Have any of you taken game with Hornady's factory 458 Lott ammo, either the 500gr. soft or solids?
If so how did they perform.
Does this cartridge need factory ammo with "premium" bullets? If so which ones would you like to see loaded.

I'll let you know. I'm taking some softs and solids to Tanzania in less than four weeks. I'm also taking some handloads--BeLL brass, Federal 215 primers, 83 gr. of VV540 and Woodleigh softs and solids, for about 2,150-2,200 fps--and I'll mainly use these. But, like you, I'm curious about the Hornady factory stuff Hornady solids have always had a great reputation in the .458 Win. Mag. among African PHs. Theoretically, they should be up to snuff in the Lott. I have three buff on license, and I'll use the Hornadys on one of them. Stay tuned.

mrlexma
Have a good trip. If we are all lucky you will get to test the factory soft and the Woodleigh soft on buff.
Sounds like an excellent adventure.

I have been using the 450X and have had great success with them. I have also not recovered one yet. All have been exits with approx 2" exits on average. I also broke the front leg on a giraffe which continued on and exited the lower chest.

My load is 70 grains of RL-7 with a Federal 215 primer. From my 22" barrel the velocity is 2300fps. This is easy low volume load not nearly compressed.

Years ago I used in my 458Lott 500 grainers Soft and FMJ bullets from Woodleigh.
But in the mean time I experienced that the Soft RN from Hornady is better for big game. It is not as soft as the Woodleigh and very accurate.
The new Hornady FMJ #45077 also seems slightly better in penetration than the Woodleigh. The Woodleigh has a steel jacket, 50 weight%, the Hornady is a new construction, it looks like a backfilled (lead) monolithic. The nose is 7 mm solid brass, the following lead core/brass section shows a wall thickness of 3.5 mm.
A very stable design.
I always had excellent results on big game.
For 2400 f/s I need up to 89 gr Vv540.

Norbert
Thanks for your reply. Could you elaborate on the differences in the performance between the Woodleigh SP and the Hornady SP.

The Woodleighs are designed for the slower velocities of NE equivalents, eh?

Lest one trust the old Hornady RNSP on tough game at higher velocities, I have seen them completely shed their jackets and break up the cores into multiple fragments on the shoulder of a moose. And this was from a .458 Win Mag at 100 yard range impact.

Hornady is now starting to make a bonded core bullet.

Maybe someday we will have a bonded core Hornady .458 RNSP.

On buffalo and the like in a .458 Lott/Lapua/Dakota/Rigby/Weatherby/etc., I would use neither Woodleigh nor Hornady softs of the old make. Solids would be in order, or a tougher expanding bullet: Swift, TB, Barnes-X, etc.

The bonded core Woodleigh soft in a 450 NE No2 might be the cat's meow for lion.

BTW, I found the Hornady factory ammo to be doing closer to 2200 fps than the advertized 2300 fps in a 25" barreled .458 Lott: about 2190 fps for the soft and about 2240 fps for the solid in the factory stuff. It looks like the factory ammo just uses the same powder charge for both bullets, but the POI is close enough for factory work I reckon.

In my gun I got the old Hornady solid to do about 2230 fps and the old Hornady soft to do about 2240 fps (500 grainers) and match the factory POI by using 84 grains and 85 grains of RL-15 respectively.

I think the Hornady .458 Lott solid loads from the factory are good, but I would consider the soft points to be "lion loads."

BTW, the moose died instantly and spectacularly, with the empty jacket and two chunks of lead each breaking a rib and coming to rest under the hide on the off side. Some bullet failure! But buffalo shoulders are stouter than moose.

Avoiding the shoulder and going for ribs, heart, lung, the Hornady soft would be fine on anthing, including elephant. But breaking a shoulder too is so much more satisfying. Too bad about the GSC FN, come and gone, RIP.

PS: JJ's 450 grain X-Bullet load with RL-7 sounds like a great one, at 2300 fps from a 22" barreled Lott.

PSS: mrlexma, that sounds like great loads too, but don't try to break any buffalo shoulders with the Woodleigh softs, use the solids for bone crunching.

PSSS: Good to see Norbert posting. Any super penetrator bullets in production yet? Obviously they will not be manufactured AND shipped by GSC.

[ 06-29-2003, 23:08: Message edited by: DagaRon ]

Thanks for the info Gents.
Daga Ron, my 450 No2 shoots real good to 100 yards[farthest distance tested on paper] With 480 Woodleigh Softs and Solids, Hornady 500 Softs, and Old Solids, and 500 Swift A-Frames, which is why I am curious as to the different performance of the various 458 bullets.

[ 06-30-2003, 00:01: Message edited by: N E 450 No2 ]