I have an Interarms Mark X in 338WM. It weighs 10lbs w/26" bbl. and scope. I want to re-barrel it to 458WM light. Why? Because I like the big hole but I don't want the huge kick. I reload and can cast as well. I live in Washington state so it could hunt anything from coyotes and deer to bear and elk. Who knows, maybe even a cat of some sort. What I want is the equivalent to a 45-70 in a bolt gun. Not interested in full power loads at all! I want to keep recoil between 30/06 and 338 levels. So could it live w/o cross bolts? The stock allready handles 338 recoil so if I keeep it at that or lower then it should be fine right? Again, I don't want an elephant gun, I want a good big bore bolt gun for NA game. Maybe some cast for practice and something like a good 350g. for hunting. What sort of speeds should I look for on my chrony to achieve these goals? I want a short barrel that handles well in the woods/jungle of western Wa.. I like short... would 18" be too short for you or would you go 20"? Maybe keep the weight about 8 1/2 to 9lbs with a quick release 2-7x scope. A Burris FF-II w/BP is what I have on hand. It will need some nice open sights of some sort for when it rains (always). For when I'm tunneling through brush too thick to walk through so you have to crawl. I haven't shot peep sights too much, I might prefer a flip-up blade just for the quick change of the scope. I like a blade that has a little white triangle on it. Seems to help line up the front post quicker in my eye. Thats what's on my ol' 30-06 so its what I'm used to I guess. Curious about hunting with cast vs. cup vs. X style bullets. I know, I know... it depends on what critter. Some thoughts on downloading it light... Can I just use the typical methods of reduced (safe) charges and a light bullet. There are bulky powders designed for this, but I haven't found much in the way of reduced loads for the 458wm though. Any thoughts or coments on a project like this are welcome. Thanks. Redrider.

The 458WM certainly gives you the option of loading light and heavy if you need to. However, if you think you might not ever need heavy, the 450 Marlin (think short 458win) was designed to give you just what you are looking for, as it is basically a belted 45-70. You can load it up to 4/5th's of the 458win and down the whole spectrum of 45-70 loads. Having said all that, I would personally go with the 458win and be able to load up all the way if I wanted to. In the 450 Marlin, you can propel 350 grain bullets with H4895 from 1700 to about 2000fps. The later load would use a compressed charge and still be under about 35000cup. If you need more velocity than that H4198 can get you up to just about 2200fps. I got these numbers from the Hodgdon manual. They use a 24 inch test barrel, so velocities might be 100fps slower out of a 20 inch barrel. Good luck. I doubt that cross bolts would be necessary with the 450 Marlin.

I have found a lot of info searching for 458 light loads, or 458 cast bullet loads. I found quite a bit, you just have to dig and try googling different terms until you find what you need.

An easy wildcat would be the .458 American. Basicly the 458 cut down to 2". A belted 45-70.

easy to do .. and i do suggest the 458 AccRel over the winmag --

I've done the light 458winmag ... and rather than anything else, i did the winmag, as the brass and reamers and dies are easy ..

my baby son has a mexican mauser in 458 winmag, weighs less than 8# .. cz take off barrel, and rem 405s at the forward crimp groove to keep length down ... velocities are easy to get past 2200 (way past, actually)

you can get an AB barrel and send off the marc skagg, who will do the work fairly cheaply ...

you can then use exhaust/muffler paint to cover it, and have something fun to shoot

jeffe

Why not just sell yout 338 and buy a 458, That is the cheapest answer to your "problem".

Then load it to your liking.

Keith

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Brooks:
An easy wildcat would be the .458 American. Basicly the 458 cut down to 2". A belted 45-70.

The 450 Marlin, though not exactly identical, is basically a commercial version of the 458 American.

If you glass bed the barrel you don't need cross bolts for any of the .458's except maybe the Lott. Selling the .338 and buying a used .458wm is usually cheaper......Tom