The .458 Express is a .458 diameter (

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...

) cartridge developed in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It is also referred to as the .458 3-inch. Other .458 cartridges are the very popular

.458 Lott The .458 Lott is a .458 caliber rifle cartridge designed for the purpose of hunting large, thick-skinned dangerous game animals in Africa. It is based on the full length .375 H&H Magnum case blown out and shortened to . The .458 Lott was des ...

.458 Winchester Magnum The .458 Winchester Magnum is a belted, straight-taper cased, big five game rifle cartridge. It was introduced commercially in 1956 by Winchester and first chambered in the Winchester Model 70 African rifle. It was designed to compete against t ...

and 450 Watts. Weatherby made the .460 Weatherby which is still one of the fastest commercial cartridges available on the market in this category. This unique cartridge originated in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, accommodating harsh African conditions, and less efficient South African rifle powders. It has a broad spectrum of reloading options and is capable of long-range, flat trajectory shooting, or close-up Big Five hunting shots, using the heaviest of

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and co ...

s available in this

Development

A range of .458 caliber cartridges have been developed since the 1950s; the .458 Express being developed in 2000 . The .458 Express is developed in South Africa by Professor Koos Badenhorst of

Haenertsburg Haenertsburg is a village situated on the edge of the Great Escarpment in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, on the R71 road between Polokwane (formerly: ''Pietersburg'') and Tzaneen en route to the Kruger National Park. Farming and tourism ...

in the

Limpopo province Limpopo is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while th ...

Technical information

The case

The .458 Express uses a straight wall belted case as seen in the

(458 Win Mag). The case length is compared to the of the

and the case of the

. See "Cartridges of the World - 10th Edition"

Case Capacity

The volume of water contained in a .458 Express case is 111 grains compared to the 103 grains of the

and 92 grains of water in the

case.

Caliber

.458 diameter bullets are used in the .458 Express. The .458 Express is described by K Robertson in "Africa's Most Dangerous". He is also the author of "The Perfect Shot".

Permission

All rights for publication was obtained from Prof. Koos Badenhorst as the developer and architect of the .458 Express.

The .458 Express Story

Author: Werner Booysen. In this book the history of the .458 Express, development of the caliber and other interesting information are discussed.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20180123113335/http://www.458express.com/ * http://www.rhinobullets.co.za

{{DEFAULTSORT:458 Express Pistol and rifle cartridges