The author with a whitetail taken on the famed Milk River of Montana, dropped with the .405 Win. |
By Larry Weishuhn
The .405 Winchester was introduced in 1904, the same year Theodore Roosevelt was re-elected President. The large rimmed cartridge was developed for the Winchester Model 1895 lever-action rifle, which became a favorite of Roosevelt's. He called it his "big medicine" gun.
Teddy not only used the straight-walled round on elk, moose and bears in North America; he and his son, Kermit, also considered it their "go to" cartridge for hunting dangerous game. In Africa, they used their .405s to dispatch charging Cape buffalo, rhinos, lions and leopards. Hair-raising accounts of those hunts contributed greatly to the success of the rifle.
Those were the days of Martin and Osa Johnson, producers of the "I Married Adventure" travel and hunting films. They swore by their .405 Winchesters, too, using them to stop many a charge of dangerous African game. In India, Charles Cottar, a renowned hunter of "man-eating" tigers, also saw the value of the Big Medicine gun and switched to it from the .32 Winchester.
There were no chronographs in those days, but it is believed the original 300-grain commercial load pushed the .411-diameter bullet out of the barrel at about 2,200 fps. Interestingly, modern .405 factory cartridges aren't any faster. Both the 300-grain flat point and 300-grain spire point exit the bore at 2,200 fps. Hornady is the only U.S. manufacturer that offers .405 Win cartridges.
For almost 30 years, the .405 remained the most powerful round chambered in an American-made firearm. Then in the early 1930s, Winchester introduced its Model 70 bolt-action rifle in .375 H&H Magnum. About that time, the age of the lever action started fading. When the Winchester Model 1895 became obsolete in 1936, the .405 Win all but disappeared with it.
The .405 Win has returned, thanks to the reintroduction of the Winchester Model 1895 lever-action rifle. |
In the 10th Edition of "Cartridges of the World," Frank C. Barnes had some interesting things to say about the big round. "The .405 Winchester is the most powerful rimmed cartridge ever developed for the lever action rifle," he wrote. "It is adequate for any North American big game at short to medium range and has been used successfully in Africa on all species."
Barnes added that Theodore Roosevelt thought very highly of the .405 as a lion cartridge. "However, John Taylor in his excellent book, 'African Rifles and Cartridges,' rates it as a poor choice when compared to other available calibers for African use."
Adequate? Poor choice? With all those factors against it, why the renewed interest in the "obsolete" cartridge?
A big reason was the reintroduction of the Winchester Model 1895 rifle several years ago. Made in Japan, that rifle is still being produced in limited runs by the U.S. Repeating Arms Co. But another reason for the .405's rebirth was a renewed interest in classic firearms and ammo among hunters and shooters. Many sportsmen, including me, are fascinated with hunting with replicas of the firearms and ammo that our ancestors carried.
There was a time when I felt the need to hunt with the fastest and newest cartridges, but those feelings have long since passed. The older I get and the more experienced I become, the more I find myself using cartridges that are at least 100 years old, or nearly so. I dearly love the .30-06 Springfield, 7x57 Mauser, .45-70 Government and .405 Winchester. Perhaps it has something to do with nostalgia, but also because these are proven hunting cartridges. But that's not to say I'm going to give up my .375 H&H Mag and a few other favorite modern rounds, like the .300 Win Mag or the .338 Win Mag.
I started seriously hunting with a .405 Win Encore rifle in 2004. I'd decided that I wanted to hunt a free-ranging buffalo. For a while, I considered using a .45-70, but I wanted something different. After doing a bit of research, I settled on the .405. I loved the fact that it had been a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt's and that Hornady had just started producing .405 ammo again. I contacted Thompson/Center Arms and asked the company to make an Encore barrel in .405 Win. It since has become a standard in the T/C barrel line.
The .405 Win was one of Teddy Roosevelt's favorite rounds. |
When the new barrel arrived, I quickly swapped my Encore's existing tube with it. After mounting a scope, I headed to the range where I sighted-in using Hornady's 300-grain flat nose Interlocks. Two shots later, I had the rifle shooting dead-on at 100 yards. Three shots grouped within 1 1/2 inches. Next, I set up a target at 150 yards and fired three more shots. All grouped within 2 inches, albeit about 3 inches low. Then I backed off to 200 yards and fired three more shots, using the same dead-on hold as at the lesser distances. All three bullets grouped within 3 inches, almost 10 inches below the aiming point. I was ready.
It took a couple of days of "riding the wagon," hunting with my old friend John Bachelor, for us to catch up to an ancient bull. We finally determined where he was headed and set up an ambush.
I watched the buff come from a long way. When he turned broadside at about 50 yards, I picked a spot in the lower third of his body right behind the foreleg, took a breath and gently tugged the trigger. At the shot, the bull flinched. Hurriedly, I broke open the single shot, removed the spent case and replaced it with a fresh round. Numerous years of practice reloading the Encore has left me fairly adept at doing so. But, before I could shoulder the rifle again, the bull fell.
Several months later, I was hunting wild boars in the Texas Hill Country. Again I carried the .405 Win Encore. I spent three days hunting for a sizeable hog, and then finally caught up with one just as daylight was breaking. When I could tell that the pig I was looking at was a large boar, I centered the crosshairs on his shoulder and pulled the trigger. I watched in amazement as the shot knocked the nearly 200-pound animal off his feet. Once again, I was impressed with the .405. Teddy obviously knew what he was talking about!
Next, I started carrying my .405 Win Encore on whitetail hunts, and quickly dispatched a couple of South Texas management bucks. One of those was at 182 yards. He fell in his tracks. The other was a bit farther, just over 200 yards. I placed the crosshairs on the buck's shoulder, so the scope's crosswire was even with it. According to ballistics data, the bullet would drop about 9 inches at that distance. The 300-grain Spire Point hit almost exactly where it was supposed to, and as a result of a shoulder shot, the buck dropped like a stone.
From there, I hunted the famed Milk River Country of north-central Montana on the ranches made famous by Realtree. The hunt was being filmed for our "T/C Game Trails" television show. Knowing that cameraman/field producer Tom Wayne probably would not let me shoot a buck much beyond 150 yards to ensure "proper" footage, I again decide to use my .405 Win rifle.
Well, that was part of the reason for doing so. The other and truly more important reason was that I'd fallen in love with the century-old caliber. Further, old T.R. himself had hunted in the same general area with his "medicine gun." It just seemed like the right thing to do.
A couple of days into the hunt found Tom and me on the property's famed Buffalo Drop, a high bluff overlooking the Milk River, where Indians once forced buffalo over the ledge. About 150 feet below me was a lush, green food plot that was highly regarded
by deer.
It didn't take long for a monstrous 8-pointer to stride out of the dense brush along the river's edge. From a rock-solid rest, I squeezed the trigger on the .405. The buck was at 150 yards. He took four steps and fell. Interestingly, when we reviewed the footage, we could actually see the bullet fly and strike the old whitetail.
Then in January 2006, I used my .405 Win Encore while hunting desert mule deer with Wayne Zachary's Trans Pecos Guide Service in west Texas. Thanks to special seasons and permits, I was able to take three mule deer on that trip. All three dropped in their tracks at distances from 100 to 150 yards.
On that same trip, I learned something else about the .405. At the range, one of the guides was shooting at a metal disk at 600 yards. He was hitting the disc with regularity and decided to take a break. Having just made certain I knew where my .405 was hitting at 100 yards, I asked him if he minded if I took a shot. He sort of snickered and commented that he doubted the bullet would even travel that far.
From a solid bench rest, I held high on the target where my scope's thin crosshairs turned to thick, and gently tugged the trigger. It took a while, but the bullet kicked up dust just below the disk. Loading a second round, I raised the sight picture to where the thick part of the crosshair just covered the target, and squeezed off another round. This time, a few moments later, you could hear the distinct sound of bullet striking metal. With that, I blew the smoke out of my barrel and walked away. The other hunters around the shooting bench just stood there with their jaws agape.
I dearly love the .405!
-- Larry Weishuhn