450 Howell
Historical Notes:
The 375 Howell is one of three cartridges designed by Ken Howell, of
Stevensville, Montana. Ken's idea was to design a series of cartridges capable
of taking African game that would fit in a standard length bolt action. Ken
began his design sometime in the mid 1970's when Magnum Mauser actions were
prohibitively expensive and relatively rare. The cartridge cases of the 375
H&H Magnum and 416 Rigby were much longer than needed for efficient use with
modern smokeless powders. The 375 Howell was designed for approximately the
optimum smokeless powder capacity for its bore size. All cartridges are based on
the 404 Jeffrey case which measures .540 inch in diameter at the base versus the
.532 inch diameter of the H&H Magnum base, thus offering a fairly
substantial powder capacity in a short case. The 450 Howell is actually based on
Ken's 416 Howell which was the first of the three to be designed. The 450 was
just a necked up version. The design of these non-belted magnums is exceptional
and unfortunately was never picked up by any of the commercial cartridge
companies.
General Comments:
With about 10% increase in case capacity over the 458 Winchester
Magnum, this
cartridge can generate fully 100 fps more velocity at the same pressure and with
the same cartridge length. It has the further significant advantage of superior
accuracy potential because it headspaces on the shoulder rather than the belt
and, therefore, can be aligned better in the chamber.
Source: Cartridges of the World
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