Encore with .450 Marlin Barrel

[Coltdriver]

I just started reloading a year ago January and as much as anything it gives you a new perspective on what different cartridges are all about.

One of the cartridges that is real impressive is the 45/70. It has been around since the late 1800's and there are many good reasons that it is so popular today.

The .450 Marlin is essentially a belted cartridge version of the 45/70. There is a very small amount of difference in the capacity of the two cases resulting is slightly higher pressures for the 450 Marlin for the same load, but other than that the reloading tables are very close to the same. Since I only intend to work with loads in the "middle" range of the 45/70 loads data the 450 Marlin on an Encore is a good platform for what I want to do.

There is only a single factory loading that I know of the 450 Marlin. It is the Hornady 350 Grain bullet. According to everything I have read it will come out the end of this 18" barrel right at 2000 FPS. That also makes it pretty close to a 200 yard point blank range combination.

The cool part is that this bullet hits with just under 2 tons of energy! Everyone that I have talked to that has shot an elk with one says they don't run with a good hit from one of these. I am going Elk hunting this fall.

This combination is relatively light and its really short. So it should be easy to carry and quick to handle. Hopefully it is not so light that the round is unbearable to shoot! The barrel is ported, Thompson calls it their muzzle tamer porting.

So heres what mine looks like with a 1X4 20 Leupold scout scope. I also mounted a kick eez pad to the stock. Tomorrow I will go shoot it and I will let you know what its like!

 

[garrett1955]

NICE!!! that looks like fun...

 

[GunGoBoom]

Very nice! Looks like an elk-slayer to me. And looks short & handy. It's gonna kick some however.

Here's my .40-70 light rifle, for the same niche:

 

[Coltdriver]

So today my wife and I went up to the Pawnee Grasslands to give the .450 Marlin a try and to shoot some .380 and some .38 and some .357.

I confess right off to being a recoil wuss. I don't like to have my butt kicked when I shoot anything. Just takes all the fun out of it for me.

So you might think it humorous that I have this thumper. Thats ok. I'm laughing at myself too

I put a kick eez pad on the stock. The first time I shot it I took someone elses advice and put a big towel folded up about five times between me and the gun.

It was not a big deal. So the second shot I just snugged up to the pad and let one loose. The Kick eez pad is doing an amazing job. The reason I can tell is that I calculated the kick that this thing should put out. It should be well in excess of 35 to 40 pounds.

For comparison, a 9 pound 30 06 with a 180 grain bullet should kick you about 29 pounds worth. This approaches the limit of mere humans to endure the jolt.

I barrel sighted the scope at first. This is kind of a humorous exercise in itself because its like looking down a sewer pipe and trying to find the center. I got on paper at 50 yards with my first shot.

Then I moved the target out to 100 yards. I was shooting off of my pickup hood in a gusting 5 to 20 mph wind. The truck would wiggle, I would move. So I was a little bit of all over. But I did get it to hit the black part of the bulls eye with the last two shots. It took 15 shots to get there. Then I parked a beer can half filled with sand on the top of the box that I had the target taped to. Nailed it. I will post a picture later because I went ahead and brought them home.

At the end of 18 shots I confess that my shoulder was quivering. Not shaking, quivering. I also got a very light kiss a couple of times from the scope. Did not cut my forehead, but I know I could use another inch of lenght in the stock.

I am convinced that the kick eez pad makes this gun shootable for me. As much as it kicked I was able to not flinch too much because the recoil was not causing huge pain. But it definitely boots you pretty good. We will see if I bruise up by tomorrow or not.

Before I go hunt I am going to take it to a bench range and verify what I think I have sighted in.

When I first fired it I almost felt sorry for Mr Elk. After about 10 shots all notion of sympathy had dissappeared!

 

[Coltdriver]

Heres a picture of the target.

The last three shots were 1 -just a bit high and to the left of the top of the black circle, 2 - in the circle (hard to see here) and 3 - through the beer can.

The beer can was half filled with gravel. We could not tell that it had been hit as the bullet just passed right through the top!

The wind was blowing, gusting and moving the truck that I was shooting from so this shooting is nothing to brag about.

My shoulder is not even bruised. A couple of little red marks but not bruising. Just a bit sore from bracing into the rifle and having it move me back so forcefully.

 

[Gewehr98]

Nice gun.

I would've bought one in .45-70, and run Level II-III loads through it. Stock up on .450 Marlin brass if you plan on keeping it for a while.

 

[seeker_two]

+1 to Gewehr98.

The .450 Marlin was developed to make Class II-III .45-70 loads sellable over-the-counter at Wal-Mart in a way to avoid some dope from loading them into a blackpowder-only Trapdoor Springfield or Hotchkiss & blowing himself up. You can load up to the same performance levels in .45-70 IF YOU HAVE A STRONG, MODERN-MANUFACTURE, SMOKELESS-POWDER SAFE RIFLE like the Handi-Rifle. So far, the .45-70 is still outselling it 10:1....

Stock up on brass now....