ORIGINAL: redonion
Greetings:
I'm wondering which one of these lever action big bore rifles (.450 Marlin) is preferred by all of you more knowledgable timber hunters and why. I'm building my gun battery up this spring and I have little experience with either company's levers (I do have an old win. .32 special). Any feedback is greatly appreciated, Thanx.
Quite simply, the BLR. It locks up on the front end of the bolt, and is therefore stronger. It alsohas a box magazine which will permit you to use pointed bullets, like the Barnes Original semisptizer400-grainer, which has a ballistic coefficient of .389. Use of this bullet at 2100 FPS takes the .450 Marlin or .45/70 out of the short-range only class.
But despite a few disadvantages compared to the BLR, the Marlin is an excellent rifle in its' own right!