I love this rifle a Winchester model 70 in 458 and I want to use it for Wyoming antelope and Utah mule deer. just going to use the open sights, any good load ideas.

if you are going to use it for "small game" (this is the big bore section) i would recommend light barnes .458 bullets and h335/rel7/tac

I understand but I just want to shoot some game with it. seeing how I'm not going to make it to Africa maybe I should have rephrased my question

I use 485 grain cast wide flat nose at 1775 FPS for hunting such game. 51-52 grains of aa2015 if you want some great loads for the Barnes 300 or 350 tsx look in the 458 win thread that has 233 pages and do a search on Rip author name. Lots of good data there.

Mike...I hear ya. I use mine for bear hunting here as well. I have it so may as well use it here until I can take it back to the dark continent for something I currently cannot afford to do. I currently load both the 350 grain TSX and the 350 grain Speer, which was supposedly designed for use in the .458 WM. Have fun with the .458, after all dead is dead and the antelope or mule deer do not care what took them out.

hornady sold some 350 gr softs that were easy on the shooter and deadly on whatever they hit... i still shoot 510 gr stuff too... 2 458's.. ruger #1 and winn m70 pushfeed...

Mike, welcome to AR. The 458 is the round that brought the world of African hunting to the common man. Being reasonably priced in a Model 70, plenty were bought with the hopes of making it to the Dark Continent. Some did, but many just fondled or shot them, dreaming of "some day...". Its a classic enjoy.

If you are just wanting to hunt with it and use open sights you can use whatever load you feel like.

The DG loads will kill deer/pronghorn just fine- they cost more and will beat you up a bit more, but I’ve shot things about the size of a small dog (duikers and such) with my full up buffalo ammo.

Open sights and a .458 is going to give you a bit of a handicap regardless of load you choose.

If the idea is to duplicate the African shooting experience here, I’d use 2230 and whatever 500 grain bullet you have. Get a buffalo load and enjoy.

If you want less recoil, use the 350’s others are recommending or try making some .45-70 duplicate loads.

You could even go and make some cast bullet loads.

A .458 will kill deer sized game with whatever bullet you can shoot accurately.

If I was going to do it, I’d try a 400 grain lead bullet at around 1800 FPS.

thanks guys for the info

Great gun. I bought my first 457, a Model 70 Super Grade, when I was still in high school.

I stopped many a charging rabbit and armadillo back in the day while dreaming of taking it to the Dark Continent.

I shot a lot of 350 gr speers behind BLC2 powder at the time. I loved the 3 foot flame muzzle blast!!

quote:

I bought my first 457, a Model 70 Super Grade,

457...was that a wildcat? :-)

I my 458 I use 45-70 405 grain bullets at lower velocity to plink. Should be fine for deer and black bear and like sized creatures. My 458 is for sale as are a bunch of ther 405 grain bullets.

Mike,
If my friend Joe, can take his pronghorn with his muzzle loader, you should definitely get one with you new .458.

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:

quote:

I bought my first 457, a Model 70 Super Grade,

457...was that a wildcat? :-)

Ha! Good catch. Got to be more careful with my typing lest I end up sounding like PDawg with his frontier gibberish or Ray Ray with his tall tales!