That's interesting, xausa - thanks for the post.

I am sure many guys did fire .458's in their .450's when necessary, just as many use .45/70's in their .45/90's when necessary and as noted in some Gun Digest or gun magazine writings - maybe it was Lyman in #44 or 45?

I do not fully understand the reason for John's suggestion of the 22" twist, though - but my own first .458 2" had a 15" twist - a McGowen barrel I believe it was.

Perhaps John thought the 14" or 15" twists were too quick for a bullet that was already moving, although it was only jumping 3/10" or so - same as the jump for .45/70's in a .45/90 chamber.

With the 3/8" throats in my.458 2" chambers, allowable loads were as if the chamber's case actually 'took' a 2.3" case with a .075" throat. Of course, this increase in case capacity is useful for heavier bullets and all bullets were allowed to be seated long. If a bullet was seated short as is typical for the .45/70 in Marlin Lever guns, the bullet is actually jumping 3/8", just as it is from the .458 to the .450 Watt's, however there is no little shoulder to deal with and thus no possible bullet scraping.

My rifle shot just about as well with short seated bullets as long, it's just that the ballistics suffered from short seating due to the restricted case capacity.

The first powder I used in the .458 American was HiVel#2 and Ackley's handbook was my only loading book with that round. Now, I have a LOT of loading data for it, my own and that of several wildcat books - even loads worked out for an XP100 single shot pistol - bet that's fun to shoot - NOT.

Lott's article in the magazine stated the reasons I noted above for this chamber. I bought the magazine with the article as I was interested in his reason's why, since I was well aware of & had fired a .450 Watts &, I always read John Lott and soaked up his African hunting stories. The ability to easily fire .458's was important to John due to the possiblity of running short of ammo, or having his .450Lott ammo not make it for the hunt in Africa- he noted that .458 Mag was fairly easily obtained there.