Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers suppressed subsonic 1895

I’ve been toying with the idea, as soon as they become available, or grabbing a Marlin 1895 Dark. I hated every “tactical” lever gun out there. But the 1895 SBL (my favorite) is too thin at the muzzle to properly thread. 1895 comes standard with a threaded barrel, and all blacked out. Plus my hybrid .46 cal suppressor, I plan to load 500gr bullets just below the sound barrier. Not near as much energy delivery at the muzzle, but that’ll be a hell of a whopper on smaller game like deer. Anyone do similar?

Nope.

No offense, but I don't see any need or purpose to do that to a .45-70.

Well, maybe in Griz country, where they can be alerted by a gunshot to a close-by scrap lunch.

My buddy has the same suppressor on a threaded 1895 shooting 500 grain bullets at subsonic speeds. Pokes a nice 1/2” hole through deer and they do a typical archery dash. Neat combo

I suspect you could go bigger than deer with a 500 grain bullet at 1050 or so fps. Lotsa momentum working for you there.

I've ran 540 LBTs at mid-1500 fps levels, I think those bullets are still out there going through something....

Oh wow! Well, I’ll have 200 500gr to cook up once I’m setup. I’ll look into 540 after. I’ll prob use 325 for deer hunting, but if the load works well enough, who knows

A 380gr solid copper from Lehigh is worth looking into.

WHY?

I love hunting with subsonic 45-70. Slow and heavy bullets will kill deer just fine.

really nice setup .

I like the idea of suppressed but haven't accomplished it yet. I have some of those 700+ gr bullets Cashisking sold to me. I'm sure a buffalo wouldn't like them. 500 gr cast bullets at maybe 1200 fps killed out most of the American Bison over 100 years ago in the US. So big and slow is the way to go. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

Kings is that shorty an SBR? Be Well, Rustyzipper.

Yes 12.5" and holds 4+1 rounds. I did a build thread about it here.

Here are a few pictures of the barrel on the 18.5” H&R a friend of mine has. I loaded quite a bit for this rifle and compared most loads in my Marlin Guide Gun.
The bullet of choice proved to be the 500 grain Laser Cast bullet which is hard and penetrated well.
After trying a number of powders we settled on a velocity goal of just short of 900 fps based on accuracy, noise and penetration.
Out front things were quiet until the bullet hit dirt or a pig. Behind the rifle the snap of the primer was quite loud.
We settled on both Accurate Arms No. 2 and Alliant Bullseye for powder. 9.0 grains proving to be the best load with both powders and 860 fps for No. 2 and 870 fps for Bullseye. Extreme spreads were typically single digits.
The shooting was close and the bullets would exit on lung shots and sometimes – but not always - remain in the body when crossing the X.

Care must be taken when charging cases and we charged all case one at a time seating the bullet immediately.

If you choose to do this I will enjoy reading of your shooting results. Bullet hardness and sizing diameter has quite a bit of effect on accuracy. Do not overlook sizing to exact groove diameter with hard bullets – 14 to 18 bhn - in the Marlin rifle.
I had tight spots in my Guide Gun barrel under the rear sight, the stamp with all the Marlin stuff and under the front sight. The tight spots affected accuracy with slower powders and higher velocity but had no discernable affect when using fast powders and hard bullets sized to groove diameter.
In the Marlin Guide Gun 400 fps is easy and quite a bit of fun.
Greg Mushial at GMDR has quite a bit of low velocity load data for the 45-70 and heavy bullets on his web site.
H&R barrel