in at the factory.....I think he is afraid to shoot it as it's really more about having it.
Mort

 

[Fire Dog]

Ain't that the truth Mort...!!!
Have known several folks with Rino-sore-ass guns {think 40/50 cal & other anti-tank fill ins} and they all retired them after a year or less...
I mean, after all, how many of us are built like a line backer and can take the punishment and of course have the bank account to keep them fed?
Hunting Africa? Just rent something suitable, make sure it is dialed in for your eyes and take the shot...
If you have the $$$ for the hunt then the gun is the least of your worries...

 

[wboggs]

£

Ain't that the truth Mort...!!!
Have known several folks with Rino-sore-ass guns {think 40/50 cal & other anti-tank fill ins} and they all retired them after a year or less...
I mean, after all, how many of us are built like a line backer and can take the punishment and of course have the bank account to keep them fed?
Hunting Africa? Just rent something suitable, make sure it is dialed in for your eyes and take the shot...
If you have the $$$ for the hunt then the gun is the least of your worries...

I always wanted to use my rifle and loads. To me, much of the enjoyment came from developing the right load and bullet combo. In my opinon, hunting is not just killing the game but the whole experience and I would not even consider renting a rifle.

 

[David Milisock]

Why would you think that a Wby 460 would be for taking bears at 200 plus? They will kill up close and do it about 3 times the energy of everything you listed. I built a set of kitchen cabinets for a big game hunter that had an elephant skull on his pool deck, the bone in that skull was over 3 inches thick in some spots. I want the Wby. 460.

Teddy Roosevelt took elephant and all the most sought-after African game with an early 20th century 30-06, Thomas Bell used 7x57, 303, 6.5x54, Pondora Taylor used 375, 45/400Nitro Express and 50/465 Nitro Express Drillings. Drilling are truly big game rifles calibrated for close range. These firearms were powerful for their day.

The dangerous game/dangerous game guide rifle needs to hit heavy enough to do the job but after sight in be one that can be regularly trained with. That's why I built a custom 450 Marlin. Inside 100 yards there is no game it can't take.

 

[ebb]

Ok I agree with everything you said. Do you think a 460 will kill your game too dead? The 460 I shot came from Weatherby with a muzzle devise that was not threaded on but milled or EDM cut into the barrel, It was not brutal to shoot at all. The shooting we did was next to a couple we knew that had been camping in that woods all week. Luann the woman in the camp shoot it 3 times and was ready to shoot more. I certainly don't think everybody needs one, but the one we shot was a pleasure to shoot.

 

[MClark]

After you shoot a couple hundred elephants then you can switch to the 7mm.
Sasha Siemel used a spear to kill hundreds of jaguars. That’s what I’m doing.

 

[Kevin57]

Ok I agree with everything you said. Do you think a 460 will kill your game too dead? The 460 I shot came from Weatherby with a muzzle devise that was not threaded on but milled or EDM cut into the barrel, It was not brutal to shoot at all. The shooting we did was next to a couple we knew that had been camping in that woods all week. Luann the woman in the camp shoot it 3 times and was ready to shoot more. I certainly don't think everybody needs one, but the one we shot was a pleasure to shoot.

Luanne must be a very stout woman to enjoy shooting a 460. I suspect she is a better man than I.
I would try to keep on her good side.

If you love the .460 God bless you.

I have shot a bunch in Africa with a .375, including my first buffalo. Both lungs and part of the heart through and through at about 50 yards. Blood and lung tissue seen with every breath. He still made it about 30 yards towards us before piling up. Your milage will of course vary.

 

[ebb]

This was before removeable muzzle brakes were popular, bit at that time the 460 Mark had came with vents milled into the barrel. They were obviously very effective. Luann was no run way model but a real Alabama bitch. She married my hunting buddies dad and that can only mean that she was into pain.

 

[wboggs]

Luanne must be a very stout woman to enjoy shooting a 460. I suspect she is a better man than I.
I would try to keep on her good side.

If you love the .460 God bless you.

I have shot a bunch in Africa with a .375, including my first buffalo. Both lungs and part of the heart through and through at about 50 yards. Blood and lung tissue seen with every breath. He still made it about 30 yards towards us before piling up. Your milage will of course vary.

A heart-lung shot is never an immediate immobilizing shot. You need a neuroaxis shot for that. You didn't take any more shots between 50 and 20 yds? You are much more patient than I am.

 

[Kevin57]

I have taken more than 10 Cape Buffalo. I have shot them up the nose a very close range because almost nothing penetrated the skull around the boss. (I have a nice collection of solids and swift A Frame bullets that were boiled out of the sinuses after buffalo were taken.)

Our hope was that the buff would be sick enough not to charge. It worked most times. Follow up shots tracking were another story.

You are much better than I because, faced with a missed spine shot and a very badly wounded buff that will not die quickly and having to follow up on foot, well, I was never convinced that made sense. I hunted on foot only.

Heart and lung shots and waiting until after a really good cigar and nip took the fight out of most of them.

If you can reliably spine one in the tall grass after a stalk with 5 gallons of adrenalin pumping through you, great. I was never that good.

 

[big5ifty]

Well I finally built a 460 weather ree these are 500 grain honady interlocks go on about 2500 according to the book with a 26" barrel. but this is a 31 inch barrel so I'm guessing will be faster ..

I did a similar exercise with a 375 RUM, ordered the reamer with a bit extra freebore for long monolithics, but I unthinkingly crippled the project by not getting a faster twist barrel.

If I had a 12 twist, I could have used it as a 2 mile gun needing just 200 moa extra elevation.

Test some target monolithics in the 450 grain range, even if the twist requirement is a bit more than what you have, they may still shoot well. The extra velocity does help to stabilise.

Mine shoots bullets that claim to need a 12 twist very nicely from a 14 twist, but I do have 500 fps on the book load data.

 

[big5ifty]

If I'm being honest the speeds are underwhelming. 3 different manuals all show 3000fps range with these loads. Maybe I'm missing something but 250fps is quite the difference.

You may have to step outside the book boundary to find powder that works better.

Heavier bullets, slower powder, much slower than the book says.

By way of example :

375 RUM load dev.

 

[David Milisock]

My experience leads my to like rifles of no more than 22", the unfortunate aspects of dangerous game work is the need to in dangerous situations to move very quickly.

I built a 9 pound 450 that is balanced to swing like a skeet gun for a reason. The dangerous game is dangerous, it doesn't shoot back but it's significantly determined.

 

[wboggs]

I have taken more than 10 Cape Buffalo. I have shot them up the nose a very close range because almost nothing penetrated the skull around the boss. (I have a nice collection of solids and swift A Frame bullets that were boiled out of the sinuses after buffalo were taken.)

Our hope was that the buff would be sick enough not to charge. It worked most times. Follow up shots tracking were another story.

You are much better than I because, faced with a missed spine shot and a very badly wounded buff that will not die quickly and having to follow up on foot, well, I was never convinced that made sense. I hunted on foot only.

Heart and lung shots and waiting until after a really good cigar and nip took the fight out of most of them.

If you can reliably spine one in the tall grass after a stalk with 5 gallons of adrenalin pumping through you, great. I was never that good.

I never said it was easy, just 100% reliable if you can make it. Took one at 25yds and he never moved a muscle. It was as much luck as skill. Saw another wounded one taken at 10yds with a .500 nitro by a PH. Same result from the spine shot in the neck. He was standing and waiting in the brush next to the trail.