Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers .475 1894

Here's my custom Marlin 94 converted to .475 Linebaugh by M.L. McPherson. This was developed as a doomsday weapon for alder swamps of Maine. That's a 16.25 Pac-Nor barrel and the nickel-looking finish is actually Robar NP3.

Its favorite load so far is the Cast Performance 420gr. WFNGC at 1500 ft/sec even. With that XS ghost ring sight and the shooter's patience, you can do 1 MOA - clearly, my eyes were having a good day too. It feeds even those nearly-half-inch meplat rounds like velvet - thanks, Mic !

Those are 3 Williams Twilight apertures stored in the bottom of the buttstock - Mic's idea !

R.B.

That is cool! reflex264

Large barrel, large recoil pad....gotta love that combination! Very nice!

Please tell us about the recoil pad.It looks extra thick.

It's an off the shelf Kick-Eeze, which was Mic's recommendation. 1 3/8, I think. I didn;t say, but the LOP has been reduced consistent with Mic's belief that almost all leverguns have too-long LOP, and, with my medium stature (5'8'').
Yes. Shooting it offhand is like scratching your nose. It's also heavier than it looks from a distance. Mic talked me out of a few fever dreams I had like a steel buttplate (after the magazine was empty, you could continue fighting, coldcocking the angry brethren of the six moose you just kileld with the butt end, see). As a result, you can shoot or test off bags all afternoon and feel great despite performance at the other end of the gun being devastating. I should add that it has a removeable Hg recoil reducer in the buttstock behind that pad. It can come out for hunting.

Weird as it sounds, the Cast Performance 420 grain bullets are the most accurate projectiles so far. They're probably a bit robust for the 125-190 lb deer we see in central Maine, although just right for shooting a Lexus on a raking shot.

Jayhawer, I worked at K.U 1980-81. I have friends there still !

R.B.

What's Mic's take on pressure. Did he suggest that you down load or did he say it would take the whole schimolie? I'm curious about life expectancy (of the rifle). Is there something that can be read about this rifle or one like it?

Well, the peak impulse on the bolt & receiver from the cartridge, holding the peak pressure constant, has to go up as the square of the cartridge diameter (F = P/A). Mic gave me his estimate for top end with H110 with 400 grain bullets, which corresponds to a frisky 40,000 pressure I estimate (we don't talk pressures explicitly and have no way to measure them). The straight answer to your question is that 1600 ft/sec with 400 jacketed bullets is probably the limit with H110 and L-Gun. I recently gave myself a scare by exceeding 1600 with L-Gun, but remeasured headspace at home and consulted with MLMc, and, all is unchanged and fine.

It's poorly explored territory, of course, but I don't believe there is reason(s) to believe the thing will shoot loose. Since most of what goes through it is 325 and 400 grain well below the loads above (e.g., 400 grain at 1250 to 1450), and it was tightly headspaced so the head can't get much of a running start, I have a long and happy life in mind for it. But, you have to keep a certain X-2/D-558-II mindset and check/recheck the structural aspects like with those early test aircraft.

R.B.

very cool rifle, i need one................................why oh why am i trying to buy a house....its really putting a crimp in my toy fund <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hopefully you are doing a lot of chronographing as you do load development. Might give you a little clue to eratic pressures before somethings happens. Also sounds like a good rifle to come up with one load and hang on to it. Course with that 400 grain bullet that gives you a lot of lattitude for a lot of different game. That's a good thing.

That's why I can cite velocities. Many combinations have single-digit RMS for 5-shot test groups, something new to me, who is used to bottleneck cartridges and .45-70. The top load, until something shoves it off the top of the hill, is the L-Gun / CPB 420 grain load at 1510 ft/sec (s.d. 7 ft/sec for 10 rounds). I need to go back and convincingly compare the Speer 400 FP and Hornady 400 XTP duplicating the same performance. Bet it takes a half grain more with jacketed.

I do like the results so far; you have to repeat & back up measurements, though, so that preconceptions about cast vs. jacketed, powder you expect to be best, etc., don't become self-fulfilling. That is, go back a month later and do the test session again in different order....

I wonder what powder Hornady loads their 400 XTP ammo with? It fills to the bullet base yet gives "only" 1435 ft/sec. Any speculation, men? My .475 puller collet doesn't do well, so I haven't yanked one from the XTP ammo, sorry.

R.B.