450 Marlin

[brad925]

Has anyone here loaded the 450 Marlin with cast and BP? How well did it shoot?

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Not this caliber but every rifle I have tried 3F Goex in with BP lube and 40-1 cast lead shoots at least as well as any smokeless load I have tried. Have not tried many necked down brass but those with slight taper necks like 375 HH worked fine for us.

A 450 Marlin should be fine. Just a modified 45-70. Biggest issue you may face is the brass being too stiff to expand to the cylinder walls. I would anneal 5 cases first or you may have a bad seal and soot up the action. We use 3F Goex as it burns much cleaner than other Goex powder. If you have the better BP brands on hand use them.
Mike in Peru

[oldred]

Unless I'm mistaken the 450 Marlin has slightly less case capacity than a 45/70 so getting a full charge equivalent to 45/70 might not be practical, however the reduction would be slight so performance should be very close.

On a rifle I am working on now I had considered using 450 Marlin because I had a reamer and several boxes of brass. Due to the fact I intended to shoot mostly BP in this SS rifle I traded the reamer and brass and settled on 45/70 instead, the slightly reduced case capacity along with much harder to find (and more expensive when it could be found) brass just made this seem like a bad idea. If I had a Marlin chambered in the 450 I would not hesitate to shoot real BP in it just as I do with both my 45/70 Marlins, anneal those case necks and load those things like you would a 45/70 and any performance differences should be all but negligible.

[M-Tecs]

volume info here

http://www.shilohrifle.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21352