The .450 Marlin A Magnum In Disguise

Guns Magazine, June, 2001 by John Taffin

THIS NEW RIFLE AND CARTRIDGE COMBINE A HINT OF WESTERN NOSTALGIA WITH A BIT OF 21ST CENTURY PERFORMANCE.

Many would-be cowboys and fans of the Old West love the feel of a levergun in their hand, whether on the cowboy shooting range or in the thick brush hunting deer or bear. But American shooters are slow to accept non-traditional chamberings in leverguns. The .30-30 and .45-70 cartridges are givens, but anything in between has not been readily accepted.

Now, Marlin offers a new levergun cartridge that is a real winner. Shooters looking for new levels of performance will appreciate the advantages of the new cartridge; more conservative levergun shooters will be pleased to know that this is not a radical new design, but simply a means of taking the .45-70 into the 21st century with a face-lift. The new cartridge, called the .450 Marlin, may not bear a magnum label, but it still gives magnum-style performance.

The rifle, which is chambered for this cartridge, is known as the Model 1895M. It is so close to the 1895G Guide Gun in the size of the hole in the barrel, weight, barrel length, stock configuration and barrel twist, that you must look very closely to find any difference other than the marking of the barrel. All three of Marlin's Guide Gun-style leverguns have ported barrels and thick recoil pads to help reduce felt recoil.

This recent model, however, offers just a mite more porting than the others. The Guide Gun and Outfitter both have two rows of porting on each side of the front sight, with four holes in the top row and two in the second row. The 1895M, which is chambered in the new .450 Marlin, adds one more ported hole to the top row.

Rugged & Reliable

Marlin leverguns are well known for using real steel for all parts, as well as good quality walnut in both buttstock and forearm. Both buttstock and forearm are checkered, and the magazine tube extends about halfway between the end of the barrel and the front of the forearm. This gives the 1895M a magazine capacity of four rounds.

Sights are a gold bead ramped front mated with a folding semi-buckhorn rear, which is adjustable for elevation by moving the ladder forward or back. Windage is taken care of by tapping the sight one way or the other in its dovetail slot. The safety is the much maligned crossbolt safety. It works well, but is not aesthetically pleasing to most shooters.

In a manner similar to all Marlin leverguns, the 1895M is easily scoped by using the Weaver one-piece base on top of the drilled and tapped Marlin receiver. We chose to use a Weaver variable 1.5-3x in Weaver rings for test-firing groups.

We did not have to remove the rear sight to mount the scope. This scope, which is relatively small in size and power, easily handles most jobs that the 1895M is designed to accomplish.

A fine choice in scope mounts for the 1895M is the Scout Scope Mount by Ashley Outdoors. No drilling or tapping is necessary as this mount uses the rear sight dovetail and the already-drilled and tapped holes on the top of the Marlin receiver. The Scout Scope Mounts work on all three of Marlin's Guide Gun concept leverguns in .45-70, 444 Marlin and the .450 Marlin.

Powerhouse Cartridge

If the .450 Marlin looks familiar it's because it is basically the .458x2" American -- a cartridge developed in the early 1960s by shortening a .458 Win. Mag. case. This allowed the building of a lightweight, short-action, big-bore bolt gun for those that wanted the caliber, but not the heavy recoil of the .458, nor the long-actioned heavy rifles in which it was chambered. It also worked in converted Winchester Model 94s.

The .458x2" American was a belted cartridge just as is the new .450 Marlin. The .458x2" American was even often referred to as a belted .45-70. What happened to it? It was soon realized that the .458x2" would enter the chamber of a 7mm Mag. or .338 Mag., and the results, if fired, could be disastrous. Because of this theoretical problem, a good cartridge simply remained a wildcat proposition.

To counter this "problem," the Marlin round has a higher belt so that it cannot enter the chambers of rifles intended for other belted rounds, nor will it fit in a .45-70.

We have already seen some very strange comments about the .450 Marlin by those who obviously have not done their homework. The .450 is an excellent cartridge chambered in an equally excellent rifle. The .450 Marlin, however, does not offer improved "smashing power" and does not render the .45-70 obsolete.

The .450 Marlin as loaded by Homady is rated at 2,100 fps with a 350 gr. jacketed bullet. It clocked out slightly less than that in our gun over the Oehler Model 35P with readings on different days of both 1,925 fps and 2,030 fps. At 40,000 psi or more, this load is much too powerful for any of the old leverguns, and especially the Springfield Trap Door.

Lest you think this renders the .45-70 obsolete, both Cor-Bon and Buffalo Bore offer 350 gr. jacketed bullet loads for the .45-70 that are rated at 2,100 fps. They also clock out at just under this in the Guide Gun. If the demand is there, both Buffalo Bore and Cor-Bon will offer loads in .450 Marlin.