Recognizing that most hunters today prefer a bolt action dangerous game rifle and not all are satisfied with the performance of the industry leading .458 Winchester Magnum big bore cartridge, Holland & Holland have introduced a new .465 belted magnum cartridge. The new .465 H&H Magnum is a cartridge with performance on the order of the .450 Watts Magnum or .458 Lott, but which operates at lower pressure and is designed specifically for the extreme heat of the sub-Saharan African hunting environment.

The .465 uses the same .468", 480 grain bullets as Holland's successful .465 Nitro Express elephant rifle cartridge for double rifles. The new .465 H&H case is based on the oversize .378 Weatherby case. It uses a .603" diameter rim and belt. Overall case length is 2.894" and the standard cartridge overall length is 3.50". These dimensions are based on drawings released by H&H.

The factory loaded bullets are to be supplied by Woodleigh of Australia. These will be the same 480 grain solid and Weldcore soft point bullets sold to reloaders and used in .465 NE factory loads. The sectional density of these bullets is .318, and the ballistic coefficient is .407-.410.

Holland & Holland factory load ballistics call for a 480 grain bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2375 fps and ME of 6013 ft. lbs. At 100 yards the figures are 2143 fps and 4905 ft. lbs. These ballistics pertain to a rifle with a 24" barrel.

Holland & Holland trajectory tables, computed for a rifle with a telescopic sight mounted 1.5" over the bore, show that if a .465 H&H rifle is zeroed at 175 yards, the bullet will deviate no more than 2" above or below the line of sight from the muzzle to 200 yards.

At the present time I can find no reloading data for the .465 H&H Mag. Presumably, powders that work well in the .458 Lott would also work in the .465. These would include H335, H4895, IMR 4064, IMR 4320, RL-15, and rifle powders of similar burning rate.

Note: A full length article about the .465 H&H Magnum can be found on the Rifle Cartridge Page.