I’ve always had a great respect for the 348 Win and wildcats formed from it. The 450 Alaskan was a great add to bear stopping power in a a tube feed lever. However with today’s bullet technology (Hawk, Barnes, Speer, Swift and quality gas check hard cast) and twist rates you can do things with the 444 Marlin, which is totally underrated (355 grain cast loads at 2,200 FPS) and 45-70 (450 grain loads at 1,850 FPS) in firearms that cost considerably less that will suffice. None will produce the power of the 458 Alaskan, but both will penetrate and kill quite satisfactorily. The 50 Alaskan on a Marlin 95 action offers a sensible cost alternative to the Win 86/71 action, which is a great action that will take greater pressures thus higher velocity than the Marlin, but the bear won’t no the difference after being shot by either. Today powder and bullet technology have paved the way to accomplishing things that were never meant to be 75 years ago, especially in tube feed rifles.
