I had a .458 when I was younger: a custom, douglas barrel on an eddystone receiver, stock not mounted right -- it began to split, but a gunsmith I know fixed that. I never learned to handle its recoil. Only thing that kicked worse was a single shot break action 12 guage that shot 3" magnums. Next was a Remington classic in .375H&H. Light rifle, very barrel heavy; the scope I put on it was light, too. The combination was still too much, even with my past pad. This was much worse than my .340 wby. A decelerator pad and mercury recoil reduction system made it much nicer. So -- I saw a .458 in #1-H at a good price, figured I could re-load it to hunt deer or bear with similar performance as a .45-70. It has been my interest in reloading that made the .458 worth considering for me again. I got a 2nd past pad, put them both on, shot the .458, and was very pleased to discover an exuberent shove, but no bruising. Very good accuracy. I have since tried it without the Past pad -- and was pleasantly surprised that the recoil is quite manageable.
One thing I recommend is that you don't put the butt on your arm, nor on the ball (or swelling) of your shoulder joint (you may notice a tingling if you shoot there -- that tingling is not a good physiological sign). You probably shouldn't put it on your collar bone. If you put the butt below your collar bone just inside the shoulder ball (in the "pocket"), and hold it firmly, you'll find the recoil to be much easier to manage. The downside is that this is likely to feel strange to you.
There were some adjustments to be made for the sights. Particularly, when playing with 400 gr hand loads, figuring out open sights (the open sights have 0.1" travel at 18" sight radius, making the total worth 20" at 100 yrds; the 500 gr point of impact is dead center on the leaf, leaving 10" to play with each side; the 400 gr shoots 14"+ high, so there wasn't enough travel available on the leaf to put me in the bull). I mounted a scope (low cost: 2-7x Redfield Widefield), and solved my problem. The added complication that some of the bullets I've tried were less than suitable (the Remington 400 gr bullets intended for .45-70 didn't seem to work well for me -- though they seem fine for plinking, they don't measure to full .458" and seem to allow a good bit of blow-by, though they engage the rifling). In the process, I have been shooting 20+ rounds full charges in 400gr and 500 gr loads from a bench. This produce no more discomfort than some of my .06's or my 7mm rem (also a #1: a 1-S, not made in that configuration and caliber this year, but is my favorite) without a past pad.
One thing that strikes me in this post is that it was the recoil that got the most interest in the reply, rather than the single-shot limitation. I bought the rifle with my eyes open: I know the .458 isn't really more than a 200 yrd gun (150 by most reckoning), since it has sacrificed almost all of its exterior ballistics for terminal ballistics (don't say that to the 1000 yrd .45-70 BPCR target crowd) which implies its primary purpose in life is to put down a charge by a large animal, which also implies fast handling, rapid cycling of cartridges is what is expected; while the #1-H is fast enough to handle, it is a little slow to reload compared to bolt action rifles when most of these dangerous game critters can cover that 100 yrds in a very few seconds (that is, 100 yrds in just under 6 secs at 35mph -- I might get off 2 or three shots -- maybe 4 if nothing fumbled, the ejected shell cleared, I got the cartridges into my fingers smoothly -- only, in that time). But it will deliver pristine shot placement on that first shot.
There is a link to a video elsewhere on this forum that shows a Cape Buffalo charge being put down. There were 6 shots in 15 secs. Clearly, not all of those shots were made by one shooter. My take on that is that the 1-H is likely fast enough on that count -- the problem is whether you're able to futz with cartridges when you have this animal coming at you. If you're comfortable with the rifle -- I don't see why not.
Dan
