ORIGINAL: bigmatty65
I own a .458 win. mag. in one of the old(tang safety) ruger 77. I have to say that as long as you shoot offhand and dont try and fire a whole box of 510 grainers the recoil is quite tolerable, more like a heavy push than a punch. With 300 grain bullets it feels like shooting a 308 and is quite effective on a whitetail. With molded round balls ive used it to shoot rabbits and even quail.
I owned a Ruger # 1 .458 Win Mag, and used 300 Gr. Handloads to take 6 deer, the recoil was minimal, and the gun shot good enough for my liking. But, the 510 Gr. Winchester Soft Points, whalloped pretty good.[&:]