Has anyone used the 450 marlin on big game such as moose or elk? What bullet did you use? How will the 325 gr hornady ftx perform on big stuff?

A 45-70 would work much better.

Oh boy, here we go! Either one of them is like throwing a brick pretty fast!

My baby killed an elk with a 400G Speer out of a 450M

ay 100+ Yrds


Never tried a 325, seems lite

Snake

A 405 grain lead brick at 1300 fps is plenty for large game at reasonable ranges. What the headstamp says is irrelevant, I suppose.

How about the 350 fp Hornady bullet. Anyone use this bullet on moose / elk?

The 325 Hornady might be just a bit soft. The 350 Hornady has worked well for me as has the 405 Rem at 1750+. The Rem sometimes loses it's jacket but the lead weighs about 350 grains and holds together well. At worst you have a discarding sabot.

The 405 grain opens up to slug diameter on wet newsprint but penetrates better. 2nd row from the bottom, 350 Hornady vs 405 Rem

my friend JACK in Colorado used his 450 marlin caliber BLR loaded with a 405 remington bullet over 50 grains of IMR 3031 last season, I don,t have pictures but he stated range was about 170 yards and the elk he hit behind the shoulder dropped withing 10 yards of being hit, bullet passed thru , he was very happy with the result.
I used the same load in my BLR and held under 1" 3 shot 100 yard groups off a solid bench rest at 100 yards

IVE used a 45/70 loaded to similar, but slightly lower velocity levels in the past and it killed elk very effectively.
the 45 caliber rifles work really well with the 350-405 grain bullets I would not be looking to use anything much lighter as you can do that with a flatter trajectory and less recoil in a smaller caliber, the 458 diam. has advantages if used with the heavy slugs,and one is deep penetration and an impressive wound track if used with the correct bullets

I've heard that the Leverevolution ammo will sometimes break up upon impact. I would stick to a solid bonded bullet. My 2 cents.

The 325 Leveroution worked fine out of my guide gun on a big Shiras bull a while back. Shot was roughly 80 yards broadside, and the bullet hit him on the point of the shoulder. Dropped instantly, but he needed a finisher to the back of the head via 41 Mag. I was impressed with its performance considering its soft reputation.

Nice moose fellow devil dog.

The interesting thing about a big heavy bullet is that even if it's a bit frangible the pieces that break up still have enough mass to give decent wound potential. However, the other issue is that Sectional density wise the 325 grain .458 bullet is at .221, which might be a bit low. Even the 350 grain bullet is at only .238.

The .405 Winchester is often criticized as having low SD bullets with it's 300 grain versions going at .254. To reach this level 458 bullets have to weigh in at 375 grains.

Putting together low sectional density with a fast expanding flex tip design might limit penetration a bit too much....the low velocity of these rounds counters this somewhat. Love to see some extensive bullet testing but in the meantime I am sticking with 350 grain Hornady's as my minimum moose bullet in my own .450.

Here is the 405 Rem bullet launched at 1700 and quartering through a caribou's liver and chest at 90 yards or so. As mentioned the jacket can slip off but with a 350 grain lead core it still penetrates well. The caribou died. In fact it was as if I hit him in the head with a sledge hammer. 72x87 caliber expanded.

This was a factory loaded 450 Hornady 350 FN load. It was recovered from a piece of the belly skin on a 15 foot whale (beluga). The bullet was fired from about 5 feet above, through the back, downward. A second bullet disintegrated in destroying the skull.



This 300 Speer Uni-Cor punched through both shoulders (scapula) of a bull moose. I used a 45-70.

That UniCor is underrated.

and I can walk on water
gary

I would say there is no elk on the planet that a Marlin

450 can't put down....

I have a Wild West Guns Alaskan Guide being delivered tomorrow. It's the 16" barrel take-down in 457 WWG...kind of a longer, more powerful 45-70 (350gr @ 2,200 fps). Can wait to see what it will do with some Punch or hard lead cast bullets in the 450-550gr range.

wow......that will be some lever gun fur sure.......

Kick....and HARD.....

Sounds like a nice rifle, congrats.