450 Watts
I have a model 70 receiver with a barrel chambered for .450 Watts. I was told that I could shoot .458 Lott and .458 Win. Mag. through this gun. Does anyone know this to be true?[?]
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http://www.chuckhawks.com/450Watts.htm
The .458 Lott and .450 Watts Mag. - Excerpt
By Chuck Hawks
These are a pair of .45 caliber elephant rifle cartridges based on the long .375 H&H Magnum case necked-up to accept .458" bullets. Ballistically, the .450 Watts Magnum and .458 Lott are essentially identical. The .458 Winchester Magnum is also based on the .375 H&H case, but shortened to work in a standard (.30-06 length) bolt action rifle. The Watts and Lott cartridges both require rifles with a long (.375 H&H length) "magnum" action.
Because the .458 Winchester Magnum is essentially a shortened version of these longer .375 H&H based rounds, .458 Win. Mag. cartridges can safely be fired in both .450 Watts and .458 Lott rifles. (Since the .450 Watts is a wildcat, and not a standardized caliber, this may not be true of all .450 Watts rifles and chambers.) However, the .450 Watts and .458 Lott cartridges are not interchangeable with each other.
The .458 Lott was standardized by A-Square, who produces both rifles and ammunition in the caliber, as well as brass and bullets for reloaders. Hornady also offers factory loaded ammunition in .458 Lott, and supplies brass and bullets to reloaders.
A-Square factory loads claim a MV of 2380 fps and ME of 5848 ft. lbs. from their Triad of 465 grain bullets. Hornady loads a 500 grain RN bullet at a MV of 2300 fps and ME of 5872 ft. lbs. At 100 yards the velocity of the Hornady load is 2022 fps and the energy 4537 ft. lbs.; at 200 yards the velocity is 1776 fps and the remaining energy 3502 ft. lbs.
According to the sixth edition of the Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading 65.3 grains of H322 powder will drive their 350 grain RN or FP bullets to a MV of 2300 fps. This would be a useful load for any North American big game. A maximum load of 90.0 grains of H322 will drive the same bullets to a MV of 2700 fps.
The Hornady 500 grain RN (soft point) and FMJ-RN (solid) bullets can be driven to a MV of 1900 fps by 67.1 grains of H322 powder. A maximum load of 79.3 grains of H322 will drive those bullets to a MV of 2200 fps.
Note: The complete article about the .450 Watts Mag. and .458 Lott can be found in its entirety on the Rifle Cartridge Page.
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http://www.chuckhawks.com/useful_wildcat.htm
.450 Watts/.458 Lott
The .450 Watts, designed by Watts and Anderson around 1950, is simply the belted .375 H&H Magnum case necked-up to accept .458 inch bullets. This is what Winchester did when they created the .458 Winchester Magnum a few years later, only they trimmed the .458's case to a length of 2.5 inches and specified an overall cartridge length of 3.34 inches so that their .458 would fit in rifles with standard length actions. The .450 Watts requires a long "magnum" length action. As it happens, in a pinch .458 Win. Mag. factory loads can safely be fired in .450 Watts rifles.
The .450 Watts case is a long, straight taper, rimless design. Like the .375 H&H parent case it has a a belt and a standard magnum diameter rim of .530 inch. At the head the body diameter is .513 inch and the body tapers to a neck diameter of .481 inch. The case is 2.85 inches long, and the overall cartridge length is 3.65 inches.
About 20 years later (In 1971) Jack Lott basically reinvented the .450 Watts under his own name. Lott was an adventurer (perhaps mercenary), gun fancier, and wildcatter who had been tossed by a Cape Buffalo while armed with a .458 Win. Mag. rifle. The experience made him bitter about the Winchester Magnum's "lack of power" and the .458 Lott was his response. Either he didn't know about the .450 Watts or he didn't care.
The .458 Lott is also based on an (almost) full length, straight taper, .375 H&H Magnum case necked up to accept .458" diameter bullets. The rim, belt, body and neck dimensions are identical to the .450 Watts. The case length is given by A-Square as 2.8 inches and the overall cartridge length as 3.6 inches. I guess that shortening a .450 Watts case .05 inch makes it into a .458 Lott case. A-Square gives a maximum average pressure of 62,409 (piezo) psi. And, like the earlier .450 Watts, standard .458 Win. Mag. cartridges can be fired in a .458 Lott chamber.
Because the long .450 Watts/.458 Lott case has a greater powder capacity than the shortened .458 Win. Mag. case, somewhat higher velocity can be obtained with all bullet weights. They can drive a 400 grain bullet at a MV of 2550-2650 fps, or a 500 grain bullet at a MV of 2350-2450 fps. These velocities exceed the capability of the .458 Win. Mag. by about 200 fps, with consequently greater energy and killing power. Clearly the .450 Watts (or Lott) is capable of taking all of the thick-skinned dangerous game in the world, and the cartridge has seen considerable use in Africa for that purpose.
A-Square loads factory ammunition head stamped ".458 Lott" that offers a trio of 465 grain bullets, all at a MV of 2380 fps with 5848 ft. lbs. of ME. At 100 yards those bullets are still traveling at 2150 fps and carrying 4773 ft. lbs. of energy, about what the A-Square .458 Win. Mag. load generates at the muzzle with the same bullet.
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do;the fun is having lots to do and not doing it.0
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