I have had several shells fail to fire with Fed and WW rifle primers. I had weakened the trigger spring by putting a little bend in the legs, so I thought the transfer bar was dropping down. I spent half a day making a longer one. It was doing ok until today when it happened again. I tried pistol primers with no trouble but velocity was down and point of impact was higher. I figured the mainspring is too weak and contacted Magnum Research for a new spring, explaining that the spring is too weak for rifle primers. They want the gun back and I can't part with it now because hunting season is too close. I cut two coils from an old Ruger spring and put it on the strut and put the mainspring on top of it. Solved the problem and it fires ok now. I offered to pay for a spring but got some flack. Guess I have to buy spring stock from Brownells and make my own. Having been a gunsmith for more years then I care to admit, I don't need flack from a company, just a spring. I E- mailed them back and will keep you posted as to what they say.
The gun shoots great with my boolits from my home made molds. I can hold an inch at 50 yds. and shot a 200 yd. group today that was 4-3/8". I have a red dot on it and was shooting Creedmore off my leg. Dot covers the whole dang target at 200. Drop at 200 is 20" with the 330 gr. boolit and 16" with the 317 grainer. This is with a 50 yd. setting. Only drops an inch at 100 yds.

I too am getting around an 1" at 50 yards with my .450 Marlin BFR......I'll have to try 200 yards though (I'd definitely be happy with 4.5").

Lee Martin
www.singleactions.com

I've been shooting CCI rifle primers in mine and haven't had a problem. What kind of velocties and load are you useing with the 330gn? Could you post a pic of it? Did you have a problem with the cylinder throats being too small? mine were and I honed them out. I've been shooting IMR4227 with good results. I'm still shooting open sights but have gotten down to 1.4" at 50yds.

Lar45, I will E-mail you a picture of both bullets. I don't have a digi camera and had to scan them. Not the best. I use 31 gr. of SR4759, Fed brass, Fed LR primers, Felix lube and a tuft of dacron over the powder.
What are your loads with 4227? I would like to try them. Jim

Lar45, I size my boolits to .459 and can force them through the throats with my thumb. .458 bullets slide through so I don't want to change anything. I had to lap out my Ruger Vaquero .45 Colt and went from 3" groups at 25 yds. to 1" groups at 50 yds. I dropped a deer in it's tracks at 100 yds. with it. I shot the 300 gr. Hornady out of the BFR and at 50yds. the holes were almost touching. I used 42 gr. of 4198. The cast boolits don't seem to like that powder though. I can't afford to shoot bought bullets the amount that I shoot. I have been shooting off the side of my leg because I still haven't figured out how to bench this gun. I can't hold still and the red dot covers too much target, but it is the best for hunting. I had the 2-1/2 to 7X Burris on it before and still jiggled all over the place. Maybe my bipod would work. From sandbags I get vertical stringing from the rear bag compressing under the butt with different force. Horizontally they are in line. I don't have a pistol perch.

Lee, you have to try 200 yds. It's a lot of fun and that .450 ought to be real flat shooting. I chose the 45-70 because I have piles of brass and dies for my BPCR. Didn't have to buy anything new.

BFRSHOOTER,
Thats is a handful in a handgun huh ? I have a 16" Contender Barrel that see's occasional duty with a 405gr boolit propelled by 5744. I have some 45-70 loads using the same boolits over RL7 for my GG and my SMLE but I am a little wary of the same loads in my TC. If it was possible to attach a heavier forend to my Contender I would for the 45-70 it would already be done but I don't want to tear out the dovetails under the barrel and duct tape is sooooo tacky ! 45nut

45nut, the BFR is not bad to shoot even with some of the heavy loads I tried. My loads with 4759 do not kick as hard as my Vaquero with hunting loads. The TC can really hurt with heavy loads due to the grip shape and angle. Even though some of the loads made the barrel really come up, it doesn't bother me near as much as a TC did, no pain at all. Even a 30-30 TC shot with one hand was worse then the BFR. I really enjoy shooting this revolver and can shoot it all day.

bfrshooter -

I haven't tried 200 yards with my 45-70 revolver. Only out to 70 yards with bought bullets. Going to have to give it a try. I usually shoot 405 factory loads. The revolver is a pleasure to shoot but since I don't reload I only crank off two boxes at a setting.

A little trivia about this revolver: I have one of the originals produced before MR bought up the rights. My hunting buddy's brother is/was the one that designed and built them as well as the first for MR. Not sure if he still does. Anyway with the revolver I have I can fit it with a choke and shoot 410 or 45lc without the tight choke in. It has a second cylinder that was fitted to it that allows me to do this. The original idea was to have the fire power for bear protection but yet be able to hunt small game here in Alaska.

As said it is fun to shoot!