B & R Photography

Now I don’t know about you but when I think of big heavy magnum cases filled with lots of powder and big heavy projectiles I think of Roy Weatherby. The man has created a ton of amazing cartridges over the years. One of the biggest in my collection has to be the .460 Weatherby Magnum.

When the .460 Weatherby Magnum was designed it became the most powerful commercially available hunting cartridge for 29 years. Which should tell you something especially when you find out that the cartridge that took its crown was a 700 Nitro.

The .460 Weatherby Magnum was essentially a .378 Weatherby Magnum case necked up to accept a .458” projectile. Which when you think about it and compare the two is quite the neck up. Roy Weatherby designed this case back in 1957. Commercial ammunition started to be produced in 1959 and is still available today along with brass and other reloading components.

Designed to be used on thick skinny dangerous game in Africa after the .378 Weatherby Magnum was not doing as good as he thought it would in Africa. Alongside the need for a .40 caliber projectile within some countries and regulations for animals like elephants, African Cape buffalo and rhinoceros. So, in came the .460 Weatherby Magnum

Being that the .460 Weatherby Magnum is a monster of a case it must shoot a monster of a projectile. Weatherby’s website gives you 3 options for projectiles. 450gr Barnes TSX, 500gr Hornady DGS and a 500gr Hornady DGXB. All three make for one heck of a payload on target.

As far as trajectory goes the when using a 500gr DGS loading at the muzzle you get a velocity of 2,600 fps and an energy of 7,505 ft/lb. Which is quite allot more than cartridges in the same caliber. You will get the following drop with this cartridge when zeroed at 100 yards:

200 Yards: 5.1 inches of drop.

500 Yards: 81.9 inches of drop.

1000 Yards: 667.2 inches of drop.

(Please note the above trajectory information was pulled from https://www.hornady.com/team-hornady/ballistic-calculators/#!/standard )

With a projectile that big it’s amazing that it’s still traveling at 1359 fps when you get out to 500 yards.

Short Notes.

Official Name: .460 Weatherby Magnum. (.460 Weatherby.)

Year Designed: 1957

Designed by: Roy Weatherby

Parent Case: .378 Weatherby Magnum

Rifling Twist Rate: 1 in 16”

Maximum Point-Blank Range: 245 yards. (With the Factory 500gr Loading.)

I hope you enjoyed this brief overview of the .460 Weatherby Magnum and will return next week for our Cartridge of the Week series.

Please remember to always practice safe muzzle control when dealing with firearms and happy shooting.

B