There is a case for the 458 Win Mag, if loaded properly, but it is inferior to the 458LOTT, regardless how it is loaded! The Lott is what the 458 Win Mag should have been in the first place! I have never understood folks fascination for the so-called standard length action in preferance to the Magnum length action. There is no advantage to the shorter action, in my view!

The 458 was designed to match the 450NE 3 1/4" double rifle round, and It did not in it's new round days, and to do so today it must use 102% load capacity to get what it does today. To me, this doesn't make sense, the lott is simply a longer cased 458 win mag, giveing it the powder capacity it needs to opperate properly with a 500 gr bullet. If one loads the lott to 458 advertized speeds with a 500 gr bullet in the lott case, the recoil is no different from the 458 win mag.

In any event,the 458 is a much better performer with a 450, or 480 gr bullet, so powder doesn't have to be compacted. If the bullets are seated out where they don't compact the powder, the rifle must be throated out farther, and the box magazine needs lengthening as well, so there goes you standard length action!

I have owned several 458 Win Mag rifles over the years, and if loaded properly work fine, but that is not to say they can't be improved with more powder capacity. I have a brand new, Ruger No1H 458 win mag that is unfired, and I have had to for two years. It is standing by to be re-chambered to 458 Lott, as we speak. That will still let me shoot 458 Win Mag in it, if the need arrises!