450 marlin
 

anybody here hunting w/ a 450? just wondering how they perform on moose/deer

RE: 450 marlin
 

i dont hunt with a 450 but i hunt with a 45-70 and that works great so i imagine that the 450 should perform somewhat close to the 45-70

RE: 450 marlin
 

I use one for Hogs and they work great. Basically they are are hot loaded 45/70. When you hit something w/ them it doesn't go far. I haven't used it on deer yet though it should work great for deer or moose. The only limitation is you need to keep your shots to 200 yards or less because the bullet really drops fast past 200 yards.

RE: 450 marlin
 

Woolywag,
No moose, but they'll darn sure lay out a big swamp hog. Awesome results on pigs, they just fall over. Haven't lost one yet.

RE: 450 marlin
 

One of my brothers isn't into balistics at all!!! He's NOT "one bit" interested in any of it!! He buys a gun, buys some ammo for it, sights it in, and goes hunting!

He shot a LOT of deer with a 444 Marlin and liked it! He said it killed deer quite good! He still has it.

Then he bought a 45/70 and after shooting 5 or 6 deer proclaimed it a DUD!!! It kills them, but too slow for his taste!! He sold it!!!

Now he has a 450 Marlin and has shot about 15 or more deer with it. He really likes it, and said it really does the job on them!!!

Perasonally, i've not used one myself,

Drilling Man

RE: 450 marlin
 

DM, I got myself a 45-70 last week, and only reason I picked that, I knew I could juice it up to close to 450marlin. If I didn't reload, I would have picked the 450marlin. I guess he was shooting the slow stuff.

RE: 450 marlin
 

For the reloader there is nothing that the 450 Marlin or 444 Marlin can do that the 45-70 can't do. If you don't reload then one of the others may be better.

RE: 450 marlin
 

An unexpanded .450 has three times the frontal area of a .270. It's also got some weight behind it to carry it through bone and tissue that would stop a smaller round. Combined, it's heck of a lot of hurt.

RE: 450 marlin
 

Aaaaaaaww lets see...., that's .277 x 3 = .831" . That is it was where i went to school!! A .450 Marlin bullet is HOW big????

No matter, there's just a LOT more to it than "frontal area" and "bullet weight" that determines what happens to an animial when the bullet hits it!!!

Drilling Man

RE: 450 marlin
 

DM, I was thinking the same exact thing. All I could think of was, HUH? LOL Maybe math has changed a lot since we've been in school. Unless he meant the actual tip of the slug? I don't know, my brain hurts. LOL

RE: 450 marlin
 

Well, you see James is so old he is on that "old" math in the dakotas. You got to give him a break:D

They changed over to the "new" math in the last few years.

RE: 450 marlin
 

You better read that again. It wasn't me that had the math problem. :DBesides that, I have heard rumors that we are soon going to have those fancy battery powered calcuators.;) Then I won't have to take my shoes off during these cold ND winters to do my math.

RE: 450 marlin
 

Looks like BC is so old he's getting senile!! hahahhaaa........ BC i bet your so old you fart dust!! :>)))

Drilling Man

RE: 450 marlin
 

Well, I come from Ky and WV, we have math ain't ever heard of. Its a new advanced style we do with our 6 toes on each feet. What can I say we are more evolved than your average high stepper.

RE: 450 marlin
 

Don't worry Max, these guys still think pie r round. not pi r squared

RE: 450 marlin
 

True!!! Pie R Round in ND.:D

RE: 450 marlin
 

DM, he's got ya now.

RE: 450 marlin
 

Well, i got all my "learning years" in Alaska, what do i know....................... :>)))

Most of us have shot a finger or toe off by now, so we've screwed when it comes to ciferin those big numbers!!!

Drilling Man

RE: 450 marlin
 

Pie is round here too. Never seen a square one. We call them cakes.:D

RE: 450 marlin
 

But what about cobbler?:D

RE: 450 marlin
 

Ok, Drilling, he said FRONTAL AREA, not diameter!!!! Frontal area---assuming we're talking wadcutter bullets with perfectly blunt noses, and not the spitzers typical to the .270:

Area of a circle (the end of the cylindrical bullet--i.e. frontal area of the bullet)=PI*R^2, so for a .270win that's (.277"/2)^2*3.141592654, which equals 0.060 square inches For a .45-70 using a .458" slug, the frontal area is (.458/2)^2*3.141592654, which equals 0.165 square inchest of bullet face. By my calculations, that's 2.73 times the facia area of the .270's bullet.

Of course, that can cut both ways, yes, it effects a much greater area of tissue and gives a bigger "smack" upon impact, and the fact that it uses an extremely blunt bullet compared to the .270's spitzers, the "smack" will be even greater, but then again, say I've got 1000ft.lbs. of energy behind either bullet, the force per square inch is going to be only about 1/3 in the .45-70 than in the .270...which isn't necessarily an unfair analysis, since many of the .270 and .45-70 factory loadings available are fairly similarly powered in muzzle energy.

But then again, the .450 and .45-70 have about 2.5x the bullet MASS as well, so when it's big face runs into something, it'd really like to keep on going...

I've hunted elk with a .450 (and also a .45-70 among half a dozen other cartridges), it's certainly a good choice. It is a heavy bullet, so you've got to practice a lot to really get to "know the rainbow", a .270 that's dead on at 100yrds might be 1" high at 50yrds and 2" low at 200yrds, but a .450M dead on at 100 might be 4" high at 50 and 10" low at 200, and somewhere between there for ranges between... You don't take a heavy bullet straight walled cartridge afield without knowing where it hits at different ranges, not just looking at a chart, but actually shooting and seeing where your gun prints for given ranges you might take a shot at.

RE: 450 marlin
 

Deafening! I used my .450 last year and did bag a buck. Shot it thru the heart (not its frontal area) at about 10 feet. The buck went about 30 yards. This was the very first time I shot the gun without ear protection, wow, ears were ringing for hours. Mine is the guide gun, short barrel-ported. Looks neat, handles great, kicks like a mule, layed that deer out, it is deafening. I love it.:eek:

RE: 450 marlin
 

No argument from me on your math, i'll refer you to my LAST post on my math abilities!! :>))

BUT, your assumeing that the 270 bullet won't expand, and it WILL in a deer. On the other hand, unless the 45 cal also expands (and it probable won't expand much in a deer) The rules change.

The gun writer that puts it on paper to match MY personal hunting experences best is John Wooters!!! He said what i also think!! What determines how well a bullet kills an animial, is HOW FAST IT EXPANDS inside the animial, BUT, the bullet ALSO HAS TO penetrate to the vitals!!!! (and for me to be happy, exit the animial)

"Ok", now i'm in WAAAY over my head, and you guys are too smart for me!! :>)))

Drilling Man

RE: 450 marlin
 

I'm not really certain why everyone always assumes that these big bullets don't expand, it's basically only because people choose harder bullets when they've got a bigger starting diameter. I typically use a medium-hard cast flat point bullet in .45-70, believe me, the bullets expand quite a bit...however, 45cal is big enough you don't need them to expand much to do a lot of damage to a deer--I've recovered a jacketed HP that expanded to nearly an inch in diameter in a deer.

I guess I'm saying that their expansion is a function of their design, not of their caliber.

RE: 450 marlin
 

It's your arithmatic that's wrong. I said frontal area not the diameter. Duh!!

The frontal area of a .450 is .317925
The frontal area of a .270 is .114453

It's not exactly 3 times but pretty darn close.

RE: 450 marlin
 

Let's get back to the original question, yes the .450 is great on the big animals.

It kills by putting a lot of lead in the animal by burning a lot of powder. A little bullet like the .270 also kills but uses speed to do the same. The problem is all that speed isn't going to do a darn bit of good if it; 1) is put on a fragile bullet that strikes a thick bone causing it to stop right there. 2) doesn't expand properly and keeps on going without doing much damage to the animals organs. That little .270 needs to expand to do any real damage because only by expanding is it going to deposit it's energy on the animal. The .450 hits the animal pre-expanded. It's also got a lot of weight behind it to keep it going deep into the vital organs. On top of all that it's going to expand allowing it to cause more damage.

Ignore the energy chart, it's all paper. When lead hits meat I'll rate the .450 as just as deadly as any .270, 30-06, .308, 7mm, or 300 mag.

RE: 450 marlin
 

My 45/70 is a killing machine . With buffalo bore or garrett rounds you can take any animal on this planet. I dont know about all the math going on here but I do know what I have seen in the field and it would amaze most hunters the affectiveness of its killing power.It has terminal power