My friend had purchased a .460 Weatherby after a few years of negotiation and is now looking to sell it. He tried Gunbroker with little interest. I understand this is a niche' cartridge but are people more inclined to purchase a non-weatherby caliber first?

I believe he has several boxes of factory ammunition along with reloading dies and such.

I would purchase this rifle but it is right handed.

I wouldn't call it a fad, its been around almost 60 years. Its just that its always had a relatively small number of followers and finding a buyer can be tough. But I think there will always be some Weatherby followers.

It took your friend years to buy, it may take the same amount of time to sell.

Post it up for him here. I'm sure there's some rifle looney here looking for one or a donor for a 500A2.

The 458 Lott, 450 Dakota, 450 Rigby, and even the new modern 458 Win Mag have taken some of the "wow" factor out of the 460 Wby. It's still a great cartridge, especially when loaded at lower velocities with a 600gr bullet.

what Biebs said.

I have a 458 RUM and a Lott. Not sure why I have both.

My take on this is the fact that many don't like Weatherby rifles, not the cartridges.

I have several Weatherby cartridges, not one is on a Weatherby rifle. All are built on Win Model 70 rifles and have been switch barreled. I run a 264WM and 270Weatherby on one action, and 300Weatherby/340Weatherby/375Weatherby on another.

Also have a barrel in 7mmWeatherby, but, I'm not a 7mm fan, so it gathers dust.

Cheers.

I saw one 460 Wby in my life for sale at a gunshow. It was as new with a box of ammo with three fired cases. My friend joked to the man:
"Is 3 all you could stand?" The man replied he was the third owner! They are a beast.

Went through a spate of 460 Weatherby custom rifle builds a couple years ago. I think we built five in one year. Hadn't built any before and none since. Three were on GMA actions and one of them went to a PH in Tanzania for is every-day rifle. Funny how it works that way; some carts. get hot all of a sudden. This year it's 577 T-Rex.

I knew a fellow that was a Weatherby fan. At one time he had a Mark V in every cartridge. He said he sold the 460 & 378 because they kicked too hard. they were rather light for the amount of momentum generated.

I miss the old days, when the Weatherby Catalog came out each year for a measly $5 shipped.

There was a picture in one about a farmer in Kentucky who owned a MK-V in every caliber, with Weatherby scopes on all of them, and mesquite stocks.

I met Leonard Mews years later, who did the stock work when ever the mesquite option was checked on the order form.

I loved their catalog, got many laying around..dying..no way just a limited amount of shooters who want to feel as bad after the shot as their target..that's a lot of beef there to handle !!!

As mentioned too old to be a "fad"! Awesome calibre but less popular since Rigby appropriated the design for the 450 Rimless. Also the "fad" of beltless designs and the "African" flavour make the 450 RR more popular. Furthermore many feel that the CRF designs are preferred for a DG rifle. I own numerous MKVs but I am probably in that camp too...

That said, I have picked up a 460 Bee on a converted ZKK that was a 458. These were quite popular conversions at one time. Bill Ritchie in SA did many.

The 450 is far more popular here. The anti Weatherby sentiment is still alive in Africa. I've spoken of it before.

I came close to acquiring 460 MKVs a few times over the past 12 months but I know I will always pick the CRF for that hunt. Not that it is really a justified preference.

Good luck with the sale. They are great rifles.

quote:

He tried Gunbroker with little interest.

Price it low enough and it well sell.

People who say they can't sell something are really saying I can not sell it for what I want for it.

Its an option,not a fad, and not very popular because of recoil I suspect..My old and dear friend George Hoffman, now passed loved the 460 Wby. I sold that gun for him shortly before his death. He is the only one I knew personally that used the caliber, and he used it well.

One thing it can lay claim to is that it's a killing machine and appeared to me it killed quicker than any big bore Ive seen used including the .505 Gibbs and the 577 and worked as well on Duiker as it did elephant..I guess it was the very heavy bullets to some extent, but the velocity it sent them at was the edge it had over the rest...

I found the recoil nerve shattering!

460 Weatherby mag ?

A solution for a problem that does not exist !

Had me a early model Mk V built by Sauer, fancy grade high gloss "California" stock a 26 inch tube with another 2 inches of Accubrake making it a unwieldy 28 inch !

2 down one up the spout ! Did not need much more cause follow up shots was trying after losing your hat, your earmuffs and whatever was in front of you that was loose ! Last light shooting ! one shot only because the muzzle flash caused temporary blindness !

At least if you did not kill whatever you were shooting at you could also beat the animal to death.... and you got your teeth cleaned and that of anyone in the near vicinity cause it knocked the plaque off your teeth !

Reminds me of a story I heard (probably on AR) where a client shot a buff at close range with a 500 NE and doubled it firing both barrels. When he got up and looked at his PH with a questioning look, the PH said I was just waiting to see which one of you two would get up first ...

So Alf, why don't you tell us how you really feel about the 460 Wby!

At any rate you pretty much tell why its not the most popular kid on the block and I have to agree with you on that.

The most beautiful .460 Weatherby ever built.

https://www.theexplora.com/a-w...ional-hunters-rifle/

How much does he want for it? I've shot mine so much that I burned the barrel out on it.

As I said, the 450 RR is essentially the same cartridge; albeit loaded to a somewhat lower potential.

Never seen a 450 RR with a brake, or a 26" barrel. How often do we read of the horrendous recoil of the 450 RR. I know at least seven guys personally who own 450s. None load it to the full potential. The factory load is also not at the limit.

I guess most Weatherby owners tend to go all out and all out is by all accounts a real handful.

As mentioned a 550gr or 600gr in either cartridge is a phenomenal performer with unbelievable penetration. We've tested these cartridges and various bullets in test media and the 450 RR is really something else. The 416 Rigby with 400 and 430gr was substantially exceeded and the 416 is hailed by many as the ultimate penetrator.

The calibre is a favourite with guys who like a bolt gun and really need extreme penetration and stopping ability on large game. The 460 Wby is capable of exactly the same. The factory 500gr at 2600 fps (as I recall originally 2700 fps) is, I suspect, not the best answer in this calibre for most users. The 460 is really a serious cartridge for serious business.

As I said in my opinion it remains a great calibre.... but I now need to apply for the licence for my recently acquired ZKK and shoot it. I've shot the 450 but not the 460.

the 460 weatherby is a study in extremes - it will likely have its fans, and those that like to use the case for other reasons .. i am, of course, the later, though i have very little negative to say about the round...

other than most people are unwilling to learn to shoot this level of recoil well, and therefore whine and complain about it -- make no mistake, this is a HARD round to shoot -- its not easy, its never fun, and takes effort to master

but -- when a rich fella wants the biggest and baddest, this often gets trotted out, with a blingbling stock and finish, and sold to him --- he then goes on safari, and after the second day, this gun becomes in-op, and the ph loans him a 375 - successful hunt, everyone gets happy, tons of money changes hands, and then the gun gets fixed in the last couple days ... AFTER the dangerous change has been taken....

you know, its so easy to be missing a firing pin spring....

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
the 460 weatherby is a study in extremes - it will likely have its fans, and those that like to use the case for other reasons .. i am, of course, the later, though i have very little negative to say about the round...

other than most people are unwilling to learn to shoot this level of recoil well, and therefore whine and complain about it -- make no mistake, this is a HARD round to shoot -- its not easy, its never fun, and takes effort to master

but -- when a rich fella wants the biggest and baddest, this often gets trotted out, with a blingbling stock and finish, and sold to him --- he then goes on safari, and after the second day, this gun becomes in-op, and the ph loans him a 375 - successful hunt, everyone gets happy, tons of money changes hands, and then the gun gets fixed in the last couple days ... AFTER the dangerous change has been taken....

you know, its so easy to be missing a firing pin spring....

Agree, I've never heard anyone say of the 460 Weatherby "it's more of a push ..."

In my career I've owned 10 weatherbys and still own two. One of which is a 460. Frankly I could never get the advertised 2700fps out of mine even after tons of reloading. I measured the belt expansion over 0.003 at 2650 fps and quit right there. Horrendous recoil is pure BS! Not even reaching Stout! Ok, more like a meer push or maidens kiss!Really not bad even at FULL tilt! No kidding really not bad at all! With practice you can shoot and recover pretty fast with it and there is an extended mag that holds three down and one in the pipe! With wood Leigh sifts It is a great log splitter by the way for those cold days when you just don't want to chop wood!
The .460 case is a great donor to become a .500A2 which is a really usefull cartridge, however I never used a Weatherby .460 action for a .500A2 much preferring a Cz550 for that purpose. I had a serious number of issues with the other 8 Wetherbys I owned and one major run in with their QC/ service department that soured me on Weatherbys forever. I would NEVER buy a used one even at an attractive price. My two cents!

I shot the one John Buhmiller built (the 460 Buhmiller based on 416 Rigby brass)that Wbee "borrowed". I also shot his P17 Rem (called The 450 Buhmiller)that became what is now called the 458 Lott.
Rifles weighed about the same, and you could tell the difference after one shot with each. That extra 200fps gave the recoil both massive and high velocity properties.

I have a Lott and a 458 RUM on CRF M70's, but 2450-2500fps is all the titillation I require.

I almost bought a 460 twice. One was a lazermark that sat in a gunstore 3 or 4 years. Price came down to about $1200. (1990). The other time it was a standard version that was jap made for about $ 1500. (2000). I liked the cartridge but found it hard to spend twice the money on the Weatherby product.

Solid big bore. Would never feel undergunned with one.

But my view has always been, with the .500 A-Square a neck up away, why bother?

Had one, thought the recoil was more tolerable than a Ruger #1 I had in .458 Win. Mag. As for the recoil, I see rifles here pushing a 900 grain bullet at, what, 2500FPS, others like the T-Rex and the 585 Nyati, and even the .505 Gibbs loaded "warm" and the .550 on the Gibbs case, or other such wildcats and there seems to be more complaining about the recoil of the .460 than all those others. At my age now, the .416 Rigby at factory levels is about my limit due to many years of shoulder issues. I mostly shoot my .375's or .338 WM to fix my "big bore" fix, yes, I know they are medium bores, but what the heck, I calls them as I sees them.

Mike, I think as we get older and more experienced, we separate out the "Macho" factor from our actual needs in a hunting rifle, after finding that a 416, or even a 375 in most cases, will do anything we need a rifle to do.

After almost 60 years, the 460 Weatherby fad is passing!
The 460 Weatherby rifle is older than my wife!

IIRC, I got my first one (460 Weatherby MkV, not wife) in 1985.
It (rifle, not wife) was my second "big bore." I got it right after the .458 WinMag Ruger No. 1 of 1984.
It was also my second-ever bolt action rifle, right after that 30-06 Ruger M77 of 1978.

I used to shoot that 460 Wby once a year on my birthday, before I found greater kicks.

I also once stopped a mad cow water buffalo that was charging by in a Kentucky pasture, using my second 460 WbyMag made on a BBK-02.
She stopped dead in her tracks after a center-chest hit with 500-grain Weatherby RNSP factory load.
Then she just stood there with her head down, bleeding from nose and mouth.
I couldn't take it any longer so I traded my 460 WbyMag for my .375 H&H carried by my gunbearer, Lemuel, the Pfizer Drug Company detail man.
Not wanting to make too much of a mess, I shot her in the neck at 50 yards and she dropped immediately, finally.



There is an unusually good entry at Wikipedia on the 460 Weatherby Magnum:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.460_Weatherby_Magnum

Good grief RIP you have a old wife !

quote:

Originally posted by ALF:
Good grief RIP you have a old wife !

Yep, but at least she is younger than me, and I acquired her before my first bolt action rifle. In fact, none of my "keepers" (rifles, handguns, shotguns) pre-date her.
She is definitely my oldest keeper.
And she is definitely not a mad cow.

Just for yucks, I must say that the 460 WbyMag was a passing fad with me. I do not own one now.
Here is that BBK-02 that was my second 460 WbyMag, but got re-barreled to 470 Mbogo:



There are many things to notice about that one. We could begin with the backward Dakota rear sight base ...



... and continue with the stock finishing, but don't blame the gunsmith for the stock exterior.

This is the first and only rifle I ever "hand checkered" myself, self-taught, just made it up as I went, no book learning nor apprenticeship:





The entire stock was painted with "textured" clear epoxy by an "artist's brush" after I finished the checkering, decorating, and reinforcements using various opague epoxy colors and steel.
The Thor's hammer (Mjollnir) was crafted with aluminum filings embedded in clear epoxy to represent unobtainium.

Friend of mine (local kitchen table/gunshow dealer FFL) had one. Detached his retina sighting it in from the bench.

I use this cartridges over 20 years for shooting mostly buffalos , sometimes plain game.

If you reload it with a 500gr premium bullet at Vo 2400 ft/s to 2500 ft/s , you have a well balanced cartridge for big game hunting.

IMHO , the cartridge 460WM was never a fad and had not earned to die.

Any tough 500-grainer with a 115-grain charge of any of the 4350's (Hodgdon H4350, IMR 4350, or Accurate XMR 4350) and an F215 primer:

About 2500 fps MV from a 26" barrel and about 0.5" for 3-shot groups at 100 yards.
About 2450 fps from a 24" barrel.
About 2400 fps from a 22" barrel.

John Buhmiller used 115 grains of 4350 with 500-grainer, and he claimed a bit more velocity than that.
He might have gotten faster velocity by adding that second primer inside the powder charge?
His barrel length was not specified for his load workup.
The old powders back in 1955 were faster burning?
Of course he might have been using a ballistic pendulum as chronograph, not so accurate?

Whatever the cause of getting 2700 fps with that load, he claimed it, and Roy Weatherby used to claim it too, after John Buhmiller claimed it.
John did start shooting a .458/.378 Weatherby Magnum before Roy called it the 460 Weatherby Magnum.

It's always been my understanding that the only reason the .460 Wby exists at all was because of Kenya's ban on sub .40 caliber rifles for elephant hunting. He had put all his effort into the .378 as the weatherby heavy so when the ban came about he had to come up with something to satisfy it. So logic says he would just neck up the .378 to take a .458 diameter bullet.

Most factory cartridges are either direct borrowing of some bodies wildcat or at inspired from them. I would imagine Roy was aware of others developments along the same lines but IMO he most likely at least in this case just did a simple neck up to the larger caliber.

Colin Masters
She is due in, in the next month or so. Will keep you all posted ;-)

https://www.theexplora.com/a-w...ional-hunters-rifle/

A really good looking rifle! It would be interesting how it performs in the field- if one has the guts to use it!

jaegarfrank,

Thanks! I'll keep you all updated. Apparently much better looking in the flesh.
Can't wait

quote:

Apparently much better looking in the flesh.

That would be tough....that rifle is stunning!

I got rid of my 460 Weatherby (just too flashy for me) and replaced it with a 1960's Custom Brevex Mauser in 460 Wby cal.