Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats .450 Marlin vs. .458x2" in a bolt action

We are coming up on the Sesquicentennial of the introduction of the 45 Gov't, or 45 x 2.1 inch in Sharps lingo. If this new 450 Marlin is the heir apparent, then sooner or later, the factories are going to stop loading for the ancient 45-70 G. This will happen in small steps, but only the weakest bullet designs will be left.

At the same time, robust 45 Magnum pistols are burgeoning, with their .451 diameter barrels. As I suggested on another forum, why not just make a 2 inch or shorter 450 Marlin wildcat, in the pistol barrel's .451" dimension. This would keep the factory .458 cal. ammo out. The rims on the old 45 Gov't rounds, will keep them out too.

There is already a .500 cal. Alaskan, made for precisely the same reasons. In Marlin Lever actions, the .500 S&W Magnum bullets are out shining the old .510 diameter 50-70G. ones.

And best of all, this fifty cal. renaissance came gift wrapped by no less than the BATFX bureaucrats, themselves. It was their getting too snotty after IMI went to segmental rifling for the 50 Desert Eagle, which was actually a .510 cal. development. When their test rods slipped down into the improved barrels' segmental riflings, they threw a fit, and the unintended consequences gave birth to this whole new, and I might add, unexpected .500 pistol caliber.

Then S & W came along and took up the mantle with the S&W 500 Magnums and this marauding stallion was out of the barn, for good. With the newer 460 S&W Magnums, made for the aforementioned 500 S&W X Frame Revolvers, its kind of like a second coming for the BATFX's unintended .500 caliber's consequences.

I.O.W.'s the U.S. market place, and S&W, in particular, are going to s@#$w them over twice, for their faux pas, with the Iraeli Military Industries, imported Desert Eagles.

The fly in the ointment here, is the 458 x 2 inch. This can be accidentally loaded into both a factory 450 Marlin, and my suggested .451 Marlin Short, if its also as long as 2 inches. If it's only 1.8 inches, then this fly departs. But there will remain a chambering Delta problem with the factory 450 Marlins, especially in a bolt action, with a claw style of extractor. Shooting a .451 MarSh in a factory chamber may not be accurate, but unless it's loaded with really high pressures, no problemo.

But for safety's sake, I think that the 450 Marlin has killed off the 458 x 2 inch, (American). Of course the 458 Win. Mag. is way too long to accidentally chamber in a 450 Marlin. So that boomer will continue to rumble along.

I have an older set of RCBS reloading dies stamped for the 45-70. The sizing die also has the std. belt recess, needed by the 458 American. I reload for my 45-70 Guide Gun with these old dies, so the 458 American dies still do have a mission.