Since purchasing my Parker-Hale Light African rifle in .458 Winchester Mag, I've had it rechambered to .458 Lott. I also replaced the single standing express sight with a dovetail filler and installed a XS Ghostring on a Warne base and replaced the front sight with a higher and larger front sight bead now it's ready for play time.

Robgunbuilder gave me some guidance as to where he got with Varget in a Lott and I ran from there. Thanks Rob.

I spent the afternoon zipping 500gr Hornady soft points fueled by Varget and lit with a CCI #200 primer over Mike (MSTARLING)'s PACT chrono because I doubted my Chrony. Thanks to Mike for letting me endanger his sky screens.

Using 81.0 grains my chrono read as 2,240 fps.
82.0 grains my chrono read as 2,250 fps.
83.0 grains my chrono read as 2,275 fps / Mike's gave an average of 2,334 fps, SD of 19.4 and MAD of 14.4 for three shots.
84.0 grains my chrone read as 2,340 fps / Mike's gave an average of 2,298 fps, SD of 4.7 and MAD of 3.5 (makes this load look good for Match shooting ).
Rob said he uses 85.0 grains to get just over 2,200 fps, I'd have to use a mallet to get that much in under a 500gr bullet, the 83 and 84 grain loads are compressed. Absolutely no pressure signs, primers look the same for the 80 grain loads and the 84 grainer's.

I'm thinking I'll use the 83 grain load for a while and see how it does for accuracy.
Recoil wise, previously I'd fired Mike's CZ in .416 Rigby and Searcy in .470 as the biggest boomers I'd experienced, but this 10 pound Lott is a step up. It's do-able once you learn to go with the flow and not fight it.
Zen and the art of big bore boomers!
Now I just need a really big critter to hunt

(Remember you'd have to be nutz to use someone's loading data off the Internet, especially mine. My data was safe in my rifle (and maybe Rob's) but it will probably blow you and two generations of your family into itty bitty bits)

quote:

Recoil wise, previously I'd fired Mike's CZ in .416 Rigby and Searcy in .470 as the biggest boomers I'd experienced, but this 10 pound Lott is a step up.

Rick congrats on cracking the 2300 fps mark with the Lott. There is a definite difference in recoil between 2150-2200 and 2300 in a 458. I think that is a so called "threshold" for a lot of people.

I enjoyed the fruits of Rick's work this afternoon ... the Lott is pretty neat. Actaully not bad from sticks. Relieved to know that the .458 AR I'm building is not going to be completely nuts (if I can get it to weigh enough ;>

Thank you, Rick!

quote:

Relieved to know that the .458 AR I'm building is not going to be completely nuts (if I can get it to weigh enough ;>

Jeffe's only weighs like 8 pounds...we all know hes nuts . The 458 AR will hit 2300 with little effort with room to breathe all the way to 2400. The Lott is huffing to get to 2300 and at higher pressures.

Mike, my 458 AR will be finished any day now...I am just itching to wring it out. I think as long as the stock fits and you have a decent pad a few ounces won't make much difference.

Being a guy who was sent into early retirement as a result of my company having been acquired, I am trying to learn to do things relatively inexpensively. Thus, the .458 AR build is about as cheap as I can make it ... will be less than $500 including a very expensive die set ($145).

The action is a Parker-Hale magnum mauser on an el cheapo Fajens synthetic stock. It's pretty light and will need some lead shot epoxied into it to get the right balance and weight up. I'm shooting for 10 pounds plus. (I am not El Jeffe!)

Still looking for cheap bullets and figure that the Woodleighs are now as cheap as anything else at $40/50.

I bought the Hornady softs while wandering thru Cabelas for $54.00 to avoid the $10.00 in shipping from any of the mail order joints (plus I couldn't wait) I've also ordered some Hornady fmj's from Widner's at $37.90/50. Those are about the cheapest 500gr .458's I could find till we get some bullet moulds going.

That .458 AR looks like it's got a lot of kewl factor. I'm looking forward to seeing it go operational.

Rick R,
I thought it was me that recommended Varget to you recently. You got RobGunBuilder on the brain? Go back and check your previuos posts. I did.

Anyway, I totally pulled that load data outta my ass (off the top of my head as in "IIRC"). Glad it worked out for you O.K. Maybe I was dyslexic and meant to say 83 grains instead of 85 grains.

Seriously, you have a good tight rifle, and mine is a bit sloppy and loose rechamber job with excessive throat, or barrel is a bit looser, or the powder lots we used were considerably different, or the newer Hornady bullets get pressures and velocities up a bit more than my old ones, or one of us needs a chrony correction.

Whatever, it is a great load. Congratulations and thanks for the feedback.

Your red tag line in the opening post of this thread says it well: Be careful of any internet load recommendations from shady characters like me.

But thanks for retesting my load for me.
Good show.

You were already planning to test Varget anyway, before I chimed in.

BTW, that jump in velocity with one grain above 83.0 grains is definitely excessive. You are maxed out at 83.0 grains for sure, in your rifle.

RIP, you are right of course, extremely sorry I attributed the kick start on the data to the wrong source. to you if we ever meet.

I started way low after looking at the data from Hornady on the Lott and Hodgdon on the WinMag. Then i held my breath and pulled the trigger on the first round.


Glad I could re-confirm your data and thanks for the help.

I've also used varget with my latest lott, 22" tubed. With a 500 gr cast bullet I got 2150 fps w/ 80 gr, 2200 fps w/ 82 gr and 2250 fps w/ 84 gr. Even with a drop tube you need to compress the loads. The 80 gr load seemed to be the most accurate, and makes for a fine plinking load

RL 15 is pretty much a grain for grain replacement.

As much as I like the 458 Lott, I think the ideal 45 cal chambering for 500 gr bullets needs to be larger than the lott.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:
As much as I like the 458 Lott, I think the ideal 45 cal chambering for 500 gr bullets needs to be larger than the lott.

Paul, that would be the 458AR, 4% greater capacity and bottlenecked to boot. More efficent. Jeffe is getting over 2300fps with no trouble. Not to mention that this is done out of a standard lenght action.


And yeah, I hate to admit that this is true, cause I real love my Lott. But I am happy with it.

Hog Killer

quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:

As much as I like the 458 Lott, I think the ideal 45 cal chambering for 500 gr bullets needs to be larger than the lott.

Some of the problem is that magazine box restriction when using these big bullets. It just takes up alot of the case capacity.

Has anyone install Sunny Hill's custom box for the winchester action?

It is 3.800 in length. Looks as if you could seat the bullets longer relieving some of this problem.