Has anyone seen or heard of the Browning Long Action rebarreled and chambered for the 458 Win. Mag. They sell it in the 300 Winchester so it seems the action should be strong enough for the 458.

Roger

Roger---

Strength has nothin to do with it. Feeding is the problem. The 458 has no shoulder so theres's nothing but the bullet to move the case towards the chamber. Since 458s use mostly round-nosed bullets it takes a LOT of effort to wedge the cartridge up and over to feed. There isn't enough leverage in the lever to do it........and flat-nose bullets wouldn't feed at all.

JBELK,

Thanks, I knew there must be a reason. Sounds reasonable to me.

Roger

JBELK,

One other point of interest for you. Browning is chambering the 450 Marlin in the Short Action BLR. Was curious as to why, if the 450 Marlin can be cycled through with 458 slugs, the 458 Win would not. I know the 350 grain that Hornady is using isn't quite like a 500 grain round nose, but it seems that some 458 slugs would work in the long action.

Roger

I was looking at such a conversion some years back. Harry McGowen said he could do the work. I found a 7mm Rem Mag 81 and put a 458 Winchester in the magazine, it fed with no problem but of course would not enter the chamber. (I did not try it with any other rounds in the magazine below it). If you choose to continue I would try to find an old 81 with the steel receiver.

I've been wanting to rebarrel one to .358 Norma for a long time. What's stopping that? Or a .358 Norma throat and rebore on a BLR or BAR?

BTW, if you are willing to shoot em, the Barnes X .458 comes in a spire point.