MY GUN SMITH HAS MY WINCHESTER M-70 SUPEREXPRESS, 22" BARREL. HE ASKED ME IF I WOULD RATHER HAVE THE 450 WATTS OVER THE 458 LOTT. "MAN I DON'T KNOW", WAS MY RESPONSE. CAN YOU EXPERTS IN THESE BIG CAL HELP?
1) THE BARREL IS ONLY 22". SO IS IT LONG ENOUGH? IS THE ACTION LONG ENOUGH WITHOUT MAJOR REMODEL?
2) CAN YOU SHOOT THE 458 WIN IN THE 450 WATTS LIKE YOU CAN IN THE LOTT?
3) CAN YOU SHOOT THE 458 LOTT IN THE 450 WATTS?
4) WHAT KIND OF VELOCITY COULD I EXPECT FROM THE WATTS OVER THE LOTT WITH A 500 GRAINER?
PLEASE HELP MD

Maddog:

Have him chamber for the Watts, but mark the gun ".450 Watts & .458 Lott". The ONLY difference between the Watts and the Lott is .050" in case length. They are identical for all practacl purposes. The only difference is that you can not fire the Watts in the Lott because the Watts case is that 0.050" longer(Suppposedly, the Lott reamers being made now, actually cut the .050" longer chamber), but you can safely fire the Lott in the Watts with no harm to the gun. The reason I say have him mark the gun ".450 Watts &.458 Lott" is because .458 Lott headstamped brass is readily available, and not Too expensive. If you go someplace with an overzealous inspector, your ammo will match the gun.

With the SLIGHTLY longer chamber, case stretching and the need to trim becomes less of a problem. Needless to say, the Lott and .458 Winchester work fine in the Watts chamber, though I have been told that repeated firing of the .458 Winchester (500 + rounds) will tend to erode or pit the forward part of the chamber.

And lastly, yes, any action long enough for the Lott should be long enough for the Watts.

[This message has been edited by loud-n-boomer (edited 11-09-2001).]

Maddog,

L&B has pretty much covered it in his response, my own working rifle is 458 Lott built on a BRNO 602 action, the chamber was reamed long enough to accept the longer Watt case.

You will find a good article on the two at the link below;

http://www.african-hunter.com/site/classcart/458wattslott_01.htm

Regards

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Peter
www.shafa.net
Shafa Safaris

Maddog,

The Clymer reamer labelled "458 Lott" is long enough to handle the Watts-length case. The Lott design has a long taper that supposedly straightens out the bullets from the shorter cases. without a drawing of the exact reamer design, further discussion is moot, as the "standard" is loose on these cartridges.

See: Cymer Tool under belted. They don't even list the Watts separarely.

I would label the barrel .458/.416 so that I could carry .458 Win, .458 Lott or .416 Rem headstamped brass. The .416 Rem Brass comes in batches too far apart in time, so I'd buy a lifetime supply now as there is a fresh batch on the street for $0.40 per case or less. The .416 brass will give you the .050 longer cases and the standard RCBS die will easily neck it up.

I personally did not like the 458 Lott HDS brass at all. YMMV.

Don

I have allways gone with the Lott as that is the reamer available, and thats the only reason other than it is a fine round any way you cut it....I have no experience with the Watts but its been around a long time without nary a complaint, and Loud-N-Boomers post makes good since to me..

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

My only comment is, while having the longer chamber will allow you to not worry about case trimming, my experience has been, if you use a heavy crimp on trimmed brass, then the longer untrimmed brass will crumple with the seater/crimper at the same setting. A lee factory crimp die would solve that though.

Other then that, having the ability to use 2.85" cases just makes it a more versitile chamber, whether you call it a lott or a Watts. I would agree with the 458/416 stamp to allow use of multiple brass. I found the 416 rem mag brass worked quite well, I never got a chance to try the HDS brass.

I'm curious--why aren't you considering the 450 Ackley along with the Lott and the Watts?
Good hunting!

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Andy Cooper