I am the proud new owner of a Ruger # 1 in 458 Lott (my first big bore rifle). I was able to score 5 boxes of REALLY OLD 458 Win Mag rounds for $30 per box - 3 yellow boxes of Winchester Super Speed 500 grn and 2 boxes of 510 grn Remington soft points. (The boxes had old price tags of $15.95 on them.... like I said, REALLY OLD for 458 Lotts.)
I live in Alabama and the closest 458 Lotts I could find was at Academy in Aiken SC - 2 boxes of Hornady DGS 500 grn flat nose at $100 per box.... ouch!! (I am reluctant to order offline so a SC friend picked these up for me.)
All that being said, I about to purchase a reloading kit and need some advice/guidance. There's a store in town that has a Hornady Lock n Load kit ($279) and a RCBS Rock Chucker kit ($309). Any suggestions / comments / advice would be greatly appreciated. (Hornady dies came with the gun.)

Welcome, and congratulations on your new Lott (did you buy it from fellow in Wyoming?).

Either press you mentioned will work fine, and will give you many decades of service.

Shoot the .458 Win. first to acclimate yourself to the recoil, then move up to .458 Lott loads.

George

Thank you...so far it's a fairly expensive hobby which is why I will be getting involved in reloading.
I bought it locally in Alabama.
I have shot about 10 rounds of the Win Mags and I was shooting low and right at around 50 yards - standing position.....nice grouping, but low and right. (Not sure why?)

If you're shooting low and right, adjust the sights. Ruger does not zero the rifle before they ship it.

You aren't going to save much over the $1.50 per shot once you begin reloading (.458 jacketed bullets and Lott brass can be expensive), but reloading will save you quite a bit over current pricing of .458 factory ammunition.

George

I use Hornady dies and an RCBS single stage press to reload for my 458 Lott.

Here is may favorite Lott practice load.

405 gr. Rem SP
68.0 gr IMR - 4895
Fed. 215 primer
Hornady brass
col - 3.53"
MV 2112 fps/24" barrel

It is a less expensive bullet shoots great and will work on hogs, etc.

Keith

Any single stage press is going to work just fine. If you really want to save money, buy one of the LEE kits. They are about half the price of what you are looking at.

And if you want to load cheap ammo, use lead bullets. I load lead 405 grain bullets with 80 grains of IMR-4895. They do 2400 fps out of my Ruger #1.

Thanks for the replies. A few more questions:
Will my Hornady dies work on a Lee press or will it have to be modified?
Digital scale or manual sliding scale?
Is a case trimmer necessary?
Is there anything I will need besides what comes in the kit? (Other than powder, primers, and bullets?

Regarding your questions about the dies, I'm not 100% sure if Hornady dies will work on a Lee press, but I believe they are all universally-sized unless they have some type of quick disconnect collet.

If you buy a kit, all of the following may come in it, based on the type of reloading kit:

A manual scale is fine, and that is how I got into reloading. A digital scale will be much quicker. You will also need a powder dispenser such as the RCBS Uniflow, or if you're feeling flush with cash, the RCBS Chargemaster is a great option- it includes a digital scale attached to an electronic powder measure, which allows you to literally type in your powder grain weight and it will automatically dispense the measured charge over and over. I have to say that I started out with a manual scale and Uniflow manual powder measure and it made me appreciate each step of the reloading process that much more.

Regarding a case trimmer, yes- you will need to either buy a Lee case trimmer and case length gauge for the .458 Lott, which is a very economical way to go but quite labor intensive. The other way to go is to buy a RCBS Trim Pro which is quicker to use and provides a better end result, in my opinion. You will also need a pair of calipers to measure shell size, over all length, etc. A manual pair works just fine and can be had quite cheap, although a digital pair is quicker.

You will also need a case neck deburring tool, primer pocket cleaning brush, priming tool, shell holders for your dies, a shell lube kit (pad, brushes, shell lube), funnel for adding the powder to your shell, reloading tray such as the MTM Universal reloading tray (get a 50 count one as it's easier to manage two 50's instead of one 100 in my opinion), bullet puller (you can either buy the kinetic one that looks like a hammer, or the collet set that fit into your press).

I suggest also picking up a Lee Factory Crimp die for reloading the .458 Lott. This offers a very good crimp and is a lot more user-friendly than trying to adjust your dies for the perfect crimp. It is not critical but sure does come in handy.

Keep an eye out on the forums. I have picked up a lot of stuff used but in great shape. Reloading tools rarely "wear out." Good luck and ask lots of questions. This is an exciting new hobby and it has brought me endless hours of pleasure!

-John

quote:

Originally posted by Alabama458:
Thanks for the replies. A few more questions:
Will my Hornady dies work on a Lee press or will it have to be modified?
Digital scale or manual sliding scale?
Is a case trimmer necessary?
Is there anything I will need besides what comes in the kit? (Other than powder, primers, and bullets?

1. Your Hornady dies will work on a Lee, RCBS, Redding and about any other brand of press.

2. I use a mechanical scale. I don't use a digital scale mainly because I don't trust them; more to go wrong.

3. You should never have to trim 458 Lott brass.

4. I presume the kit comes with a reloading manual. I presume it will come with anything else you need. Does it come with some device to seat your primers? If not, you'll need to get something; the RCBS primer seating die will be good for any cartridge you load for short of 50 BMG and will seat a primer in the tightest of primer pockets barring an unmodified crimped primer pocket.

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:

quote:

Originally posted by Alabama458:
Thanks for the replies. A few more questions:
Will my Hornady dies work on a Lee press or will it have to be modified?
Digital scale or manual sliding scale?
Is a case trimmer necessary?
Is there anything I will need besides what comes in the kit? (Other than powder, primers, and bullets?

1. Your Hornady dies will work on a Lee, RCBS, Redding and about any other brand of press.

2. I use a mechanical scale. I don't use a digital scale mainly because I don't trust them; more to go wrong.

3. You should never have to trim 458 Lott brass.

4. I presume the kit comes with a reloading manual. I presume it will come with anything else you need. Does it come with some device to seat your primers? If not, you'll need to get something; the RCBS primer seating die will be good for any cartridge you load for short of 50 BMG and will seat a primer in the tightest of primer pockets barring an unmodified crimped primer pocket.

I trimmed mine when it got too long.If you shoot them enough you will need to trim

If you have to trim straight walled casses it means several things:

1. The load may be a bit hot.

2. The chamber may be a bit on the large size (i.e., sloppy).

3. The brass is thinning and stretching above the web so better check regularly for incipient head separations.

You need to trim them too if you want a nice even crimp.That is if the cases have been shot a few times.The Lott is a high pressure round and very hard on the cases.I agree with you that they do not expand like say a 308 shot with light loads.

Thanks again for the information.
I shot the 458 Lott rounds yesterday for the first time.... Man that thing is a hoss! (The percussion was blowing leaves 15ft away from where I was standing!! Not exaggerating - I've got the video to prove it.) My accuracy has improved since previously shooting the 458 Win mags. Turns out the Ruger #1 is dead on. I'm really enjoyong the rifle.
I should be getting the reloading kit this week. I'm currently leaning towards the Hornady or the Lee...it'll probably be a game time decision.
Any recommendations on powder?
I enjoyed the punch of the Hornady 500 grn DGS rounds I was shooting and don't want there to be a let down on my homemade rounds. Any recommendations on the right combination of ingredients to achieve similar results with my loads?

Reloadersnest.com has good Lott loads and should be very helpful

The Hornady is the better press.
Bill

I have shot lots of big stuff, and my Ruger #1 in 458 lott seemed to slap the shit out of me the last time I took it out for some work. Maybe it was just a bad day for me ut it knocked me around all afternoon. But.. I would still never get rid of it. I have 4 or 5 guns in 458 lott and it seems to be the worst kicker of the bunch, Enjoy shooting yours.

I've been thinking about developing a .458 Lott load for moose using the 500gr Hornady RN bullet (#4504). The objective is to have very little or no empty space between the powder and bullet, and to get around 1800 fps muzzle velocity.

A slow burning would be required so I made some loads using 76.0gr of Re19. There is very little empty space between the powder and the bullet. I tried these out today - muzzle velocity averaged around 1675 fps, was fairly uniform and pressure was low.

I think if I increase the powder charge to 80.0gr this will take up all the empty space and muzzle velocity should be right around 1800 fps.

My Sako was a .416 Remington Magnum before being converted to .458 Lott. I have a supply of .416 Rem. mag. brass which I can easily re-size to .458 Lott.

Latest update and reloading question.....
I went with the Hornady Lock n Load Classic kit.
I have been getting everything set up and I'm now ready to reload. I am having trouble with the decapping/resizing die. The cases are getting stuck in the die before it's able to decap them. (It's like the cases are too big for the die.) I have set the die/press exactly how the manuals recommend. I was careful not to over lubricate the cases, but after I had trouble with them getting stuck I used the lube more liberally ("One Shot" lube - came with kit).
Why are the cases getting stuck? What can I do to fix the problem?
(I'm using a Hornady press, Hornady dies, and Hornady cases.)

the "one shot" lube is notoriously variable in performance. try imperial sizing wax. or RCBs or dillon spray lube.

This is my load for 500 grain bullets.

Hornady One Shot is TERRIBLE stuff. The only die I ever ruined, a 444 Marlin resizing die, was ruined because I used it. The only thing it worked OK on was 223 Remington brass and that was only if applied liberally and used wet. I will never buy another drop of it.

My go to case lube is Imperial Sizing Wax.

My life got better when I threw out all the spray lubes. Those annoying mystery misfires went away too.

Imperial SDW all the way now. .458 chambers tend toward the generous side, as they should for a cartridge where function is paramount and accuracy verges on academic. You will likely feel extra effort on the sizing stroke, but the cases should practically fall out of the die afterwards. My luck with Hornady dies hasn't been that great either, some of them practically screech when sizing and extracting. Mine are in a landfill somewhere.

I have been using Imperial Sizing Die Wax for many years.

Now it is also marketed by Redding.

Same stuff.

Thanks guys. Looks like I'm in the market for some Imperial Sizing Die Wax.

Another question:
Can I reload 458 Winchester Magnums with 458 Lott dies? (I am a greenhorn so sorry if this is a bad question.)

I see little reason to crimp a single shot rifle case, some do however..I would opt for the RCBS set and Imperial resizing wax is the best you can buy.

+1 for Imperial Sizing Die Wax

Imperial sizing wax!! I will have some 416 rem mag brass that I made into 458 Lott later this year that I will be happy to donate to your cause