Magnum Pistol

Lore & Background

Roy Weatherby had expected the .378 Weatherby Magnum to make some headway in the African continent but believed that his cartridge was being bypassed for low-velocity, big-bore cartridges by professional hunters who he felt were resistant to change. Furthermore, new regulations prohibiting the hunting of heavy, thick skinned, dangerous game with sub-.40 caliber (10.16 mm) cartridges were being enacted in some African countries. These regulations would essentially ban the use of all previous Weatherby cartridges for the hunting of elephant, African Cape buffalo and rhinoceros. In response to these factors, Weatherby believed that it was necessary to provide hunters a Weatherby cartridge that could be used to hunt African dangerous game in the countries which had legislated against hunting with sub-.40 caliber rifles. He accomplished this by necking up the .378 Weatherby Magnum case to accept a .458 caliber bullet. He named the new cartridge the ".460 Weatherby Magnum". The first rifles for the .460 Weatherby Magnum were built on Brevex Magnum Mauser action. However, Weatherby was not the first cartridge designer to neck up the .378 Weatherby Magnum to .45 caliber (11.6 mm). That distinction belongs to John Buhmiller, a gunsmith and hunter from Montana. Buhmiller named his cartridge the ".45 Weatherby". He had success with the cartridge in Africa shooting Cape buffalo and rogue elephants in 1956, a year before Weatherby began work on his own .45-caliber cartridge.

In Their Own Story

Officer Chen's hand trembled as he leveled the Magnum at the shambling figure. The pistol's weight was a familiar comfort, but the creature before him was not. It had been his partner. The shot echoed through the corridor, the round punching through the hybrid's chest with a wet thud. It kept coming. Chen fired again, the slide slamming back each time, until the magazine ran dry and the slide locked open on an empty chamber. The creature paused, tilted its head as if confused, then lunged. Chen didn't even have time to scream.

Reader's Guide

The .460 Weatherby Magnum is very accurate despite its size. Weatherby guarantees a 1.5 MOA (44mm/100m) accuracy for this cartridge in a Weatherby rifle. Typically a full-metal-jacketed or monolithic solid type bullet will penetrate more than 40 in (1.0 m) 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. Compared to its contemporaries, the 460 Weatherby Magnum has more energy at 150 yards than the .458 Winchester Magnum does at the muzzle and at 100 yards more energy than the .458 Lott with factory ammunition. The .460 Weatherby Magnum provides a significant step up in performance over other production .458 caliber (11.6 mm) cartridges. The increased performance is realized in terms of both remaining energy and extended range. The maximum point blank range (MPBR) for the 450-grain (29 g) Weatherby load is 258-yard (236 m). The 500-grain (32 g) Weatherby factory ammunition has a maximum point blank range of 245-yard (224 m).

Did You Know?

• The .460 Weatherby Magnum was the world's most powerful commercially available sporting cartridge for 29 years until the advent of the .700 Nitro Express.
• The cartridge was developed by Roy Weatherby in 1957, based on the .378 Weatherby Magnum necked up to accept a .458-inch bullet.
• John Buhmiller, a gunsmith from Montana, necked up the .378 Weatherby Magnum to .45 caliber a year before Weatherby, naming his cartridge the ".45 Weatherby".
• The .460 Weatherby Magnum launches a 500-grain bullet at 2,700 ft/s from a 26-inch barrel, producing 8,100 ft⋅lbf of muzzle energy.
• SAAMI established voluntary specifications for the .460 Weatherby Magnum in January 1994, meaning it is no longer considered a proprietary cartridge.