The DaggaRifle saga continues:

Passing through Mt. Juliet, Tennessee recently, I found a big bunch of new Hornady basic brass with the H&H belt. This stuff is over 2.9" long, and will grow longer when necked down to 458 Lott, so will need some trimming.

They also had two boxes only of the factory Hornady ammo in 458 Lott. One each of the softs and solids, 500 grains of course, with the proper headstamp.

I test fired it at 86 degrees F this afternoon.

For the solid (bronze encapsulated lead core) "FMJ/RN," the box claimed 2300 fps at unknown barrel length. The soft was also claimed to get 2300 fps. The DaggaRifle has the standard 25" barrel of the CZ factory hammer forging and gave these results for 5 rounds each over the chronograph, a proven reliable Pro Chrono Plus:

Solid
*****
ave vel = 2244 fps
ES = 19 fps
Sd = 9 fps

Soft
****
ave vel = 2198 fps
ES = 26 fps
Sd = 9 fps

The faster solid shot 1/2" lower at 50 yards, than the the slower soft, showing similar characteristics as double rifles and Casull revolvers, in my experience.

All the shots from each 5 shot group were within a 2" circle using the EXCELLENT CZ 550 express sights, with a new bead I have installed that is the correct height for the Lott chambered rifle. The windage was perfectly set at the CZ factory. Now the elevation is perfectly on too, at 50 yards with the fixed standing leaf of the DaggaRifle, for velocity around 2200 fps.

Recall my handloads from the earlier installment of the DaggaSaga:

Solid (500 grain Hornady FMJ steel jacketed, lead core) with 84 grains of RL-15, 90 degrees F:

ave vel = 2239 fps
ES = 12 fps
Sd = 5 fps

Soft (500 grain Hornady RNSP) with 85 grains of RL-15, 90 degrees F:

ave vel = 2245 fps
ES = 11 fps
Sd = 5 fps

It doesn't seem that Hornady is trying very hard to make the soft and solid shoot to same ballistics in their factory ammo.

The new Hornady factory Solid load is a very close match to my handloads. They need to add a grain or two more powder to their softs.

The DaggaRifle: every home should have at least one.

Oh yeah, for those who missed the introduction of the DaggaRifle, it is a CZ 550 Safari Magnum in 458 WM that has been simply rechambered to 458 Lott, glass bedded around the main recoil lug, trigger tuned, and an Uncle Mike's 16 guage barrel band swivel base attached, a firm fit made firmer with JB Weld, and finally the proper front sight bead installed for the Lott.

El Cheapo Magnifico DGR.

I don't need no stinking double rifle! Those things are for fools!

Was the rechamber job as simple as running a reamer up the pipe? No feeding issues?

MORE PLEASE!!!

Where, and how much???

gs

KevinNY,
Yes, that is all. The CZ 458WM already had the feedramp polished, from the factory. A Dremmel tool and polishing spud might be used to "jewell" the polish a bit on the rails and feed ramp, but otherwise it feeds the round nose and spire point bullets quite well. I haven't tried any FN's, TBSH's or AGS's. That 458 WM CZ 550 Safari feeds and ejects Lott cartridges with a simple rechambering job.

Has anybody else chronographed the Hornady factory Lott ammo in their rifle? What barrel length and what velocity?

For comparison, this rifle was doing 2005 fps with Winchester 510 grain 458 WM factory loaded RNSP's. The Lott velocity for the Hornady factory ammo is shown above, for the DaggaRifle.

I am happy to stick with my specified handloads and try a scope to see how accurate they are for the next installment of the DaggaSaga.

A chicken in every pot, a DaggaRifle in every home.

Socrates,
Where?: Anywhere.
How much?: Cheap.

To be fair as I can be with this Hornady ammo, I will head out to the range and try it through the barrel of a 458 Lott I had made from a Whitworth Mark X factory 458WinMag, about 10 years ago. Those 24" Whitworth barrels have a reputation for being fast. I believe both the CZ and Whitworth twist is 1 in 14".

Afterall, this thread is really about the Hornady factory ammo.

Daggaron were can one get headstamped brass for the .458 lott besides Bertram ???

PC, Hornady is marketing the brass and loaded ammo over here. They are also selling basic belted brass, which is a little longer then the Lott, for those of us who feel the 450 Ackley is the better cartridge. - Dan

PC,
The Hornady brass is good, factory loaded ammo with headstamp is about $76 for 20 rounds. The Hornady basic brass just has an "H" stamped on the base, but they are retailing that good brass for $39 per 20 cases.

The BeLL brass with proper head stamp from Huntingtons is good too. I think it was about $33 per 20 and maybe a volume discount for 100.

Check this for prices:

www.huntingtons.com

Thanks gents.

I want to fill a gap in my collection between my .416 Rigby and .585 next year and I am thinking of one of the various .458's or .500's. The .500's are pretty well an exact split between the .416 cal & .585 so I am tending towards that slightly, but I realise the Daggarifle lott is the the most cost effective way to go.

Here is a question I am interested in konwing;

To build a .450 Rigby would it work out cheaper to buy a cz 550 in .458 and have the barrel reamed & chambered for it and bolt face & rails opened up.

Or would it be cheaper to buy a cz 550 in .416 Rigby and have a .458 barrel screwed on and chambered as such, and not have as much work to do on the bolt face & rails

I just checked the MAST site and they have 458 Lott brass for $22/20 or $94/100:

www.bellammo.com

Also, the Huntingtons brass I got was BeLL, though they only show HDS now, for $21.98/20. When I tried to order it they only had BeLL, and I obviously don't recall what I paid for it, and it is not listed on their website now. Seems now that it was about $22/20, not $33/20 as stated above. The BeLL is good stuff.

[ 09-01-2002, 21:32: Message edited by: DaggaRon ]

Hornady Custom .458 Lott FMJ/RN 500 grain bullets of current factory make. Rifle had a 24" 458 WinMag Whitworth barreled action converted to 458 Lott, in a Brown Precision stock with the KDF muzzle brake removed.

Temperature was 80 degrees F at the range. Chrono was 15 feet from the muzzle. 5 rounds fired.

ave vel = 2194 fps
ES = 33fps
Sd = 13 fps

This rifle didn't do as well as the CZ, even allowing for the 1" shorter barrel. I found nothing special about the Whitworth barrel.

Hand loads are better than the factory stuff, again.

To get the thing to feed during rapid fire, I had to cut back the rails on my conversion of the CZ 458 to the Lott. Also had to change the follower to a 416 follower.

If you are hunting dangerous game with the thing, it needs to feed flawlessly. Be careful. I recently had to fire the Lott as fast as I could work the bolt.

Will

Will,
Yep, gotta slick 'em up to do serious hunting, but it can be done, eh?

BTW, did you say you lost the front sight of your rifle in the action? What sort of sight did you put on the shortened CZ barrel? What will you be putting back on the barrel?

Last year I put together a bulk purchase for 458 lott headstamped Bell brass for all the guys on this site that wanted it. I think I ordered over 1000 rounds between the guys involved and myself. We bought it for less then a 1.00 a shell including shipping. It was probably .85 cents each or so when bought in bulk without shipping charges. I would suggest you see how many guys want brass and buy a bulk load as we did last year. I have 250 so I don't need any now but the Lott is such a great cartridge and so popular I think you could find 10 guys to each buy 100 rounds or 5 to each buy 200 rounds. jj

I would be interested in 200 or 300 cases if someone wants to put together a bulk deal.

I'll take 100.

I'll take 100, maybe 200.

Pertinax

Put me down for 100.

I think I would rather just forego and order my own, from:

www.bellammo.com

This thread done been highjacked!

[ 09-08-2002, 22:42: Message edited by: DaggaRon ]

The thread may be hijacked, but $0.85 is a lot cheaper than $1.05 (from MAST). I'm interested, at that price.

Not to mention that it beats $29/20 at Midway.

Pertinax

I hereby volunteer pertinax to pull this one off as JJ did before. Talk to JJ about the details. I got supplied already.

I don't know if I've got time to do this, but I'll see. Guess it really only requires a few phone calls and emails.

Pertinax

OK, so I called. I can get the wholsale price of $94/100, if we order 1000. To get the best price, we'd need to order 2500 or more, and prove we were a legit business. My guess is we could talk them into that price anyway, if we ordered 2500+.

But seriously, I doubt we can generate that large of an order. For the $94 price (a savings of $11/100), it's not worth the time for me to pursue. Sorry.

Now, if enough people chime in that we can hit 2500, that changes.

On a related note, it sounds like they are about to make another run of Lott brass, which implies that they don't have any at the moment anyway.

Pertinax