Ready...Aim...Read On!

Seen above is Tom Bischoff firing his stainless steel Marlin 60S-CF
Caliber .22LR at the Circle S Ranch & Outdoor Shooting Range in Petaluma, California

The Conversation Topping Whetherby .460 Magnum
Before we return to the world of large caliber custom nitros, let us look briefly at another solid, heavy caliber and beautifully built rifle — the .460 Weatherby Magnum. No real true Saturday jaw session on heavy caliber rifles is ever complete without mention of this superb beauty built of chrome-moly or stainless steel forging, button or hammer-forged barrels, steel reinforced stocks of walnut complemented with rosewood and maplewood embellishments and a wood to metal fit of absolute perfection. It also lays claims to having one of the strongest actions in the world.

"The Mark V receiver is made from a single chrome-moly or stainless steel forging and incorporates an integral recoil lug...Instead of two massive locking lugs the Mark V Magnum's forged and machined bolt has nine small ones arranged in groups of three. The total shear area is much greater than with two conventional lugs, and the arrangement and spacing allows a short 54 degree bolt lift."   [9]

I've noticed that conversations regarding the Weatherby tend to follow along the lines of it's hard hitting .460 caliber cartridge, whereas, I am partial to the symmetry and style of it's design. But it is to the cartridge that our "mui macho" conversation must go and what a conversation piece it is. The .460 round is simply a .378 Weatherby Magnum that has been necked up to accept a .458 inch, 500-grain bullet containing a ( factory ) powder load of approximately 115 grains in a belted bottleneck case. In this configuration, the bullet achieves a velocity of 2,700 feet per second when fired from a 26-inch barrel and has a measured muzzle energy of 8,100 foot pounds. And as long as we're throwing numbers around like Las Vegas dice, the recoil force over the center point of the butt stock is around 100 foot pounds, which is the reason for fitting the rifle with a Weatherby Accubrake muzzle brake or handloading the cartrige with lighter charge. The .460 can also be purchased with a bullet of 300-450 grain weight. In an article for Guns & Ammo, Stan Skinner noted that loading the .460 case "with a 350-grain Barnes X-Bullet (BC .402) seated over a max load of Varget or H380, launches at about 2,950 fps. This gives it a somewhat flatter trajectory than a .222 Remington, and it ought to be fairly effective on most prairie poodles."   [10]

The .460 in Action
Before we return to our historical journey, let us first watch some videos of various folks firing various calibers of firearms, from the .460, 4-bore to the nitros.

The 4-Bore Double Rifle with 2000gr Jacketed Bullets

The .500 Nitro & .500 Jeffery in Action

The .600 Nitro in Action

The .700 Nitro in Action