I got a chance to test the 458 Arnold today. I formed the brass by fire forming 416 Rem Mag cases with 12gr of Bullseye and some cream of wheat. Finished cases come out looking like a 458 Lott, but .050 longer. I loaded up 20 rounds with a full charge of Ramshot TAC and a 500 gr Hornady RN. Next up was to mount a VX-3L 3.5-10x50 and head off to the woods.
Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate as well as I wanted. I got the scope zeroed but that was about it before the rains came. Groups were in the 1.5" range and about 2120 fps. Not a bad start. Next up is to get my hands on some 450gr TSX bullets and see what they can do.
I also took out the new Terrapin range finder to see what kind of trouble we could get into. From where we were, we got ranges on rocks and stumps all over the other hillside ranging from 1050 yards to 3509 yards. Even when the fog and rain moved in we could range about as far as we could see, still getting readings past 1800 yards. Unfortunately the longest shot was at a rock "only" 1059 yards away. I got on in 3 shots with the 375 BME holding 6.5 MIL and my buddy was on in the same number of shots with his 300 WSM holding 7.3 MIL. The difference between hitting with the 208 A-Max and a 350gr MK was spectacular. His 208s made a splash. The 350s made a crater.
The rain shut us down pretty quick, but it was still a pretty good trip. Plus we rolled through a small little gun shop called Firemaster's Firearms and picked up some powder. He had 2 8# jugs of H1000 (I took one and thought about taking the other) 6 1# cans of H1000, 18# of Varget, and a ton of other powders. That alone was worth the trip!
Andrew
