At the range today, trying out loads for my .450 Marlin.
This is a rifle for which I have no real use, but I wanted to have it, just because. You know how it is.
Why a bolt action in .450 Marlin, you might ask? You can buy them in lever action all day. But I’ve never really liked lever actions, plus the action is weak, only rated for 42-43,000 psi, whereas a modern bolt action is good for another 20,000 psi.
I started with a T/C Venture bolt action in .300WSM, because the bolt face would fit the .450 rim. I sent it to E.R. Shaw for an 18” medium-heavy spiral-fluted barrel. This was planned as a close-range woods rifle, so the short barrel seemed reasonable. I wanted a pretty heavy barrel, because this thing was going to generate a good bit of recoil.
When I got it back, I spent a few happy hours hogging out the barrel channel in the stock to fit the much larger tube. I mounted a Vortex Crossfire 3-9X50IR scope and started playing with loads.
In the Hornady manual, the difference between 45/70 loads for the Marlin lever gun and the loads for the same cartridge in a Ruger #1 is 15-17%. The manual strongly cautions against firing the Ruger loads in a lever gun and explains exactly why. Since there are no commercially-available bolt-action rifles available in .450 Marlin, I will not quote my loads, except to say they’re somewhat beyond what you’ll see in loading manuals.
If I really wanted to push things, I suspect that I could achieve within 175fps of the .458 Win mag with the Hornady 350 gr bullet, assuming the same barrel length. I’m not going to push things that far, but getting a tad over 2200fps (200fps over what the Hornady manual shows) was no problem.
Recoil is impressive, but not painful at all. I fired 9 loads – 5 rounds each - for accuracy and velocity and felt just fine afterwards. I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but no big deal.
Now, if I can win that NRA contest for the moose hunt …. https://www.amazon.com/photos/all/gallery/BzbtzsrmTey7RNhsahHCkw