.460 Weatherby Magnum

The .460 Weatherby Magnum is a rifle cartridge, developed by Roy Weatherby in 1958. It is simply the .378 Weatherby Magnum necked up to accept the 11.6 mm (.458 inch) bullet. This case is now made commercially from virgin brass. The original .378 Weatherby Magnum case was based on a belted version of the .416 Rigby.

Background
The .460 is one of the world's most powerful rifle cartridges, in terms of both velocity and bullet weight. The .460 will launch a 32 gram (500 grain) bullet at a chronographed 823 m/s (2700 ft/s) from a 66 cm (26 in) barreled rifle; measuring 10980 J (8100 ft · lbf) of muzzle energy.

Recoil is a problem for many shooters when using a cartridge of this size. Even with a 5.4 kg (12 lb) rifle (scope, base, rings and cartridges included) the recoil against the shooter's shoulder is measured at 135 Joule (100 foot-pounds). Compare this to most rifles chambered in .30-06 Springfield which develop an average of 27 J (20 ft · lbf) of free recoil. Recently Weatherby has "toned-down" the loadings of the .460, to the 10170 J (7,500 ft · lbf ) of muzzle energy range to be slightly more forgiving to shooters. The recoil of the full-power loads is very punishing and if the gun has a scope, scope cuts on the forehead are common. For that reason, many gun owners reload their cartridges with a lighter-than-factory charge. A factory powder charge for this cartridge is about 7.45 g (115 gr).

The .460 is primarily an elephant gun and might also be equipped with only open sights. Open sights tend to sight in quicker than scoped rifles and for this reason open sighted rifles are preferred by hunters for back-up work—when the hunter and/or guide must mount and discharge their firearm to ensure a charging game animal does not hurt a client or ensure a clean kill of a wounded game animal.

This cartridge is very accurate despite its size. Typically a full metal jacketed or monolithic solid type bullet will penetrate more than 1 m (36in) when impacting a dangerous game animal such as the Cape Buffalo or African Elephant. The .460 Weatherby Magnum has few peers for stopping dangerous African game. Many hunters and guides carry this firearm exclusively for back-up work.

Factory bought cartridges are relatively expensive costing between $4.00 and $5.50 per cartridge.

Categories
Cartridge:rifles