Winchester Magnum, Taming Dangerous Game

When facing brutes, such as Cape Buffalo, the .458 Winchester Magnum has become the modern standard. Dangerous game hunters wouldn’t want to face Mbogo with anything less.

In the days when “the sun never set” on the British Empire, the colonization of vast areas on the African continent and most all of India resulted in a requirement for heavy caliber, powerful rifles and ammunition to protect the homesteads from large and often dangerous animals.

In addition, a fledgling business of outfitting and guiding foreign hunters in pursuit of these animals was developing, primarily in Kenya, but spreading throughout the continent. Rifles chambered for such exotic sounding names like .470 Nitro Express (NE), 475 #2 NE, 500 NE, and many others, along with the necessary ammunition, began showing up in both Africa and India. With few exceptions there was but one source of the necessary ammunition, and that was the UK firm called Kynoch.

Things went along just peachy for a while. Eventually, however, Kynoch learned that, as necessary as the ammunition manufacture for these big game cartridges was, they couldn’t make any money loading them. The volume requirements required to make it profitable just weren’t there, so, they did what prudent businessmen do and ceased production on most of the cartridges. This had the effect of turning lots of very handsome and very expensive firearms effectively into boat anchors. Without ammunition they were essentially useless.

In the early fifties, the Management at Olin Corp. saw an opportunity to fill the void by introducing their famous Winchester Model 70 bolt action rifle in some new chamberings, one of which was designed specifically for dangerous‑game hunting in both Africa and India. They called it the .458 Winchester Magnum.

Olin introduced it to the shooting world in 1956. It was designed to duplicate the ballistics of the .450 NE, 470 NE and other similar cartridges. Winchester engineers modified and shortened the .375 H&H cartridge case, and loaded a 500 grain bullet in front of enough powder to provide a muzzle velocity of about 2150 feet per second (FPS), basically replicating the Nitro Express cartridges ballistically.

A comparison of different .458‑caliber ammunition. From the left, 458 Winchester Magnum, 458 Lott, 460 Weatherby Magnum.

Olin then hired African Professional Hunter David Ommanney to be their “Winchester’s Man in Africa,” and followed up with a blistering advertising campaign to sell both rifles and ammunition. It became an initial success, with PHs, wardens, wildlife managers and other professionals, along with the few visiting hunters venturing to that part of the world searching for elephant, buffalo, rhino, lions, tigers, etc., arming themselves with the new development.

The .458 Winchester Magnum became the world standard dangerous‑game cartridge rather quickly, due in part to the fact that both the ammunition and rifles to shoot it were very substantially less expensive than British‑made rifles, particularly since no ammunition was being produced for them.

Alas, after a few years in the field, problems began cropping up. Muzzle velocities were often discovered to be substantially less than the advertised velocities, frequently less than 2000 fps instead of 2150, and erratic performance issues.

Winchester investigated and found that the heavily compressed loads of ball powder that they were using, had a habit of clumping together causing fickle ignition and less than desirable performance. These were not welcome attributes for a dangerous‑game rifle. Winchester addressed the problem and corrected it, but considerable damage was already done to the reputation of the cartridge.

Well known outdoor writer Jack Lott, managed to get himself into a tussle with a cape buffalo he had wounded using the .458 Win Mag. Needless to say, he didn’t win the wrestling match and was hammered pretty good. He didn’t do Winchester any favors writing about his experience in the outdoor press. As a result of his experience, he lengthened the .458 Winchester cartridge case by .300" and called his creation the .458 Lott. The added powder capacity, as well as advances in powder technology, made achieving Winchester’s goal with the Win Mag round easily achievable.

Even so, the .458 Winchester Magnum set the standard for dangerous‑game cartridges.

Most ammunition manufacturers load factory ammo for it, and most rifle manufacturers make rifles chambered for the round. In spite of past glitches with the ammo, it works and it works very well. Armed with a quality rifle chambered for the .458 Win Mag, and the ability to shoot it accurately, the hunter need fear very little in today’s hunting world.

Chapter 19

The Many Uses, Iterations of the 12‑Gauge Shotshell

With the ability to be loaded with many projectiles or just one, there are few other rounds with as much versatility as the 12‑gauge shotshell.

Perhaps the most versatile and popular cartridge on the face of the earth is the 12 gauge shotshell.

The only cartridge that I can think of that might equal it in popularity is the .22 rimfire, if there is any ammo for them left. Judging from the availability of ammo for them around my neck of the woods, feeding that popularity with ammo might be difficult. But, I digress.

Practically every hunter owns at least one 12 bore shotgun. Sport shooters shooting trap, skeet or sporting clays for entertainment or competition, likewise own one or more scattergun so chambered, usually more.

Even among non‑hunters and sport shooters, at least in my part of Kentucky during my growing up years, practically every farmhouse had a shotgun handy, usually a 12 bore. Among hunting families of that era, it was a right of passage to manhood for a young lad to graduate from the .410 or 20 bore single‑shot scattergun that he started with, to a grown up 12 bore.

At some point in our history, some bright fellow figured out that it would be much easier to hit their intended target when unleashing numerous projectiles rather than just a single one. The 12‑gauge gun could be used for single projectiles, originally round lead balls, graduating to the plethora of shaped shotgun slugs available on the market today, to an array of multiple projectile loads. From buckshot to birdshot, the scattergun uses had a large choice available to match the load to the intended target.

In addition to the ample choice of projectile loadings, the user also has a choice when it comes to the length of the 12‑gauge shell. Ammunition for the 12 bore has been loaded with shell lengths of 2", 2‑¹⁄₂", 2‑⁵⁄₈^th", 2‑³⁄₄ inch (most common), 3", and 3‑¹⁄₂ inch that I know of. It could be that a few others were loaded that I’m not aware of. Naturally, the longer the shell case, the more powder and shot it will hold, creating a more powerful round.

Wilhelm Brenneke invented the shotgun slug in 1898, which greatly improved shotgun performance for big game hunting over the round lead ball.

The military also learned early on that a short barreled, smooth bore scatter gun was just the ticket for military use at close quarters. The same thinking applied to civilian police and security guard use. There were a number of Winchester Model 97 “riot” guns in use in Vietnam. One scattergun was even used in the tussle at the OK Corral in Tombstone, wielded by none other than Doc Holliday. Practically every police cruiser has a tactical shotgun available, often carried in the trunk of the vehicle.

Quite a number of our states, usually located in densely populated areas, require a shotgun loaded with slugs for deer hunting. Wilhelm Brenneke invented the shotgun slug in 1898, which greatly improved shotgun performance for big game hunting over the round lead ball. The shotgun has evolved into quite a potent and accurate big game load.

Many shotguns designed specifically for big game hunting are equipped with rifled bore barrels and when loaded with slugs intended for use with rifled bore guns, are very accurate. They also greatly improve the effective ranges from around 40 yards or so for a hollow‑base Foster type “punkin ball” slug to 100 yards and more for saboted slugs in rifled bore guns.

A pretty good argument could be made that an individual armed with a .22 RF and a good 12 bore shotgun, is pretty much ready for most anything requiring a firearm, from defending his pea patch, to keeping food on the table.

Chapter 20

The Rise of the 5.56×45 NATO

The adoption of the .223/5.56 NATO was accepted by the U.S. Military in 1963 and was then adopted by NATO as the standard caliber in 1977.

At the time this cartridge was adopted for military use in the United States, we were in the middle of a great state of change.

WWII was over with the US forces and it’s allies finally rolling over the Nazi powers in Germany, and then ending the conflict in Asia by dropping two newly developed and terrifying bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The ink was hardly dry on the surrender documents when we found ourselves embroiled on the Korean peninsula. We were in the process of changing from piston driven aircraft to the new fangled jet technology.

The military also went through the throes of developing a new cartridge and a new rifle to handle it, and then replaced the M1 Garand chambered for the .30–06 with the M‑14 rifle chambered for the 7.62×51 NATO cartridge. About the only thing this change did that was positive, was to finally achieve a NATO standard cartridge. The other issues, those of weight, power, and rate of fire, were essentially very little different from its predecessor.

In the late 50s, the ArmaLite Company along with some others were working on a much smaller high velocity cartridge/assault rifle combination to address the shortfalls in the 7.62×51 cartridge and the M‑14 rifle. Initially they considered using the commercially available .222 Remington cartridge, but it was apparent that the cartridge was too small to meet army established requirements.

After considerable experimentation, Remington came out with a similar but larger round, calling it the .223 Remington. This cartridge, named the 5.56×45 by the military, along with ArmaLite’s M16 rifle, were adopted by the U.S. Military in 1963, and Remington introduced the civilianized version of the cartridge to the public a year later in 1964.

The military determined that an 8‑man team armed with the M16/5.56×45 combo would have the same firepower as an 11‑man team armed with the M14/7.62×51. The difference was due to the size and weight differential between the two armaments. NATO agreed in 1977 to accept the 5.56×45 round as a NATO standard, with some minor variations in loading and bullet design.

The light .223/5.56 NATO cartridge allowed soldiers more ammunition, thus allowed for an advantage in firepower.

The acceptance of the M16 and its 5.56×45 cartridge was not without controversy. Initially, the rifle was criticized frequently after its introduction to the battlefield in RVN. It had a habit of jamming at most inopportune times. Some changes were made and most of those criticisms went away.

There has been a continuing debate among the military as to the wisdom of eliminating much of the marksmanship training received by the military recruits, relying much more on firepower than on marksmanship, particularly at longer ranges.

This debate continues, but the arguments are not against the 5.56×45 cartridge per se, but more against the training and employment doctrines. Those arguments will, most likely, continue until us old timers have all died off and no one remembers long range marksmanship training as it used to be.

As a matter of interest, the 5.56×45 and the .223 Remington, while very similar, are not precisely identical. The military version is loaded to somewhat higher pressures than is the civilian version. There are some slight variations in some commercial chamber dimensions, and if the military 5.56×45 ammunition is fired in a .223 Remington chamber, SAAMI established pressure maximums can sometimes be exceeded.

While I personally have never heard of any real problems from this situation, firing military ammo in commercial .223 chambered rifles is not a good idea.