Unusual Caliber Gallagher

[gjn]

Here's a caliber you don't see very often. The 458-400 which I form by necking 475 Linebaugh brass down to .458. Believe it was born before the Linebaugh cartridges allowing one to use 300-400 grain .458 bullets. I don't see where it currently fulfills any unique purpose other than being a footnote and being unusual which is sufficient.

[kings6]

That is the second one of those I have seen that John built.

[potatojudge]

That's awesome. Advantage: you can use more standard 458 bullets. Disadvantage: necked case

The contour of those grips coming off the rear of the trigger guard is perfect.

[gjn]

From a 2011 post on this site by Bigbore.....


Handloader had a writeup on this round.
From: .458-400 Express, J. Kronfeld, Handloader #187, June 1997

This was developed as a revolver cartridge by John Gallagher for use in a recylindered Ruger Blackhawk. The goal was a 400-grain cast or jacketed bullet at 1300 fps. The .45-70 case is shortened to 1.4" and used without neck-reaming. Hodgdon H110 was the only powder that gave the performance desired, but no load data was included in the article. Ballistics were about 10% better than the .475 Linebaugh.

[gjn]

Grips are Bighorn Sheep by Rob Rowen.

[zeus]

May 7, 2020 22:20:22 GMT -5 potatojudge said:

That's awesome. Advantage: you can use more standard 458 bullets. Disadvantage: necked case

The contour of those grips coming off the rear of the trigger guard is perfect.

It’s not really a necked case. It has a very slight taper to it. I have one of a few John built with a 6 shot cylinder on a Vaquero as a lightweight. In the smaller version, you just use 480 brass now that it exist.