John Taylor was very happy with a .450 BPE for Lion with light soft bullets in the 340gr. range, and up to 540gr. hardened bullets with a mere 75gr. BP for Elephant. He remarked on the effectiveness of these loads quite favourably.
: The .450BPE was no pipsqueak by any means & was well thought of in Africa.
: As an aside, it can be duplicated using a Winchester or Marlin lever action rifle chambered for the .45 Colt revolver round, as long as you use RP brass and W680 powder, which is no longer available. Hodgdon bought the remaining tons of W680, renamed it to H116 and some retailers may still have some. It is a full 300fps faster than W296, in this round with heavy (for ctg) cast bullets.
; My own 16" bl. achieved the .450BPE's 1,740fps with a 340 gr. cast bullet, sized .452", safely, at under 34,000CUP. Believe me, this is no pipsqueak load and worked splendidly on elk for me - fun, it certainly was.