smoked turkey
08-01-2011, 05:57 PM
My son just acquired a 45/70 1895M Marlin rifle. It has a pistol grip stock, what looks to be a long barrel with no porting, and cut rifling. It is just what I want. Now enter what I have on loan from him: An 1895M Marlin with 18.5" cut rifled, ported barrel, straight grip stock with a flip up rear sight in 450Marlin. I would much prefer a 45/70 like his newer one. But beggars can't always be choosey. I have done some research here on the 450 Marlin and have looked at a couple of my reloading manuals. From what I can determine, the internal ballistics of the 450 case is virtually identical to the internals of the 45/70. I see the newer 450 has updated pressure limits from SAAMI. I am not interested in making a .458 Mag out of the lever Marlin rifle and in fact I have a Ruger No. 1 in 45/70 so I have tremendous respect for the vintage 45/70 round and what it can do recoil wise. So I don't plan to go there. I have a couple of questions regarding basic loading of the 450 vs the 45/70. Can I use any 45/70 load data in the 450 Marlin case? Their is so much more data for the 45/70 and so much similarity to the 450 case I thought it would be simple and nice if I could do this. Since the gun is on loan for a time I thought I would post on the WTB section to see if anyone has 450 Marlin dies and brass for sale since I have only 12 factory rounds in 450 Marlin to shoot up and my ammo supply will be gone. I have read that the 450 Marlin has been discontinued by Marlin. My last question is probably very subjective. I know there is a great respect for the old 45/70 and I know it is rightly deserved. But the question is what is wrong with the 450 Marlin and this rifle I am about to develop loads for?