Finished testing bullets for the 450 Marlin Today. Also applicable for the 45-70, 457 Mag or 450-348. My test media was a 4L Milk Jug filled with water followed by a mix of wet and dry hard packed paper. This is a fairly rough test on bullets. The 325 Hornady Flex Tip offers the least penetration and weight retention. The ballistic coefficient isn't superior enough to warrant it's use. The 350 grain FP Hornady is a much better bet, and holds together very well. The 405 Rem almost always loses it's core or just about but the jacket is so thin that the 350 grain remaining lead makes jacket retention nearly irrelevant.

The 400 Barnes Original has a much thicker jacket but also core separates unless you trick it out with an extra cannelure at the bullet base like I do. I have been doing this with Barnes originals (using a Corbin Hand Cannelure tool) for many years and it works very well. Both the 400 Barnes and 405 Remington create a huge mushroom at 1700+ fps (over an inch). This likely limits penetration as the slug sized bullet creates a lot of drag. Huge wound channel though.

Both the 405 Woodleigh and 350 Hornady lose some mass which limits the mushroom to about .80 caliber but allows for better penetration. I wish Nosler still made their 300 grain partition as these penetrated like crazy, and had a useful jolt of hydrostatic shock. That said all these bullets do nasty things to the water jugs. See the video if you want to see evidence of that!





Video if interested, first 30 seconds has some extreme water jug explosions...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5nd2uuhaMA

Try some hardened cast bullets. The water jugs exploding will still be dramatic and the bullets will keep on chugging along.

Jim

North,
Thanks for the information - no surprises, but interesting.
My little band of big bore lever gun buddies did extensive testing before African Safaris of different bullets in .45-70, 45-90, and .405 Winchester, both on the range and in the field.
I agree with you on the .458 Nosler PP, it is a great game bullet. I still have 20 or so in .45-90 loaded to 2200 fps and we got a beautiful mushroom from one after it shot through a big leopard and into the sand it was lying on.

For big DG, we focused on North Fork, Alaska Bullet works Kodiak (another beautiful mushroom - from a brain shot on an elephant, but a great cape buff bullet at 2150 fps ), and Belt Mountain Punch Bullets -
http://www.beltmountain.com/punch.htm

Needless to say, the NF FPS and Punch gave the most penetration at around 2000+ fps. They both shot clear through the head of the ele that the Kodiak knocked down but stopped as it entered the brain.
450 grain .458 NF and Kodiak:

If I had to pick my preference of those tested for penetration, I would go with the Punch as it is shorter for equal weight than the NF and the brass bullet out penetrates anything we have tested, especially on 5/8 inch steel targets.

For Crazy Horse - we did try a couple of name brand hard cast bullets (which shall go unnamed) in the 45-70 and 45-90 and though they usually did OK, when they hit a large bone in a Cape buffalo, they often deflected and lost considerable weight. They required more second shots than the Kodiak 450 grain FN FMJ which always made one shot kills. Keep in mind that these were PAC hunts with a professional hunter and excellent lever gun shooter doing the killing (with back up, of course).
His decision was that for dangerous game, he stopped using any cast bullets and recommended the Kodiak 450 grain FN FMJ for buff with lever guns. He went with the NF and Punch for ele.

Great stuff! Biggest game we have here in the Yukon is Bison and they get pretty big..though not nearly as big as the African stuff. I'll stick with the Woodleighs but do have some 420 hardcasts coming. Interested in the comments about hardcasts breaking up on bone.

North,
I dropped a running bison with my 1886 and that 450 Kodiak FN FMJ at 2150 fps a couple of years back; hit it in the shoulder and it tumbled right down. It was a shoot through and the bullet was not recovered; my PH was pleased.
The thwack of the bullet hitting the shoulder was very loud. That is not a load to use with anything living behind the target.
We really liked the bison meat.

Well I can certainly verify the lack of integrity with the Hornady 325gr. Flex tip. I shot a black bear that later squared 6ft. 10 inches and all that was left in the chest cavity was shrapnel. No bones were struck. It did kill the bear but I won't be using them again. I just don't see any advantage to them. The Woodleighs are my next choice to test.

I like the Woodleighs. I did make one split it's jacket in caliber 348 in a low speed test. The bullet tumbled...even when splitting the jacket the copper and lead fusing held but it was a bit of a mangled mess and this reduced penetration.



Havent been able to replicate this in the 450and they have been very reliable. Thinking of trying some 458 Swift A-Frames as in my 348 test they really worked well.



in 458 flat nosed lever they are in a 350 grain weight and would be a great companion for the inexpensive and well distributed 350 Hornady.

The perfect little mushroom is just the thing for heavy critters, and perhaps on most going away shots, but on most PG, and our deer and antelope I;ll take the Woodleigh and its over expansion every time..I have perfect killing power with the 250 gr. Woodleighs in my 348. Same with standard calilbers like the 30-06, 270, 250 savage, Robts, 7x57, a little more expansion and less toadstool gives me better kills..I am of the opinion the toadstool has been overplayed by manufacturers and gun pundits alike..I have no problem with either as a matter of fact, but quicker kills come with over expansion up to a point..The perfect bullet over expands to a degree, but tears a huge exit hole and it happens sometimes, but I challenge any bullet maker to make such a bullet, Nosler comes closer than anyone else..

Some years ago I decided the 350 gr. RN Hornady was the best bullet on all game in my 45-70 and 45-90 and I became a great fan of the 45-90, not so much the 45-70..