Trails End Winny?

[dak47]

So in a moment of weakness when conversing with the eldest over a beer and cigar just before his 30th yesterday - I gave my 70's 336 30-30, just felt right with the numbers and he is a good kid that works his ass off in the energy sector with me.

So now with that painful woodland rifle gap in the safe, thoughts on Trails End in .450? I handload, so that end of things is covered...... Don't hear much about em.

The wife was just rolling her eyes as she knew what was coming next....

Dirk

 

[Boomer]

Not being familiar with the Trails End, I had to look it up, and a couple of things came to my attention. First, if you're looking for a .450 Marlin, it looks to me like a better rifle than the Marlin, but a 6 pounds 12 ounces, it'll be a kicker. Recoil might cause the small loop lever to beat up your fingers, depending how you hold the rifle. Hard to say if the ported barrel will make much difference, particularly if you like heavy bullets. Its nice to see Winchester decided to keep the holes for a receiver sight, and the front sight is dovetailed into it's base, so swapping out to taller sight is simple enough. If you were going to install swivel studs, I might be inclined to drill and tap the forend cap rather than using a band on the magazine tube. An 1886 in .45-90 would be a heavier, recoil dampening rifle, and it's 24 inch barrel would produce a bit more velocity, but its got a wicked curved butt plate that would give your arm a hickey, and wouldn't be as handy as the 94.

 

[Tabacco Brook]

If I had the spare cash I wouldn't think twice,.. it's not a bench rest shooter, so recoil would be the last thing to worry about,.. 450 is an awesome thumper around the woods.

 

[Boomer]

If I had the spare cash I wouldn't think twice,.. it's not a bench rest shooter, so recoil would be the last thing to worry about,.. 450 is an awesome thumper around the woods.

If you have big fat fingers and jam them into one of those small levers, then light up a hot .45/70 or .450 Marlin load, you may begin to think twice about recoil, maybe even three times. That's why I gave up on the whole lever action thing and went to a .458 bolt gun.

 

[capebuffe]

'Mornin Dak;

I have had a Trails End for about 5 years. The .450 Marlin chambering isn't ###y today, so I call mine the .458 'Merican figuring it would sell a lot better commercially with a better handle.

I've killed a couple of WT and a moose with mine using 350 gr Hornady RN loaded to 2100 fps if I remember the chrony properly. The fellows above are correct in the criticism over recoil: it's heavy. With a receiver sight on it, mine is minute-of-moose to 250 yards as I'm able to hit a 10" plate regularly. Jethunter keeps me in practice ammo as I load his 420 gr cast slugs in a 'gallery' load to 1050 fps. It's easy and fun to shoot, and I'll bet would go through a moose as well. It's more accurate than my jacketed Hornady load, but starts to fall like a softball thrown by my 7 year old soon after 100 yards.

They are finished well for a factory gun and the TD feature sure makes cleaning easy. My only complaint is the rebounding hammer, but there's little we can do about that today.

Everyone needs a big-bore lever. I wouldn't sell mine.

Buff

 

[Dave-A]

I had a win 94 takedown 450 very nice gun good quality. Kicks way to much for me. It wrecked 2 leopold vx2 scopes as well so I got rid of it. Also note hornady no longer makes 350 grain only the 325 which is for deer. The rubber tips tend to snag when chambering. If you compare the brass from a 350 gr to a 325 the 325 is shorter to help with this issue.

I have about 7 boxes of brass and some factory loads if anyone is interested.