I liked the idea of a .450 Marlin in a SA bolt gun the first time I heard about it. If I was chosing between the short .458 and the .450 Marlin in a bolt gun, I'd probably lean toward the .450 Marlin. Cases are good quality and I wouldn't have to spend time with case prep. And, theoretically, the wider belt would have a perceived safety dividend over the std. mag case converted to the short round.
IMHO,
DF
I agree %100 with you, it should be the easy choice. The only issue, and it's a big one, is that Hornady is the only company who makes .450 Marlin brass.
Marlin dropped their own .450 Marlin. The only two other rifles that I'm aware that are chambered in the .450 are the Browning BLR and the Steyr Big Bore. I'm not even sure if they both are still available. The only big company that loads the .450 Marlin is Hornady. All this makes getting .450 Marlin brass in the near future iffy and expensive. The beauty of the .458x2" is that you can take any range pickup magnum brass and chop them at the 2" mark and you now have .458x2" brass. I'm still on the fence but it does make the .458x2" attractive.
