A 450 gr. A Frame or a 500 gr. A Frame in .458 Win Mag?

Bill Hober (sorry...got his name wrong...talked to him three weeks ago...) of Swift recommended the 450.

We're talking buff and lion...

Bill Hober (owner of Swift Bullets) may be recommending the 450 gr A-Frame in .458 because there have been some problems with the 500 gr bullet. Not widely reported or known but some custom loaders now refuse to load the .458 500 gr A-FRAME. This problem has been known by Swift since approximately 2004-05.

I have shot cape buff and eland with .458 500gr Swift A Frames in my 450 No2 with EXCELLENT performance. Bullets were recovered and expanded and penetrated perfect.

But, if I was reloading for a 458 Win Mag I would use the 450gr bullet.

LionHunter

Do you know what the problem with the 500gr bullet is?

For the Win. Mag., I would definitely go with the 450 grain bullet. You can get 2,200+ fps with no problem and you will get plenty of penetration.

I have gone from 500 grain to 450 grain bullets even in my Lott and have never looked back.

N E 450 No2,

I spent the better part of a year monitoring the "professionals" try to figure it out. To the best of my knowledge they never did. There were problems with brass case extrusion and failure to shoot to point of aim (accuracy). This involved custom loaders, brass manufacturers and Swift. Everyone wanted the problem to be owned by someone else. It happened with both .458wm and .458Lott loadings using the 500 gr A-Frame bullet, but occurred only sometimes (10-20%). There were a number of animals wounded which were never recovered. The problems did not occur with the 450 gr bullet.

BTW, I am a huge fan of Swift A-Frames and use them in all my hunting rifles, after personally conducting comparison testing of premium bullets on African game in 1998. This is the only Swift bullet I know of having problems.

I have used the 500 Swift-A -Frame for target paractice and hunting and have not had any problems.In my Lott and 458wm,it is an exremely accurate bullet and well constructed for a soft.

For the 458 Winchester and other similar size cases the 450 Swift is the way to play. As Mr says you can get 2200 fps plus and it makes an excellent choice for buffalo and such. My own 458 B&M has similar case capacity and I will be using a 450 Swift in Australia this year for buffalo. In these cases I also use the superb 450 Barnes banded solid to back up the Swift.

As for the 500 Swift the last time I used it was in 458 Lott-2275 fps in Tanzania on 3 buffalo with perfect performance. Only 1 Swift was recovered--perfect terminal performance as expected. Once again this worked great with a 500 Barnes solid.

My stock of 500 Swifts dates back to 2005 and there is no issues with them at all. However, it would not surprise me that from time to time there could be issues, maybe a change in raw materials, who knows? For instance I have used the 400 Swift with excellent results in years past, accuracy and terminal perfection. I have a stock of these 400 Swifts that are now a few years old and accuracy is erratic in my rifles? When before that was not an issue at all.

Before using anything I do some fairly intensive test work, including terminal performance. I suggest the same, especially if there is a question of any sort.

Michael

Thanks to all. I'll try the 450 and see how it works. If accurate, I'll load some Barnes 450 solids as back up.

I would opt for the 450 grain bullet only because your also hunting lion and velocity (increase in shock) makes a difference with cats. With AA2230 or 2460 powders with the 450 grain bullet you might achieve velocities around 2300+ the variable being your barrel length. You can achieve all of this with moderate pressure using these powders look at Accurate arms web site. Great bullet choice but if it were me I would take an extra rifle in 375 or 416 for the cat, the velocities from these calibers is devastating on kitties.