The .460 S&W Magnum Bolt Action Rifle Project: Part 2: Proving the concept and making the parts list

We left off with me purchasing an SRH in .454 Casull. Before going further I wanted to make sure I liked the revolver and would be sticking with this cartridge family. Then I snagged brass. Starline Brass in .45 Colt, 454 Casull, 460 S&W Mag, and some .444 Marlin cases from Sleeping Giant Brass for the shotshells. Yes, I bought all new brass, save for the once fired .444 Marlin. Why’d I do that? I’m anal, and I don’t know if I could trust used .454 or .460 brass, who knows how many times and at what high pressures they were used with. Maybe I have more paranoia and money than common sense, I dunno…afterall I’m building a bolt action .460 S&W Bolt Action Rifle...

I also managed to snag some Hornady FTX 200 Grain 460 S&W rated factory second bullets from MidwayUSA for 24.6¢/bullet. I was going to use some plated bullets from X-Treme for my plinking rounds, but these FTXs work great in the Ruger loaded to .45 Colt and .45 Colt+P loads in the SRH without trimming the brass and will be great plinkers until they run out. To use them in .454 Casull cases in the SRH I’d have to trim them back a bit and I don’t want to do that to good brass and make it unusable for other bullets…not like I have an infinite supply of these cheap 200gr FTXs laying around…at their regular price I’m more keen on getting the XTP Mags that are proven to be effective at .454 and .460 velocities. No trimming needed to load those hollow point XTP Mags. I could load up untrimmed .454 with the FTXs for the rifle only, but I don’t want to have any .454 Casull headstamped loaded cartridges sitting around that are too long for the SRH cylinder. That’s a mistake in a pinch waiting to happen no matter how well I differentiate them, I want to keep things as simple and cross-platform as possible here.

I also walked through the instructions for .444 Marlin Shotshells and they fit and function great in the SRH! The use of .44 dies to form the mouth is handy, as it allows you to get the brass trimmed right to the cylinder length. In the Super RedHawk cylinder they have quite a bit of shot capacity. When used with a Winchester AA wad you get really close to a short .410 shell shot capacity. I won’t get into which dies, powder, or other components I use here, I’d rather focus on the project with the rifle itself now that I wrote too much about proving out the .45 caliber family to myself in the SRH.

Knowing I was going to stick with the cartridge family in my SRH I decided to move forward and spec out the parts I’d need to rebuild a Savage Short Action rifle into the .460 S&W Thumper that I wanted. I read through one man’s experiences to figure out how to do it. There was a lot I didn’t know or have the ability to do like ream a new chamber in a barrel or open up a bolt face. After finding YouTube videos I know I could put a barrel on a Savage Action as long as I get GO and NO-GO Gauges. Now I have to put it all together into a project. First, I’d need a Short Action Savage Rifle because I don’t want to modify my HOGHUNTER any further. I might as well get another HOGHUNTER as the stock already is ready for a thicker barrel that I want to order and it's the cheapest of the Savage Short Actions with AccuTrigger. I decided at first to have a custom bolt face made by Pacific Tool and Gauge as I don’t have the tooling or ability to open a bolt face myself. I’d want a slotted barrel nut to put the barrel on in case the rifle I found had a smooth one. After some research and questions to companies I settled on a Custom McGowen Barrel blank customized with a .460 S&W chamber and .578x28 muzzle threads, 16.5” long with a Varmint Profile. Short and stubby, like a beer can. That was my nickname in college. NoScars “Beer Can” ToShow ^^^^^because ^^^^^of ^^^^^my ^^^^^penis. I could easily put the prethreaded barrel on with gauges, so I decided to snag some 45 Colt (also works for .454 and .460) gauges from PTG as well. And, of course, I’d need a barrel nut wrench, some rosin to hold the barrel into wood blocks in my bench vice, and cover any other small misc parts I’m missing.

Big Bore Savage Parts	Price Estimate
Savage HOGHUNTER (new)	$500.00
Bolt Face	$150.00
Slotted Barrel Nut	$15.00
460 S&W McGowen Barrel	$450.00
GO/NoGO Gauges	$95.00
Barrel Wrench, Rosin, Misc	$75.00
Total	$ 1285

Now, I gotta start on this list somewhere, might as well be the top. Rifle Acquisition is coming up in Part 3.

Part 1: The Beginning

Part 2: Proving the concept and making the parts list

Part 3: Rifle Acquisition

Part 4: Modify Magazine for rimmed cartridges

Part 5: Ordering the custom 460 S&W Chambered barrel

Part 6: New Bolt Face

Part 7: More Fuckups and a Completed Bolt

Part 8: Fine tuning

Part 9: New Magazine

Part 10: Barrel Installation

Part 11: Test Fire

Part 12: Iron Sight selection and installation

Part 13: Optics or not?