is 97% of the lott good?

thats what you get when you do a 2.65" 450 ackley from my guess

almost 107 grains capacity.

or 104 for the 2.65' unimproved lott

you could still shoot factory 458 win mag ammo.

all this in a 3.34" magazine.

the unimproved 2.65" splits the difference between the lott and the win mag

just trim lott/h+h brass and fire form






above 450 ackley brass

figure 25fps off the lott or 500 @ 2275

i know...why bother

Yet another exercise in Mole-hill Mountaineering.

Just buy a Lott and be done with it. Or a 458 Winnie if you insist on a short magnum based action. Handloading is fun to a point, but I prefer shooting to loading and it sucks to spend more than about an hour at the load bench. The more complex you make your brass making and loading operations, the more time you'll spend at the bench instead of out at the range. Handloading is a means to an end for me - and one I like to automate and get done just as darn rapidly as I can.

yes i agree...this is more a what can be done than should be done...just thought it was interesting that a 2.65" 450 ackley can almost do what the lott can and still use win mag ammo.

Uhh, the 450 Ackley case that I know of is 2.85" long (full length of H&H belted brass), and then has minimum case taper so that you end up with a very small shoulder before the neck. This results in the largest of the 458 caliber cases based on the 375 H&H. The 458 Watts is very similar to the Lott, just being left full length (again 2.85") instead of slightly shortened to 2.80" like the Lott. The Lott was shortened so that it could be trimmed to square up the case mouth after being expanded, and in case being expanded left the case a little shorter than it should be. Really no practical difference between the Lott and the older Watts as bullets are seated to the same COL. The Ackley is different, and due to the change in case taper you can't shoot 458 Win Mag in an Ackley chamber the way you can in a Watts or Lott chamber.

CMcDermott is correct in that the Acley is a 2.85-inch case. The Ackley will quite comfortably (we're not talking the shooter's comfort here!) attain 2400 fps with a 500 grain bullet. I've loaded mine with 550 grain Woodleigh softs and solids and am hoping for 2200 fps +. Seen here alongside the .458 win mag.......

yes i am aware that the ackley is 2.85"

what i thought was why not a 2.65" ackley version for getting within 25 fps of the lott on a smaller action.

i think the best thing to do with a 458 win mag except do a 458 a.r. is to rechamber for a lott and use 45-70 bullets and use factory 458 win mag ammo loaded to max oal when needed.

a slight ream job and you can push heavy 45-70 bullets out at dg speeds...verrrrrrry cheap to shoot. use win mag dies...cheapx3

that said i think a 2.65" 450 ackley that can shoot factory 458 ammo is cool too.

At 2.65-inches it ain't an Ackley anymore! You could call it the .450 stumpy!

that is my point...a new wildcat in the ackley spirit but in a std win mag action that can shoot factory ammo and is 97% of the lott.
at 2.65" it will max out the brass and oal. and can shoot win mag in a pinch.

But can we call it the .450 Stumpy??

i like "STOMPY" better...it would stomp like the lott.

Okay, I'm willing to compromise!

500 @ 2275 is enough...
impact velocity 2250 in d.g. distances.

here is a badly photoshoped version of the 450 "stompy"

But boom, that is a not fired case. Fireformed, it has a shoulder...and a belt.......

i dont think 10 thou counts as a shoulder... but you are one of the people who agree belts and shoulders dont mix

olive oil shoulder maybe...

can someone tell me how much shoulder a fired 450 ackley has??? thanks.