WHEEEE DOGGIES!!! Is this fun! After a hundred rounds of 300 grain bullets I have started shooting the 350 grainers, and 400's. Clay pigeons off hand at 50 yards are dead. At 100 yds sitting and kneeling, same thing. It took that first hundred to settle down and get used to the recoil. I find the rifle to be very managable. My rifle is a Remington Stainless Safari, substantial but not a heavy-weight. As an added bonus, it makes my Kimber .300 WSM seem pretty tame. May try some of the 500 gr. Hornady's, but my intent was to get accurate with the 400 gr. Northforks for use on bears in AK.

Pretty interesting how you can train yourself to deal with recoil. When I first started shooting my .470 NE standing, I was scared of it. Now, for chronographing, I shoot it off the bench and it seems fine. Then when I shoot something like a .303 British, feels like a .22. Really points out the importance of spending time at the range getting used to the rifle before heading to the field.

cobrad,

good job and welcome to the dark side Bigger bores can be a little intimidating at first, but with a properly set up rifle and good technique most shooters can get past the hype and really enjoy the larger calibers. I love popping ground squirrels with my Lott... it is great fun, great practice and yes once conditioned by the bigger stuff all the smaller calibers are cake!

I enjoy having people shoot one of my 375 "cannons" and seeing their smiling reaction. I have had newbies who have shown the proper attitude and technique shoot my Rigby and Lott and not only survived but loved it. My rifles are set up with good eye relief and LOP which I believe is a must.

John

cobrad
Your "start light and work up" to full power loads is a perfect plan.
Also the 458 is a great choice. Those 400 gr northforks should be excellent for big bears.
For deer and pigs I really like the 350 Hornadays.

I have not tried Northforks, but have had great success with 400 grain Woodleigh Protected Points and AA-2230 powder. I load to about 2,240 fps second yielding about 4,400 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. This is in a Magna-ported 24" barrel Ruger (an old M-77 "Tropical Rifle" I picked up at a gun show probably twenty five years ago that had reported been fired three times.) Recoil is not harsh and the accuracy is very good.

Good luck with your shooting.

With my .458w that no one wants to talk about, I fired W factory solids straight off. Standing up was "fun".
Yesterday I tried my homemade lead sled/arrester cable contraption on the bench and it was worse than useless.
(My handloads are about 160 fps up on W.fact.)

Wanted to check scope zero so squeezed the perfect shot off, off the bench, (well it was 0.5" low at 100 yards but so what) and I'm not getting used to it. It doesn't scare me, it's just that I don't really want to do it again. Not this week anyway.
I'm starting to believe we're meant to do SOME things standing up.

quote:

(My handloads are about 160 fps up on W.fact.)

Congratulations on some excellent ballistics. If you are pushing 2,200 fps with a 500 grain solid you are set for anything.

It seems that 458s tend to have a fairly wide degree of variation in velocities from rifle to rifle, with the variation seeming to tend on the low side. Maybe the variation is no more that any other caliber, it is just that I watch it more closely than others.

With 2,200 fps and a 500 grain bullet you will certainly know when you have touched one off, standing or sitting.

Enjoy.....

What 2200?? You don't believe factory figures do you??
Anyway you caught me out lying. Off the top of my head I said something, 160 was it.

Well modern Win solids in my * 22" barrel went around 1930 Fps.
Half a grain under full strain with the best powder I had handy I'm getting >2060 so only 130 up. Sorry, my mind is going.

No problem. Actually I often got around 2,040 fps with Remington or Winchester 510 grain factory loads, the reported ballistics. Given the 160 fps addition I figured you were getting the 2,200 mentioned.

Cheers

Isn't this an elephant cartridge? Your typical 'Sourdough' carries .30-06, or .30Mag no?

Paolo, yes, this is an elephant cartridge. My intent here is to have a bear stopping rifle for a planned move to AK and work as a guide, but ya gotta hit em to stop em, so I'm doing a lot of shooting to become effective with the rifle. Besides, I've really always wanted to try my hand with a big rifle and this seemed like a good excuse, ahh, I mean reason, to have one.

You should have seen the look on my wife's face.
She's still in some sort of trance.

Yep, stopper seems to be current recomendation in case 'Old Ephraim' comes in early to get that gut pile!