The following is from the March 2004 Issue of the NRA's American Rifleman.
GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF THE LOTT

Many Question why Jack Lott never described the mysterious failures of the 458 Win Mag That almost cost him his life and lead to the development of the 458 Lott. After 45 years perhaps enough time has passed that his story can be told.
Jack Lott was a good friend of mine and fellow member of the Safari Club in Los Angelas in the 1960's. The 458 Lott was one of his favorite big bores, and he credited it with saving his life. Jack was hunting Mozambique with Wally Johnson Sr., in September 1959. He and Wally put 10 .458 Winchester Mag and 375 H&H rounds into a irritated Cape buffalo that slammed into Jack, almost killing him. Wally then picked up Jacks .458 and finished the buff with two more shots to the skull, no doubt saving Jack's life.
Publicly, Jack blamed using a soft nosed .458 as a first shot, instead of a solid. Privately, he told a different story. Jack said the .458's recoil "felt funny" and the slugs failed to penetrate the buff. He began research and found that Rhodesian Game Scouts, armed with the new .458's, reported similar instances.
Jack, the editor of GUNS & AMMO, began field tests. The origional velocity with the standard 500-gr solid was listed as 2130 f.p.s. with energy of 5,040 ft.lbs from the origional 25" barrel. Jack was finding velocities considerably below this. I was presant when Jack fired a factory 500-gt solid that failed to reach the target 50-yds downrange.
The problem proved to be ultra-compression of the origional charge of fine-grained nitrocellulose so as to make it fit the case. Powder granules were compressed into a solid mass which sometimes failed to burn properly.
According to Jack, Winchester independently realized the problem and reduced the powder charge as to eliminate the compression. Unfortunately, this also reduced velocity. It eventually developed a finer grained powder with a higher energy content.
Jack built a .458 for me on a Browning FN Mauser action. He handed-loaded the ammo with Hodgdon's Ball C-2, which produced higher than origional velocities.
I hunted the Congo in July 1973 and downed a forest elephant with 85-lb., seven foot tusks, from just yards away in thick jungle. Jack's reloads penetrated the entire skull. The same ammo punched through trees to down a record bongo that brought me first place awards (Africa) in the Safari Club and L.A. Chapter of the Safari Club Intnt'l.
Jack sadly ended his own life rather than waste away from cancer. He was a pioneer whose work with big bore rifles is still celebrated.
Max Hurlbut, Washington

CW, that is something some knew about for a while. Check Nickudu's African Files and go to the Archives and check out the files there. If you don't already know about the stuff in it, it will give a wee bit more knowledge on cartridges that are needed for stopping your game.

Thanx, I pretty much figured as much but I still found it a good read. In the last few days I saw another poster claiming the 458 win mag was a poor historical choice due to the soft rounds. I thought it is a intersting account for some of us newbies. Thanx for the direction though. I will have to do some more reading on the Nickudu files.

Dude, it's going to be a long read. There's a whole bunch of files there. Copy that stuff to CD.

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Intersting stuff. You begin to realize just how inadequite a book like cartridges of the world is in a historical context.

Yup, and Alf can come up with all kinds of info.