Hi all,

This has probably been covered lately, but I have been busier than a one legged man in a an a55 kicking contest, and have missed a few posts. But here it is anyway...Can the .458cal 500gr Hornady SP be used in the Marlin 1895SS?? It appears to me the cannelure is too far back and the resulting OAL would be excessive. Has anyone tried it?

Thanks in advance,

Canuck

Many years ago a friend used these bullets in his Navy Arms Siam Mauser in .45/70. They worked fine with Ruger #1 level loads but the stock eventually developed a crack at the wrist. And he had some pretty bad headaches, too!

I suspect you couldn't get much more than about 1300 fps out of the Marlin, very low by today's standards and too low to expect any expansion. You would also have to flatten the nose a bit by giving it a square whack with a hammer or turning it flat in a lathe (very tricky). Best forget it and stick with bullets in the 300-400 gr class. This was never a round for whacking Cape buffalo but was quite popular with the 405 gr lead bullet and 70 grs black powder for American Bison.

As to the cannelure, your only hope is to cannelure the case at the base of the bullet to keep recoil from driving it into the case. Check out the CBC/MagTech cases for the .44/40 and you will see what I mean.

Canuck I'll be letting you know, since I just recieved a box of them from Cabelas, for a .450 Marlin. Im trying to come up with a load for ND game in Africa and this bullet is one Im going to try, "if it doesnt work out I'll just give them to a friend with a .458 Lott.

On that note I dont know WHAT? Im going to be loading the Marlin with. I have a pretty vast selection to work with, both cast and jacketed. I have some Hornady 350 grn JSP's that look real promising but I'd rather hunt with a bullet in the 400 grn range.

Any siggestion's ?.....thanx.......10

Barnes makes a 250gr XFP bullet for the 45/70 and 450 Mag. I'm going to order some and try them out in my 1895SS .45/70...should make a great bullet for leopard. There is an article by Mick McPherson in the latest Precision Shooting magazine about the Marlin 450 Mag Guide Gun and he got 2484 fps with this bullet...that's 3400+ ftlbs of muzzle energy...like getting hit with a bowling ball at close range.

Canuck,

I sent a couple 500 gr hornady rn's to one of your countrymen to try out, but I never heard back from him. On one of the bullets, I cut the nose back to provide a ~.375" meplat. I can gurantee it the COL is way too long.

Now, since the 45-70 is a rimmed straight case, what you can do is take some cases and trim them extra short, so you can load to the canalure, and they will function through your gun. I would also flatpoint the bullets, provides some safety in the tubular mag, and provides some more powder room.

One thing to note, the hornady 500 has a thick jacket, and say you can get 1600 fps like Garrett gets in his 540 gr hammerhead, I wouldn't expect much expansion from the bullet, it'll act like a solid.

Hey Cannuck, how's everything in BC?
On topic, my 1886 Winchester will not take 500 grainers unless I seat way back. I have trimmed the cases back on some, and it works, but its a bit of a pain as you can't use those cases for anything else.

CH4D makes a cannelureing tool.
www.ch4d.com

Thanks for the help guys. I'm looking forward to see how your experiment works out 10point. For $50 that cannelure tool looks like a handy investment. Might look into that one a little further.

Thanks again,

Canuck

The Hornady bullet does work. NOT in the cannelure groove, though.

Load to O.A.L. ! 35gr-3031 & 25gr-2400

work for me nicely.(I've even used 20gr-AA7)

I am currently using cast bullets mostly.
Meister Bullets,They have the correct cannelure, meplat and diameter.

Redd

500 grain Hornady from a Marlin 1895? Ouch!

Canuck... If they do work... I do not recommend them to be used on Large game due to the low impact velocity in a round nose configuration. You are much better off with a big flat fat killing nose.

I had a friend buy a box of those that I loaded up for his sharps. In my opinion they are not a good hunting choice because they are so darn slow with what you can load them to. If you had a Ruger #1 might be a different story, but I thought that a 350 grain bullet gets the velocity up into the acceptable area. None of the bullets we recovered expanded much at all. We shot a few out of his 45-70 revolver and they looked like new bullets except for the rifling marks..

I suggest finding a mold for a 500 gr bullet that was intended to meet the old OAL for the 45-70. I think RCBS makes a good FN that will work perfectly and you should be able to get 1500+ fps with high pressure loads.

John,

I had my USRAC new 1886 throated by a gunsmith to accept heavy weight bullets. If you want to shoot the big ones, I strongly recommend doing it.

The Hornady 500J sp bullet is a hoot to shoot. I single load them as-is or lathe turn them to a .375 meplat to load in a magazine.

OH,YEA, almost forgot, I use a 3/8" lathe center drill bit (short double start-double taper) to make a gigantic hollow point.

Both shoot fine. 3031 seems to drive them the best. I have no chrono, but feel I can get them to 1600 or better FPS. Redd