Cosmoline
Member
I've been researching and handloading the .450 Marlin for the past few months, and I've been amazed by the amount of disdain expressed for what really is a fantastic round. As usual I think marketing played a large role. The round is characterized as a .45-70 that comes at magnum levels from the factory. Why they would have chosen to sell it in this fashion when B-Bore, Garret and others have long been producing magnum level .45-70's is beyond me.
In reality, the .450 Marlin has nothing to do with the .45-70. It's not in the .45-70 class of cartridges and doesn't cross-chamber at all. It is in fact a commercial variation of the .458x2 American wildcat. This was a round made from a cut down .458 win mag for use as a magnum level brush buster. It has plenty of power and the belted design allowed it to be chambered in bolt actions and even Win 94 size leverguns. The only drawback of the .458x2 was that it would potentially chamber in some other belted magnums with much smaller bores, but this was easy to solve by a minor dimensional alteration. With all the emphasis the companies put on ultra-short magnums designed to squeeze a quarter inch off receiver length, you would think that a cartridge bringing enormous power to a very compact bolt action or levergun would be a major advantage, but it was never marketed that way. Winchester finally did put out a commercial version of the Big Bore in .450 Marlin, but only at the very end of the company's existence. Marlin, for its part, only chambered it in a full size 1895 frame levergun, giving the shooter no advantage over a .45-70. And to my knowledge no company has produced a .450 Marlin express bolt action.
In reality, the .450 Marlin has nothing to do with the .45-70. It's not in the .45-70 class of cartridges and doesn't cross-chamber at all. It is in fact a commercial variation of the .458x2 American wildcat. This was a round made from a cut down .458 win mag for use as a magnum level brush buster. It has plenty of power and the belted design allowed it to be chambered in bolt actions and even Win 94 size leverguns. The only drawback of the .458x2 was that it would potentially chamber in some other belted magnums with much smaller bores, but this was easy to solve by a minor dimensional alteration. With all the emphasis the companies put on ultra-short magnums designed to squeeze a quarter inch off receiver length, you would think that a cartridge bringing enormous power to a very compact bolt action or levergun would be a major advantage, but it was never marketed that way. Winchester finally did put out a commercial version of the Big Bore in .450 Marlin, but only at the very end of the company's existence. Marlin, for its part, only chambered it in a full size 1895 frame levergun, giving the shooter no advantage over a .45-70. And to my knowledge no company has produced a .450 Marlin express bolt action.
at the range.
