Sporting Usage
As a hunting cartridge, the .460 Weatherby Magnum has a very limited role. While it is capable of taking any species of game animal, it is too powerful for most game species. As a hunting cartridge, due to its power, energy and penetration, the .460 Weatherby Magnum has a very limited sporting niche. The .460 Weatherby Magnum is primarily a thick skinned dangerous game cartridge. It is designed to provide the ultimate in stopping power against African elephant, African buffalo, hippopotamus and the rhinoceros. The .460 Weatherby Magnum when loaded to its full potential has little use outside its primary design purpose. Although the cartridge is can be used to hunt any species of game, there are far better cartridge choices which offer a greater flexibility of use when hunting big game animals.
It has more than the required energy necessary to drive 450–600-grain (29–39 g) bullets into the elephant's vital organs from any angle provided that the bullet is up to the task. Generally, elephants require solid bullets especially if one is contemplating shooting it in the brain. Monolithic bullets such as the A-Square Monolithic Solid, Barnes Banded Solid, Supreme Nosler Solid and more conventional tougher FMJ bullets such as the Hornady DGS are good choices as they are able to withstand stresses placed on the bullets by the velocity of the .460 Weatherby Magnum. At the 250 yd (230 m) mark, the .460 Weatherby has enough remaining energy and velocity to make quick kills on elephant. At this range its impact energy is comparable to that of the .458 Winchester Magnum at 65 yd (59 m) However, as elephant hunting is usually a close range affair where 90% of the shooting situations fall within 60 yd (55 m) the fact that the .460 Weatherby can fell an elephant at long ranges is mostly an academic argument at best.
Bullets in the 400–500-grain (26–32 g) range are excellent for African cape buffalo and rhinoceros. A combination of solids and expanding bullets may be used against these big game. Expanding bullets should be of the controlled expansion variety. Rapidly expanding bullets are to be avoided. A-Square Dead Tough, Barnes TSX, Hornady DGX and similar toughly constructed expanding bullets are recommended. As with the solid bullets, expanding bullets for the cartridge should be rated to perform well at .460 Weatherby velocities.
The .460 Weatherby is overly powerful for lion or leopard. Lion are thin skinned and weigh no more than 600 lb (270 kg) while leopards weigh no more than 250 lb (110 kg). When the .460 Weatherby is used for hunting leopard or lion, a rapidly expanding bullet is normally used. Bullets ideal for lion or leopard begin with the 300-grain (19 g) bullets. A-Square's Lion Load, a fragmenting 465-or-500-grain (30.1 or 32 g) soft point is one such load appropriate for the big cats. Apart from the A-Square Lion Load bullets ranging in weight from 300–400 gr (19–26 g) are better used on lion and leopard. Since the .460 Weatherby can drive these bullets at over 3,000 ft/s (910 m/s), and the large felidae are susceptible to hydrostatic shock, these lighter weight bullets in relation to the caliber may provide the best option if the .460 is chosen for the big cats. However, as no mainstream ammunition manufacturer loads these bullets, tailoring such loads for lion or leopard is strictly an option available only to the handloader or for those willing to have custom ammunition made to order.
The capability of the .460 Weatherby Magnum to hold flatter trajectories with appropriate bullets provides the cartridge the ability to take African plains game at distances beyond 250-yard (230 m) with no holdover adds to the versatility of .460 Weatherby Magnum as an all round African cartridge. However, while the .460 Weatherby has the capacity to take such game species, there can be little doubt of the fact that there are more suitable cartridge choices for these species with far less recoil than the .460 Weatherby Magnum.
The .460 Weatherby is one of the very few rifle cartridges approved by the International Whaling Commission for the harvesting of whales. The cartridge was deemed to have the penetration necessary to penetrate to the brain stem to provide a quick kill on whales. The Makah people of the Pacific Northwest have used this rifle cartridge for decades hunting whales.
While the .460 Weatherby Magnum is powerful cartridge, it cannot make up for inexperience or poor marksmanship. As with any rifle cartridge that produces heavy recoil, recovery time between subsequent shots should be taken into account when choosing such cartridges for hunting dangerous game.
North American big game does not require the full power of the .460 Weatherby Magnum. Harvesting of bison, elk, moose and brown bear can be accomplished by reducing the performance of the cartridge to match the requirements. The .460 Weatherby Magnum cartridge has the flexibility to be loaded to duplicate the performance of the .45-70 Government to the .450 Rigby. An advantage is the significantly lower recoil of such loadings.
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