I had a nice custom .450 Marlin built on a Model 7 action and it was a lot of fun to shoot with cast bullets at modest velocities but truthfully (and I'm not all that recoil conscious) I didn't find it much fun to shoot with full-power loads. My favorite load involved 3 round lead balls (don't recall all the details now) but it would typically put all 3 onto a 11" paper plate at 50 yards. The load used 3 cardboard wads - one over the powder and one each between the 2nd and 3rd ball and between the 1st and 2nd.
I had originally built it to take to Africa and use if for leopard from a blind but I wound up taking a ltwt .375 that didn't have nearly as much "noticable" recoil.
The 2 main reason I chose the .450 Marlin over the .458x2 was it's always easier to sell a rifle chambered in a factory cartridge than a wildcat and I like the idea of being able to buy factory ammo.
