If anyone needs any 450 marlin brass, I have discontinued loading it and will have about 10 pieces that I will send to anyone interested.

Gabe

quote:

Originally posted by papaschmud:
If anyone needs any 450 marlin brass, I have discontinued loading it and will have about 10 pieces that I will send to anyone interested.

Gabe

Mind if I asked why you're not loading it any longer? Just curious, as I've been wanting to get a rifle in 450.

Papaschmud

I could use one for my collection..
If you still have any I will cover shipping on it and will give you my address.
Don

[[/QUOTE]
Mind if I asked why you're not loading it any longer? Just curious, as I've been wanting to get a rifle in 450.[/QUOTE]

My .450 is built on a Winchester m70 short action . I set it up with a Douglas stainless 14 twist barrel in a Winchester factory laminate stock that I opened up the barrel channel on. Bedded the whole works. The rifle is as good as possible. But it won't shoot. Now I realize that nobody makes match grade bullets in .45 cal but I like to able to at least get near 1" groups out of all my rifles. With this rifle I tried six different bullets, six different powders, mag primers vs. standard, no dice. Rifle shoots around 2-3" no matter what. I think the root of the problem is that fact that Hornady has the specs. set on the dies to reduce the base of the case .006". In my opinion, that's way too much. Heck, when I full length sized, I would push a ring of brass down towards the belt that actually built up a small shoulder just above the belt. I fixed this by backing the die out 1/16" but then the neck tension got whacked out due to the amount of taper in the case. To put it mildly, it was a handloading nightmare. Aggravation I don't need.

With a custom die set, I think the cartridge has potential. I got up to 2500 fps with 300 grain bullets when I pushed the pressure up to bolt action norms. When held to lever specs, the speeds cruised around 2300, but the accuracy never got better.

What I plan to do is punch this barrel out to 458 WSM and solve all the 450 Marlin case problems and gain a little speed to boot. For that matter, the 458 WSM would be a great and easy conversion for a Marlin lever gun.

Gabe

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll avoid that one after all.

Papa

Thanks again.

I got the brass this evening (monday) when I checked my mail.

Many thanks

Don C.

Sorry that didn't work for you.

My Encore Katahdin barrel shoots clover leaf at 50 yds and 1 1/2" at a 100yds with 300 gr Rem HPs, certainly not a target bullet or a target rifle. That is using a Weaver 2.5X. My son was able to kill a 7 pt and a does last yr with it and they were both slam bam gut and skin kills. The 450 Marlin is equal to any 45-70 or 458 American and is a one shot killer if you do you part on most anything in America. Let's not sell it short!!

If my .450 shoots as yours did, I'd still have it. The main issue with mine was die/chamber compatability. I could have had a custom die made but didn't think it wise to dump the cash into it when doing the .458WSM would be a similar price and would definately solve all the problems.

I still think the .450's case design is a trainwreck.

BTW, a friend of a friend reported .3-.5"@100 accuracy with his hunter class bench rifle in .458WSM. I'll keep you posted.

Gabe