Took my first shot with .458 mag. ; it was a bit of a let down. I expected my arm to fall off, but it was not bad at all. I think a lot of "experts" have never shot most of the calibers they bad mouth.

well i have heard a situation simillar with my dad and his 45-70 beast. He said it shoots like our 30-30 with his loads but he went and reloaded some and came back with a really sore shoulder after 5 rounds.

I don't know about the 458, but I load and shoot a lot of rounds through my 45-70 Guide Gun. Recoil can be from moderate to brutal depending on the load and bullet weight. Even the moderate loads can give you an excedrine headache, after 10 or so rounds off the bench. A PAST shield helps immensely when benching Big Medicine! This has a lot to do with the light weight of the rifle. As the 458 is alot more gun, I rather suspect shooting this caliber out of a lighter rifle (say under 9 lbs) would be nasty, but less so if shot offhand. I'm uncertain, but I believe american production bolt action 458's are in this weight range...

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if i ever hunt somewhere far into the woods or still hunting i might want a light gun but mostly its going to be stands so i think heavy rifles are a good idea in any of these heavy beaters. kind of a mute point though since i like handgun hunting.

My Armalite .50 BMG kicks like a 12ga with 3" slugs. Not bad ehhh???? Aramlite's muzzle break is the best on the market.

My buddy has a 458 he said it has the recoil of a .270,which is nothing. I haven't shot it but will get the chance soon.

The .460Wthby is a little brutal off the bench in fact it's down right invigorating, but it's notthing that can't be tolerated much less than I expected on the first time.

i;ve shot a few of the "big guns" (450 marlin, 378 weatherby, those monster 45/70 loads from garrett and buffalo bore) and i will stick to my guns when i say that the worst kick i;ve felt is from my 3 1/2 12g with 2 1/4oz of shot. maybe it was cause i was sitting down with my back against a tree but i swore my shoulder was on the other side of that tree when i fired that gun. i read somewhere that the 3 1/2 12g has around 75ftpds of recoil. now that 378 weatherby comes in a close second but i shot that on a bench with a 5# bag of shot for "xtra" support, read in the cartridges of the world that the 585 nyati recoils about 150 footpounds, it compaired it to a nine pound rifle dropped thirty feet on your shoulder, thats something i would like to shoot, just to say i did.

Don't know if I'll ever have a need for a .458 mag. but, if I hit the lottery and go to Africa it will be a caliber I'd be comforable shooting. I'll have to admit, just looking at the size of the shell would scare away a lot of people.