I have a stainless steel single shot rifle with a 28 inch half octagon half round barrel the rifle is chambered in 458 Norma mag. Have any of you ever heard of the 458 Norma mag.? It takes 375 H&H basic brass full length. As close as I could measure the chamber without taking a chamber cast is about 2.92" brass length. A fired case has no ghost shoulder. I've cronographed 300 grainers at 3,000 fps and 500 grainers at 2,570 fps. It has the smoothest bore I've ever seen in a rifle and the 28 inch barrel add up to the extra velocity.I suspect that
this is a one of a kind wildcat similar to the 450 watts. Yes I love this rifle!!!

Hello Rod.
You said it takes 375 H&H full length cases?!
Is'nt that the same as 458 Lott?

I have never heard of 458 Norma Mag. as a name.

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Shoot well, and hit hard.

Arild.

MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT AT ONE TIME NORMA MADE SOME .458 FULL-LENGTH "BASIC CASES" FOR PEOPLE TO USE FOR OTHER CARTRIDGE DESIGNS BY NECKING, OR SHORTENING, TRIMMING DOWN, ETC., but these were not a specific chambering. However, it is possible that someone made a reamer to use them "as is", for a .458 cartridge case longer than the .458 Win., and maybe you have a rifle so chambered???

What action is that rifle?

In P.O. Ackley's "Handbook for Shooters and Handloader" he refers to the .450 Mashburn Magnum as being made by using cylindrical Norma Magnum Cases. However, I believe that the Mashburn like the 450 Ackley both had ghost shoulders.

However, both the 450 Watts and the 458 Lott don't. The original design length of the Watts was slightly longer that the Lott. However, if you read the reamer specifications for the 458 Lott from Clymer, the length is 2.85".

Good Hunting
Steve

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Every man dies, but not every man really lives!!

[This message has been edited by Santala (edited 08-05-2001).]

You mention that it used full length .375 H&H brass. I believe, the the cylinder brass
that I had was slightly shorter than 2.85 which is the max length for the .375 H&H
If it is indeed 2.92" an unusual case size
George

Thank you for all your post. I can see from that I need to make a chamber cast to correctly measure the chamber area to come up with the correct dimensions of the length of the case. I read member Eldeguello's post and that was my understanding that Norma imported 458 belted basic brass at one time that was over length, and like he said the rifle probably used it untrimmed but I don't know what the length was at that time. also in the Africa big game section a member bobby van der Putten mentioned a 458 Norma Special that I am unfamiliar with while he was talking about the 458 lott cartridge. I wonder if it might be similar to my cartridge?
Thank's again.....Rod

quote:

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Originally posted by Rod in Oregon:
...understanding that Norma imported 458 belted basic brass at one time that was over length,

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Brad Dixon's book on European Sporting Cartridges (p 251) indicates that, at the request of Phil Sharpe, in 1953, Norma produced the basic- belted case with hs of 'NORMA Re' over 'SPECIAL'. They discontinued it in 1962-63. It was a 12x72mm belted. captn