ALL NEW SPECIAL EDITION!

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1 ALL NEW SPECIAL EDITION! Historical.500s Why the.450 is Best.375 Super Mediums Back-Up Plan: Big Bores and Dangerous Game Fall 2014 $7.99 Special Edition Display until 11/08/2014 Printed in USA $7.99 U.S./Canada 46 Big, American Cartridges!.50 B&M Alaskan.505 Gibbs.450 Ackley Magnum

2 RIFLE S R I F L E S & C A R T R I D G E S On the cover... This.416 Remington is among the first from Remington s custom shop prior to the cartridge s introduction (Layne Simpson photo). Below is a Zoli.450/.400 Nitro Express 3 Inch double carried in Alaska brown bear country (Phil Shoemaker photo) Early Big Bores in North America Spotting Scope - Dave Scovill What Is a Big Bore? Campfire Contention Continues to Burn On John Barsness The Perfect Big Bore For enthusiasts, the quest may never end. Layne Simpson Medium Big-Bore.375s Power and versatility make the.375 a top choice. Brian Pearce.338 Winchester Magnum It s a big bore and then some. John Haviland The Big 50 The.500s moved in fits and starts. Terry Wieland Fall Volume 46 Special Edition ISSN Big Bores and Brown Bears Perspective from an Alaska Master Guide Phil Shoemaker 48 Black-Powder Big Bores The Evolution of Big, American Cartridges Mike Venturino Big Medicine and Elk Straight-Walled Cartridges with Muscle to Spare Jack Ballard Big Enough and Small Enough Why the.450 Is the Best All-Around Big Bore Terry Wieland Stopping Power Opinions have shifted in the last 120 years. Ganyana A Century of Similarities A Historical View of the.416 Ruger Phil Shoemaker.425 Westley Richards Rifle System A Century Ahead and Better Than Most Terry Wieland The Mostly Long Guns - Brian Pearce Big Bores and Big Bullets Walnut Hill - Terry Wieland Staff Listing Publisher/President Don Polacek Publishing Consultant Mark Harris Editor in Chief Dave Scovill Associate Editor Lee J. Hoots Managing Editor Roberta Scovill Senior Art Director Gerald Hudson Production Director Becky Pinkley Contributing Editors John Haviland Ron Spomer Brian Pearce Stan Trzoniec Clair Rees Mike Venturino Gil Sengel Ken Waters Terry Wieland Advertising Advertising Director - Tammy Rossi tammy@riflemag.com Advertising Representative - Tom Bowman bowman.t@sbcglobal.net Advertising Representative - James Dietsch jamesdietsch@cox.net Advertising Information: Circulation Circulation Manager Kendra Newell circ@riflemagazine.com Subscription Information: Rifle (ISSN ) is published bimonthly with one annual special edition by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dba Wolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, President), 2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona (Also publisher of Handloader magazine.) Telephone (928) Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S. possessions single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $19.97; 12 issues, $36. Foreign and Canada single issue, $5.99; 6 issues $26; 12 issues, $48. Please allow 8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved. Change of address: Please give six weeks notice. Send both the old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Department, Rifle Magazine, 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A, Prescott, Arizona POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Rifle, 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A, Prescott, Arizona Canadian returns: PM # Pitney Bowes, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Wolfe Publishing Co Gulfstream, Ste. A Prescott, AZ Tel: (928) Fax: (928) Polacek Publishing Corporation Publisher of Rifle is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of published loading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. All authors are contracted under work for hire. Publisher retains all copyrights upon payment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts Background Photo: 2014 Vic Schendel 3

3 .338 Winchester Magnum Big Bore SPECIAL EDITION It s a big bore and then some. 30 Rifle Special Edition

4 John Haviland According to an informal survey of fellow rifle fanatics, the.338 Winchester Magnum qualifies as a big-bore cartridge. Several respondents said a strict interpretation of a big bore is a cartridge that fires.40-caliber or larger bullets, and by that definition the meets the requirement but the.338 falls short. All agreed bore size alone does not determine what is considered a big-bore cartridge and noted the.338 Winchester qualifies as a big bore more by the comparative energy and the terminal performance its bullets deliver at a distance. A rifle chambered in.338 Winchester Magnum is light enough for elk hunters to carry all day. The.338 Winchester Magnum shooting a 250-grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,700 fps develops 4,000 foot-pounds (ft-lbs) of energy. That is quite a bit less than the energy produced at the muzzle by a 500- grain bullet fired from a.458 Winchester Magnum or a 400-grain bullet fired from a.416 Rigby, two true bigbore cartridges. However, the.338 bullet s energy surpasses the.458 s at 200 yards and pulls even with the.416 s bullet at 300 yards. If those figures are compared to other cartridges popular for hunting big game in North America, then the.338 Winchester Magnum truly is a big-bore cartridge. Gun magazines during the 1970s and 1980s indoctrinated American hunters to buy magnum cartridges. My friends took the bait and traded their.30-06s for.300 Winchester Magnums. How a couple of hundred feet per second increase in bullet velocity killed elk and bears all that much better escaped me. Until I had figured it out, I kept my eyes downcast and kept to dark alleys bearing the shame of hunting with such an obsolete cartridge as the The.338 Winchester Magnum solved my predicament. The cartridge was a larger edition of the and shot 250-grain bullets at the same speed as the 06 shot 180s. It also shot 200s at the velocity the 06 shot 150s and 225-grain bullets at the pace of 165s from the 06. On a summer Saturday morning in 1981, I browsed through a general store in town that sold everything from cosmetics and kitchenware to reloading supplies and rifles. I returned home carrying an oblong box in which only a rifle fits. Inside the box lay a new Ruger Model Winchester Magnum. I was ready for any big bull elk or bulldozer of a bear. The rifle s kick was nasty shooting 200- and 250- grain factory loads. Replacing the thin bumper of tractor tire rubber with a thick recoil pad helped soften the blow. Standing, instead of sitting while shooting from a bench, allowed my shoulder to roll with the punch and kept my spine from compressing like an accordion. Gradually I learned how to handle the rifle shooting loads containing reduced amounts of powder, but to this day I dislike shooting more than 10 hunting loads during practice and make every effort to avoid shooting it in the prone position. The ability to place bullets of different weights at nearly the same point from 100 to 300 yards is one convenience and ammo-saving attribute of the.338 Winchester Magnum. With the same sight setting, at 100 yards handloaded 210-grain bullets hit about one inch high of aim, 225s right on, 250s 1.25 inches low and 275s 1.75 inches low. Combined Technology 200- grain Ballistic Silvertips (2,840 fps), Speer 225-grain boat-tails (2,577 fps) and Speer 250-grain Grand Slams (2,559 fps) all dropped between 4 and 5 inches below aim at 300 yards. Bullets from all three of those loads landed in a 4-inch vertical circle. Any of these three loads can be shot without having to adjust the scope. At 400 yards the 210- and 225-grain bullets should hit an elk through the lungs with a hold on top of the shoulder. The 250 and 275 grainers would require about 8 more inches of elevation. That distance, though, is at the outer reach of the 250- and 275-grain bullets range, because their velocities fall to about 1,900 fps, which is too slow for positive expansion. Still, that s pretty good utility from the same sight setting. The.338 Winchester Magnum s strength is a 250- grain bullet, which sets it a step above.300 magnums. The.338 easily shoots that bullet weight 2,700 fps with a case full of IMR-4350 powder. The Nosler Reloading Guide 7 lists a velocity of 2,780 fps with that bullet weight and H-4831 powder. The first year hunting with the Ruger, I shot handloads with Sierra 250-grain GameKings and killed a mule deer buck and a bull elk with one bullet apiece, broadside through the lungs. The Sierras killed a few more deer and elk, and all the bullets sailed out the far side. Just to experiment, I switched to Hornady 225-grain InterLocks. There was no difference in the performance between it compared to the Sierra on deer, elk and black bears. It was a bit odd, but mule deer and whitetails seemed to run 30 yards and then fall over, while elk pretty much pitched over on their noses. It was a pleasant surprise to find the bullets had created no blood-shot meat in the shoulders

5 Left, the bullet itself has a lot to do with whether a cartridge is considered a big bore; this 275-grain bullet definitely puts the.338 in the category. Above,.338 bullets (left to right): Nosler 200-grain Ballistic Tip, Nosler 210 Partition, Barnes 210 Triple-Shock, Speer 225 spitzer boat-tail, Hornady 225 SST, Nosler 225 Accu - Bond, Barnes 225 Triple-Shock, Swift 225 A-Frame, Hornady 225 InterLock, Swift 250 A-Frame, Nosler 250 Partition and Swift 275-grain A-Frame. From a practical standpoint, elk hunting is about the only sound reason to carry a.338 Winchester Magnum in the western states. For all the work and expense an elk hunter incurs, he may only get one chance. His bull may be on the far side of a park or jumping from its bed in a deadfall thicket, and for those times a bullet arriving with a surplus of power is a good investment. I ve read an advantage of the raw power of a bullet fired from the.338 Winchester Magnum compensates for a poorly placed shot. I found that was complete fabrication one spring after sneaking up on a black bear feeding about 60 or 70 yards steeply below on a hillside. The bear dropped when my.338 bullet hit it then disappeared beneath the brow of the hill. I thought it was dead and started down the hill, but the bear reappeared, walking seemingly unscathed up the hill toward me. Another bullet in the right spot killed it. My first bullet had struck the rather small bear with approximately 3,400 ft-lbs of energy, but it had hit the bear high and back.338 Winchester Magnum 32 of the lungs. Now when someone says his big-bore magnum makes up for less than precise bullet placement, I courteously agree the few hundreds of an inch of additional width of his bullet over a smaller diameter bullet makes all the difference in the world. The.338 Winchester Magnum muscle really comes into its own hunting moose and grizzly bears in Alaska and western Canada. After years of dreaming, I finally cleaned out the bank account and booked a grizzly and moose hunt in northern British Columbia. I fretted about what gear to pack, but the decision of what rifle to carry in the saddle scabbard was simple, my.338. A few days into the hunt, guide Dennis Smith and I spotted a huge grizzly at timberline across a mountain valley. After a wild horseback ride across boulder-choked rivers and through the forest, we left the horses and made the final approach on foot. The.338 Winchester Magnum in my hands felt very reassuring when the grizzly swaggered out of the huckleberry brush above us. I shot the bear tight behind the shoulder with a Speer 250-grain Grand Slam. The bear snapped at the sting of the bullet then ran into a line of dark alders as the sun set. The rifle felt like a toy in my hands following the blood trail into the alders. We nearly stepped on the dead bear before we saw it. A few days later, I shot a bull moose on the bank of a river. It staggered into the water and died. Smith carries a.338 Winchester Magnum to back up his grizzly bear hunters. If you muff the shot, he says, the.338 will hit them hard up close to my belt buckle. If the bear s out there a ways and you still haven t redeemed yourself after another shot or two, the.338 will still get the job done. A 250-grain bullet from a.338 Winchester Magnum (left) comes up short in muzzle energy compared to bullets from a.416 Rigby (center) and.458 Winchester (right). At a distance, however, the energy of the.338 s bullet more than catches up to the two big-bore cartridges. Rifle Special Edition

6 WHICH SCOPE IS BEST FOR MY RIFLE? This group with Swift A-Frame bullets shows the.338 Winchester Magnum is an accurate cartridge. All manner of premium bullets have been developed in the years since that hunt and have been a bane and boon for the.338 Winchester Magnum. On the one hand, bullets such as the Barnes Triple- Shock and Swift A-Frame hold on to most of their weight when they hit game, so many hunters have passed over the.338 in favor smaller caliber cartridges, especially.300 magnums. Then again, those bullets have also increased the.338 s effectiveness. A.338 Winchester Magnum shooter has the option of shooting a heavy bullet, like a Nosler 250-grain Partition or Swift 275-grain A-Frame, for the hardest and deepest strike. Or he can shoot a lighter bullet, like a Nosler 225-grain AccuBond or Barnes 210-grain Tipped Triple- Shock, at a higher velocity for a flatter trajectory at long range. I used to save the leg bones of elk I had butchered, prop them up and shoot them at various distances with a variety of bullets. A Speer 250-grain Grand Slam from a.338 Winchester Magnum killed this grizzly. We now have three versions of the World s Finest Trimmer! The Original WFT Designed for high-volume shooters. Each trimmer will trim a cartridge family, for example: the 308 Win. trimmer will also trim the 243 Win., 260 Rem. and the 7mm- 08 Rem. Uses your 3/8 drill for power. Suitable for bottleneck cartridges up to 338 cal. $69.95 The WFT II Our newest trimmer! A universal trimmer with interchangeable chambers. 80+ chambers available. Chambers will trim a specific caliber or case family like the original WFT. Suitable for bottleneck cartridges up to.45 cal. Requires a 1/2 chuck. Housing/Cutter assembly $ $24.95 per chamber. The Big Boy WFT Our scaled-up universal trimmer for the 50 BMG. Chambers available from 338 Lapua to 50 BMG. Requires a 1/2 chuck. Housing/Cutter assembly $ $29.95 per chamber. All three trimmers are extremely fast, robust and precise. Does it feel like you have a mountain of brass to trim? Get the W.F.T.! (World s Finest Trimmer) and make a molehill out of it! Little Crow Gunworks, LLC th Ave. NE, Suite C Spicer, MN Tel: (320) Visit Our Website Now For Online Specials! The quick response by customer service was amazing. I cannot overstate how refreshing it was to do business with a company who cares so much about their customer s satisfaction. - Bryce B., 2014 Big Game Varmint Low Light Competition Target Shotgun Muzzleloader Rimfire Dangerous Game Toll Free: service@4scopes.com Promo code OCTRIFLE for $20 off purchase of $200 or more. (Expires: 9/30/14) See our videos on YouTube! Order Online at: Custom Rifle Builders Specializing in long-range rifles, precision barreling, muzzle brakes and metal work. 33

7 WALNUT GUN STOCK BLANKS From Tree to Sawmill to You - No Middleman FREE Brochure Visit our Web site: clarowalnutgunstocks.com CLARO WALNUT GUNSTOCK CO Stanley Ave. Chico, CA Phone: (530) Fax: (530) Since RMS CUSTOM GUNSMITHING Robert M. Szweda Classic Style Stocks and Custom Checkering. Call: (928) or visit my web site: Whispers are developments of SSK Industries. Custom barrels for Contenders, Encores, bolt guns and semi-autos as well as complete guns and the cans to keep them quiet are available. SSK chambers over 400 calibers. Wild wildcat ideas welcomed. SSK Industries 590 Woodvue Lane Wintersville, OH Tel: Winchester Magnum Nosler 210-grain Partitions, with an impact velocity of 2,700 fps, at about 100 yards, shot from my.338 Winchester Magnum completely crushed the head of humerus bones and buried 12 inches into the dirt behind the bones. The front half of the bullets had sheared off at the Partitions dividing walls, and their expanded diameters were.65 and.53 inch. The bullets shanks, however, had remained intact and the recovered bullets weighed 163 and 125 grains. In contrast, the discontinued Speer 275-grain semispitzer bullets tore apart when they hit the bones at a slow 2,300 fps. Their cores were gone and the jackets were ripped down the sides and recovered just inside the dirt. Barrel & Gun Works Reboring Rerifling Custom Barrels Lengths to 36 Calibers.22 to.585 Chrome moly or Stainless Steel Dan Pedersen, Barrel Maker 339 Grove Avenue Prescott, AZ dan@cutrifle.com So it s more than weight alone that is required to keep a bullet intact when it meets more resistance than a thin rib. I ve recovered only three.338 bullets from game. Two were Hornady 225-grain InterLocks out of a big black bear. The bear and I stared at each other from about 200 yards. About the time I decided to shoot, the bear turned around to leave. The first Inter- Lock plowed through the length of the bear, breaking its left humerus and right femur. The bear fell down, but to my surprise, stood up and started limping away. The second bullet did the same thing to the right humerus and left femur and killed the bear. Both bullets showed as lumps under the hide. They had expanded back to their cannelures. A Swift 250-grain A-Frame was the third bullet. I d followed four sets of elk tracks for most of two hours when they branched off one by one to bed for the day in a north-facing slope of blowndown timber. I kept to the highest trail and slowed to an agonizingly measured pace, stopping every few yards for a full minute to look and listen. I slipped around the branches of a short spruce, and the bull lay asleep in its bed at 15 yards. The Swift bullet hit the bull in the front of its sternum. It slumped over and kicked its back legs as it died. I found the bullet lodged in the elk s pelvis. It weighed 236 grains and had mushroomed picture perfect. Everything had turned into a soup between the entrance wound and where the bullet had come to rest. With that sort of performance, the.338 Winchester Magnum shows bore size alone is not the sole measure of a big-bore cartridge. This is further proven by the terminal performance its bullets deliver when they reach their destination. The.338 Winchester Magnum s flexibility for shooting big game up close and at a distance demonstrates it is a big bore and a lot more. R Rifle Special Edition

8 MOSTLY LONG GUNS Originally introduced in the U.S. Model 1873 Springfield trapdoor rifle and known as the Government, an outstanding big-bore rifle cartridge was born. It remains popular and unusually useful more than 140 years later. Period loads contained.458-inch lead bullets (making it closer to a.46 caliber) that weighed 405 grains and were propelled with 70 grains of black powder. As was tradition at that time, it was soon referenced as the indicating caliber and powder charge. After extensive long-range testing, around 1881 a 500-grain load was also adopted by the military, and loads were referenced as and to better identify both THE by Brian Pearce As is often the case with government-adopted (or developed) cartridges, the was destined to become popular among civilians. At first it was adapted to period single-shot rifles, such as the popular Sharps Model 1874, Remington rolling block, etc., where it was used for big-game hunting and target work. Marlin was first to offer a repeating lever-action in its innovative Model This was a major blow to Winchester, as it had received requests for a repeating rifle but had been unsuccessful in designing one. Powerful.45-caliber cartridges had been developed, including the WCF (1876) and WCF (1879) in the Model 1876 rifle, but that rifle could not house the longer Thankfully Winchester discovered frontier gun-designing genius John Browning and nurtured a long-term relationship that benefited both. After selling patents and manufacturing rights for what would become the Winchester Model 1885 single shot, Browning next designed what would become the Winchester Model 1886 leveraction rifle. With a comparatively compact and strong action, it proved durable, while Winchester s barrel quality delivered outstanding accuracy. The new rifle seemed to have been designed to meet the specific needs of frontiersmen, lawmen, big-game hunters and horsemen of that era. While it was first chambered for the WCF, it would eventually be offered for 10 cartridges. It took a few years for Marlin to respond with the Model 1895, an outstanding rifle that competed favorably with Winchester s Times were beginning to change rapidly, however, as were cartridges. The smokeless-powder era was Today the remains popular in leverguns, where it is used for recreational target shooting but also serves for hunting. here, along with comparatively high velocity cartridges such as the.30 U.S., aka Krag (1892) Factory Load Performance Table I advertised actual load velocity velocity (grains) (fps) (fps) 300 Federal JHP 1,850 1, Winchester JHP 1,880 1, Buffalo Bore 2,100 2, Buffalo Bore JFN 2,000 1, Cor-Bon FP 1,650 1, Remington SP 1,330 1, Buffalo Bore cast GC 1,925 1, Garrett Hammerhead 1,550 1,445 Notes: A Marlin Model 1895 with a 22-inch barrel was used to test-fire all loads. Rifle Special Edition

9 and.30 WCF, aka Winchester (1895) while a host of modern smallbore numbers were just around the corner. They kicked less, shot flatter, were available in more compact, lightweight rifles and carbines, and ammunition cost less. They also generally killed deer and similar game reliably. American bison were mostly gone, elk and moose populations were low, and the grizzly bear only remained in remote areas of the lower 48 states. Soon demand for big-bore, black-powder era guns and ammunition waned, while many experienced, gray-haired hunters knew the value of the cartridges on heavy game and stuck with their guns. The stock market crashed in 1929, followed by the Great Depression, and virtually all gun sales slowed to a crawl. Both Winchester and Marlin had to eliminate models, downsize and streamline manufacturing to survive, which marked the end of big-bore leverguns, or so it was thought. Post-World War II hunters and shooters recognized the value of large-caliber, heavy bullets on big game, such as Alaskan brown bear, black bear and moose; and elk were beginning to make a comeback. Winchester and Marlin rifles were once again in demand. Winchester s Model 86 tooling was disposed of (or reworked to build other guns) prior to World War II, but Marlin was producing the Model 336 (a descendent of the Models 1893, 93 and 36) and used that receiver to create the modern.444 Marlin in Sales were good, but it only seemed to stimulate demand for the bigger Marlin responded with its modern Model (also based on the 336 receiver) in 1972, which enjoyed strong sales and has remained popular. Additional 1895 variants have been offered, including the popular Guide Gun with an inch barrel, the Cowboy with 26-inch octagonal barrel, the stainless steel SBL and many special editions. In 1986 Browning recognized demand for a copy (manufactured in NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA Moose, Woodland Caribou & Black Bear Hunts Book now for 2014 & 2015 Tel/Fax: (877) dean.wheeler@nf.sympatico.ca P.O. Box 159, York Harbour, NL, Canada A0L 1L

10 88 The (left) started life as a U.S. military black-powder cartridge in the Model 1873 U.S. trapdoor Springfield rifle, with this load being the 1881-era, 500-grain version. Most modern ammunition (right) is loaded to a shorter overall length to accommodate all repeating rifles. Miroku, Japan) of the Model 1886 Rifle (1992 for Carbine version) in.45-70, while today Browning Arms Co. imports limited variations under the Winchester brand, but with a rebounding hammer that has been somewhat problematic with misfires. Modern leverguns from Marlin and Browning are top-notch hunting rifles that are capable of taking any game animal on earth with correct loads. While sources for original (1873- era) ballistics don t always agree, the 405-grain lead bullet loads were around 1,350 fps, while the 500-grain load reached around 1,250 fps, both in 32-inch barrels, which developed maximum pressures of 28,000 CUP (CUP = psi in the.45-70). Due to the many black-powder era guns in circulation, SAAMI specifications still list this pressure figure as maximum with today s smokeless ammunition, which is suitable for all guns (such as the 1873 Springfield) that are in safe mechanical condition. Major U.S. ammunition companies, however, generally hold pressure limits to around 18,000 to 22,000 CUP maximum. Federal, Remington and Winchester all advertise a 300-grain JHP bullet at between 1,810 and 1,880 fps or a 405-grain JSP at 1,330 fps. These loads are effective for hunting deer, black bear, elk and moose. When the is chambered in modern Marlin and Winchester pattern leverguns, much greater power is readily available from this cartridge. Chamber pressures can be safely increased to 43,500 psi in modern Marlin or Browning leverguns (and several other rifle action types), which can push a 350-grain bullet over 2,100 fps, a 405-grain jacketed or 430-grain cast bullet over 2,000 fps from a 22-inch barrel or a 550-grain bullet at 1,550 fps. Such loads are readily available from several ammunition companies (each specifying what guns its loads are safe in), such as Buffalo Bore Ammunition, PMC, Garrett Cartridges of Texas, Cor-Bon, Grizzly Cartridge and others. Handloaders can also duplicate any of the above factory loads (see the accompanying table). The above loads move the into a significantly higher category of power and usefulness on large game. With correct bullets, it has earned an outstanding reputation on the world s toughest and largest game, including hippo, Cape buffalo and elephant, and has become especially popular in Alaska for In spite of modern.45-caliber cartridge developments, the remains by far the most popular. Examples include left to right:.45-70,.450 Marlin and.457 Wild West Magnum. Rifle Special Edition

11 Table II moose and brown bears. It offers remarkable penetration with correct bullets, and its large caliber delivers that heavy blow that has kept big-bore rifles in high demand. Having used leverguns for almost 40 years, they have pulled me out of a few tight places, have accounted for many bear, elk, deer and a number of African game, including Cape buffalo. A good rifle that is well-tuned and timed is a marvel and can deliver incredibly fast follow-up shots (at least if the shooter is capable). I have Marlin and Winchester leverguns that have digested thousands of rounds Handloads For modern firearms designed to handle pressures approaching 43,500 CUP. bullet powder charge velocity (grains) (grains) (fps) 350 Hornady FP H , Belt Mountain Punch Solid A-2015BR , Speer Flat SP IMR , Remington SP H , RCBS FN cast H , OR Trail True Shot FP A-2015BR , Kodiak Solid H ,548 Notes: A 22-inch barreled Marlin Model 1895 was used to test-fire all loads. Starline cases and Winchester Large Rifle primers were used throughout. Be Alert Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data. The (left) was first introduced in Winchester offered the (center) and (right) in its repeating Model 1876, but it wasn t until 1881 that Marlin offered the first repeating leveraction rifle chambered for the Win chester soon followed with the Browning-designed 1886, a combination that spelled trouble for the two Winchester.45-caliber cartridges. without a single misfire or malfunction. I am particularly fond of the original Marlin Model 1895 (1972 vintage) with a 22-inch barrel and straight lever and the Winchester Model 1886 Extra Light Rifle with a 22-inch barrel and two-thirds length magazine tube. At around pounds and with an overall length of about 401/2 inches, these rifles are light enough to carry all day and are at home in a saddle scabbard. They also offer beautiful balance, point naturally and are easy to shoot offhand while delivering significant horsepower. When equipped with a quality aperture rear sight and corresponding front, along with good ammunition, they often produce MOA accuracy. In spite of modern.45-caliber, lever-action cartridge developments intended to improve upon the ag - ing.45-70, such as the.450 Marlin and.457 Wild West Magnum, the remains by far the most popular, and frankly, is difficult to improve upon. When stoked with solids, it offers bone-breaking, deep penetration required for heavy, dangerous game and with controlled-expanding bullets can deliver tremendous shock to thinskinned game. There is a wide variety of factory loads readily available for any practical purpose. While the is available in many rifle actions and types, it is the easy carrying, natural pointing, flat-sided, lever-action carbines and short rifles that are most interesting. R