I picked up a neat little rifle the other day. It is a Remington 660 that had been rebarreled to 458x2" American. Its basically a precurser to the 450 marlin. A 458 Win mag that was cut down to 2" to give ballistics of a hot loaded 45/70 for a bolt gun. I think it will be great for baited bear hunting and tight cover moose hunting. I have a leupld 1-4 vx2 that I will probably put on it with a set of backup irons, probably a peep setup with quick detach rings.





There really isnt' a lot of data out there for the 458 american but becaue it is basically identical to the 450 marlin I think I can use 450 starter loads for it. I have emailed hornady, hodgdon, and Barnes to see what they think about that. My target performance is 300grs @ 2200fps, 350gr @ 2100, and 405gr @ 1900fps. I think these should be pretty easy to achieve.

I found brass was incredably easy to make for it, just cut down any belted magnum brass to 2" and resize it. I was able to make 50 lat night in a little over a half hour using some 300 win mag brass I have laying around.




Here is a dummy I made up using a Barnes 300gr TTSX. It looks to be a really sweet little bullet that should work really well. Other bullets of consideration are the speer 350gr hot core, hornady 350gr fp, 405 remington and 405gr Kodiak bonded.



Any experience and especially load data for this cartridge would be really appreciated.

Congratulations on your find. If you can locate a copy of "Home Gunsmithing Digest" by Tommy Bish 1970 edition there is an excellent artical on the building & load development of the 458x2". The Library of congress card catalog number is 71-118931. ISBN 0695-80131-7.

If you send me your mailing addy I will copy the artical (6 pages) & send them to you.

IIRC there are several articles on the 458x2 in the Wolfe Publishing book on Bigbores (or was it the one on Wildcats?)

What a superb little rifle!!

at this time i am working on 450Marlin cast boolit gun. using a Savage 110 action Douglas barrel. my best load to date is 330hp(457122)/aa2230/WLR many sub 2"/100yds and 4"/ 200yds groups. i think this will make a good MI whitetail load( them whitetails are hard to stop). another good load is 385rn(457124)/28gr imr 4227/ WLR. if you have half the fun i have had your in for a blast!!!! Clint

Beautiful...You are extremely lucky to fing a 660 and even luckier to find on in 458 American...wannagotoLASVEGASwithme????

With that Rem action you can go quite a bit beyond 450 Marlin pressures, but I would keep it around 50-52 KCUP...I think you will hit the recoil limit before you hit the pressure limit with that light shooter...besides it is a 45 cal, Right...just how much umph do you need for deer/bear. It is really a very easy cartridge to work with and will do an excellent job on just about anything you point at.

I would start with mid 450 Marlin loads and work up slowly.

You picked great bullets...I need to try that 300 gr Barnes TTSX in my shooters, that's a good looking bullet!!!! You might also think about Oregon Trails 430 gr Silver Bullet...it is the most uniform cast bullet I've come across yet as far as weight and diameter is concerned...as good or better than a lot of jacketed bullets...and it's good for any velocity you could expect with the American. Really causes havoc with the squirrel population around my place...and the weight is an excellent compromise between 350 and 550 gr for larger game.

There is quite a bit of information out there on the 458 A...Steves Pages has some, http://stevespages.com/page8.htm...so a search online and some of the other forums...I think this cartridge has been re-discovered, I seen quite a bit of posts about it in the last few weeks.


Hey Doug...I read Tommy's article way back then(still have it somewhere I think) and wanted to build one ever since...finally did using a SMLE 2A action a couple years ago. Actually chambered it for 458 WM but engraved "458x2" AMERICAN" on the barrel just in case I sold/traded it. I run pressures around 42-45KCUP in it with 450-550 gr bullets...

,,That 300 gr tipped TSX is a great looking bullet ... Where did you get them ???????????????????????.. You should be able to get 2400 fps easily with it ............. That will work on anythig up here very well .....
.
. Last fall I blew an Oregon Trail Silver bullet in .452 360 gr @ 1400 fps mv to dust on a moose's horn base with my Cassul. Just a schosh off when trying to brain it .... It made a fairly good size about 2" deep hole .. Tho it somewhat did it's job , it didn,t even begin to compare to the Belt Mountain Penetrators ......

Steve at alaska custom firearms has about a thousadn of those tipped TSX bullets selling for $1.10 a piece. Pm me and I'll get you his number if your interested. He is right here in anchorage.

I think Ken Waters "Pet loads"Book has the loads info ..
I checked ,it wasnt in the Pet loads.sorry.

Data

http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/w458x2.html


Question....can the 458x2 safely be fired in a 458wm?Never heard that one before...

More

http://www.loaddata.com/member...icid=921&MW=&PM=&PT=

What a great combo.
Bigbores does not have the info and Wildcats only has info on using the 458x2 in the xp100.

Waters book does have a lot of info but using the Marlin loads is the best way to start.
Mine is built on a vz24 with a 25inch barrel that is very confortable shooting even with full house or max loads.
Good luck.
Frank

What reloading dies do you use?
I have always been interested in this round.

My 22 in. Marlin 450 gets 1960 fps with 52 gr. H322 and 400 gr. Punch bullets. I would think you could get another 150 fps. in a bolt rifle.

got to shoot my 330hp/55gr aa2230 load over a chrono today got 2100fps and shot a 3" 5 shot group at 200yds have fun Clint

Good read with pics

http://458x2american.blogspot.com/

quote:

Originally posted by blackbearhunter:
What reloading dies do you use?
I have always been interested in this round.

My gunsmith made mine from a set of Win Mag dies.
Frank

I got a set of RCbs dies with the rifle.

That is one sweet, slick, "little" rifle.

The 458x2" is a great big bore for North America.