I thought I knew the world's guns and cartridges fairly well until I changed my life and started this silly African hunting....now I discover that I know almost nothing about the big bores of life.

The .416 Taylor interests me even I don't know what it is. Is it a necked down .458 Win Mag?

Would someone please tell me what it is and quote some velocities with 400 grain loads please.

VD,
it's possible to runn 2300-2400, under normal pressure and barrel length with a 400 grain in this round. The oal of a necked down 458 win with a hornady sp, crimped, is 3.25, and will fit in most applications.

this round is a delight to shoot and load... easy all the way around.

there was a website for www.416taylor.com but i don't know if it's still up.

the reloading section in accurate reloading home page has loaddata, I believe.

excellent first big bore round, easy rebarrel

jeffe

It was originated by writer Bob Chatfield-Taylor. The following is from Wildcat Cartridges II John Wootters article "The .416 Taylor wildcat in Africa."

The .416 Taylor modernizes the great .416 Rigby and compresses Rigby performance into a much more compact package. Use .458 Win mag brass, necking it down to .416 caliber in one pass through RCBS sizing die, after which the shoulder is slightly blown out on first firing. No annealing or reaming necessary.

74 grains of IMR4320 is a safe maximum using 400 grain softnose bullets @ 2,375 fps from 23" barrel.

"My conclusions about the .416 Taylor wildcat, after 22 days in Botswana with it? I think it is a great cartridge, perhaps the single all-round best one-rifle African battery for any trip on which the emphasis will be on dangerous game, and especially if elephant is on the list. The .375 H&H might excel(sic) it if much long-range shooting on the plains game were contemplated, but the .416 is distinctly better on Cape Buffalo. I developed an enormous amount of confidence in and affection for the rifle. The cartridge is simple to form, easy to load, non-tempermental, extremely accurate, quite flat-shooting for such a powerhouse, and, for me at least, remarkably easy on the shoulder."

This was from a 1974 article. Much before the time of the .416 Rem mag.

[ 10-29-2003, 17:13: Message edited by: onefunzr2 ]

wow...impressive...great data and thanks guys. I also noticed the .375 Taylor and it stands toe to toe with the .375 H&H.

I have M-70 classic actions in .300 Win Mag and .338 Win Mag that are no longer useful to me since I rather use the .375 and .300 H&H cartridges. However I want a CRF action and didn't want to have to shell out for it when I'm totally capable of rebarreling my own guns...having built a couple wildcats before.

Well, with two M70's you could do all sorts of things....
There's the 425 Express, which is on the same case, but a bit bigger bore, and a little easier to reach 2400 fps with that 400g bullet.
There's also the 416 Howell, or 460 G&H short, which are off of the Jeffery case, but still the 3.34" COL. The Howell will DEFINITELY get you that 2400 fps, or more, and the G&H comes awefully close with a 500g.
Those Winchesters open up to 3.6" COL pretty easy, just with some stuff from the factory, like follower, ejector, bolt stop, etc.
It's the same action as the 375 H&H is built on.
So from there you have the 416 Remington, the 458 Lott, 470 Capstick (all based on the full-length H&H case) or 404 Jeffery and its variants (416 Dakota, 460 G&H.)
I do believe the Jeffery's .439" rim will work under most mag boltfaces' nominal .432" face. But you'd have to modify feeding moreso than with the Chatfield-Taylor or 425 Express.

Or, you could just freak out and build my as-yet unrealized 416 Rigby Unimproved, which is the Rugby case blown out at the shoulder and trimmed .05", COL 3.6" and as much powder as the Rigby.... That would take a wee more work on the feeding. But it would get you well into the "too fast for comfort" range with ease.

I will add one response to a statement made above. I was experiencing some pretty high effort needed in resizing cases until I started annealing case necks after forming. Turned out it was due to the effort of pulling the sizing button back through. The alternative would be to ream necks, but there was plenty of room in the chamber for the thicker necks. In my mind, its easier to anneal and some of the data presented by A-Square shows that it really helps hold pressures down.

vapodog,

I started the '416 Taylor WebPage' a long time ago, and am guilty of not updating it in a long time.

These days, I'm shooting strictly 370gr North Fork bullets ahead of 72grs of H4895. This is the load my rifle likes best. It has quickly killed one black bear, and took down a brown bear as the 'back-up' shot instantly.

It's barely reaching 2400fps in my 23 inch barrel, but that doesn't seem to bother the bears.

It's a worthwhile wildcat which nearly became a factory loaded cartridge. There are better .416 cartridges, but none which are so easy to build in a standard length action.

Quite frankly, since starting the webpage, there have been so many Taylor owners posting their data here, that my page is not really needed. Still, if it helps other decide whether or not to build a Taylor, I don't mind keeping it going for free on Yahoo.

Good luck!