Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats .450 Marlin vs. .458x2" in a bolt action

Please note that I said "Heir Apparent". Of course I'm not selling my Guide Gun in 45-70 to scarf up a 450 Marlin. And only Marlin's 1895's have the tipped cartridge in the mag tube problem. I was trying to say, I didn't know if the 450 tips the same way as the 45-70's.

If this neat round is truly orphaned, plan B would be to set the barrel back, and go with the 458 x 2 inch. Your G.S. could probably treat this just as a deep chambered replacement barrel. But in a bolt action rifle, you could also simply ream the existing chamber out to a 450 x 2.1 inch, 375 Ruger wildcat.

A Newton fanatic in Cody, Wyo., has told me he chronoed a 450 Newton wildcat, made on the trimmed (2.5") Ruger Basic case, at 458 Lott Velocities. So a shorter version at the 2.1" length, will be closer to the 458 Win Mag. than you can get with the 458 x 2 inch (American).

Playing with my own 450 Ruger dummies, I reckon that round nosed bullets are needed to feed out of a Mauser M-98 rifle's box magazine. So its not the end of the world, if Remington-Marlin drops the 450 Marlin 1895's. But a Marlin tech, told my over the phone, that their 450's receivers had a stronger heat treating than their 45-70's. So you can't get a 45-70 rebarreled to the 450 Marlin, by them.

My crystal ball can't determine if either one of these 45's will survive until I hang it up. But the Marlin 1895 in 450 Marlin is the real sleeper, due to the improved heat treating and the magnum rimless bolt face. I still say we're one big lawsuit away from the 45-70G ammunition being relegated to Black Powder trapdoor pressures.

At its one hundredth and fifty year anniversary, it's had its day. The rimmed alternative is the 457 WWG, but that one hasn't set the world on fire, either.

Ive always questioned the wisdom or even the reason why many guys seem to want to push for the absolute max velocity a particular caliber might be capable of allowing.
I own a 450 marlin BLR, and the load I found most accurate is hardly the max velocity possible, its a 405 grain bullet at about 1900fps
if I wanted more than that Ive got a 458 LOTT, but honestly theres not a game animal in north America that a properly placed bullet from the 450 marlin won,t devastate!

A 405 gr. slug pushed at 1,900 fps out of a BLR will kick enough to get one's attention. I, for one, wouldn't want to shoot a hotter load in that gun. And, you're right about it being lethal to most anything we'd encounter here in NA.

DF

I build 8-10 of the 458X2 a year as well as 458X2 1/4" and have never had to neck ream ANY brass to make them work. Perhaps swarf had his done with a super tight neck? I suppose the higher cost of the dies is a consideration but I send my customers to CH4D [Dave Davson] and they are usually an "off the shelf" item well under 100.00. I think this offsets the cost of factory brassthat, right now, has a dreary at best future and is spendy too. I have used about everything from 300 Win Mag to 6.5 Rem Mag with no issues. I feel brass availibility for the Hornady brass may well be a problem--hope I am wrong.
Aloha, Mark

Mark,

Talk about the difference between the .458x2" and the .458x2 1/4", such as the advantages of one over the other, etc.

What actions are most commonly used in these builds?

DF