450-400 Nitro Express 3”
Although this was one of John Taylor's favorite African cartridges for larger game, even dangerous game, including Cape buffalo, there hadn't been much newsworthy activity involving it in recent years. That is, until Hornady began producing excellent loaded ammunition and loading components for it in the past decade, and Ruger began to offer it in their classic No. 1 Rifle. Generally, African hunters have thought of the 450/400 as a double-rifle cartridge, and even the
404 Jeffery
Every now and then, I'm tempted to call the Bunco Squad and sic 'em on the speakeasy where the gun writers hang out. "The 404 Jeffery is the parent case of the new beltless magnums." Where does this crap come from? One person says it and it becomes fact? Let's get serious…
The 404 Jeffery case essentially came from
416 Taylor
In the late 1950s, Winchester came out with the 264, 338, and 458 Winchester Magnums. In 1962, Remington used the same cartridge case for the 7mm Remington Magnum. The case is essentially the basic belted number that has been around since 1912 as the 375 H&H Magnum but, instead of being left full length at 2.82 to 2.85 inches (depending on
416 Weatherby Magnum
It was a lot of years ago, during a visit with Steve Hornady and others at their facility in Grand Island, Nebraska, that Steve handed me a prototype 400-grain, round nose, 0.416" bullet. "We're working on this now" he said, and told me to keep it. I did, and still have that early version of an entirely new caliber for them in a watch chest on my dresser. Steve was pumped about the
458 Winchester Magnum
Hardly any cartridge has had so much bad press over the past couple of decades. At first, the relatively compact 458 Winchester Magnum went to Africa and performed splendidly. It compared pretty much across the board with several older British cartridges. At greater pressure in a smaller case, the belted 458 could be racked through a Winchester Model 70 to nicely handle Cape buffalo and anything else. Here was an affordable combination that put a dangerous game safari into the
460 Weatherby Magnum
There's a pile of people who have written comments and opinions about the 460 Weatherby Magnum, and most of them head off in the direction of whiny complaints. Too powerful. Too loud. Too much recoil. African guides don't like them. Blah, blah, blah. My thoughts are that the vast majority of the writers have never seen, let alone fired, a 460. I also suspect that there have been at least a few amateur hunters who have gone to
505 Gibbs
The 505 Gibbs is a remarkably well designed cartridge, especially so when considering that it was designed in 1911. George Gibbs initially called it the 505 Rimless Nitro Express, and it was intended to provide major-league dangerous-game stopping power in a bolt-action rifle. Until that time, several large, rimmed, Nitro Express cartridges had been doing the job in double rifles. This was quite a