Shooting 1881 Marlin?

[nevereadyron]

I'm going to buy an 1881 marlin to hunt moose with this fall. I'm looking at a few in 45-70 (45 gov?) or 40-60. Which cartridge would be easier and safer to find or get reloaded? (I know nothing about black powder or reloading, kind of a bucket list thing)

 

[antiqueguy]

I'm going to buy an 1881 marlin to hunt moose with this fall. I'm looking at a few in 45-70 (45 gov?) or 40-60. Which cartridge would be easier and safer to find or get reloaded? (I know nothing about black powder or reloading, kind of a bucket list thing)

.45-70 is easier to find and get components for as for getting it reloaded by someone pretty sure that's illegal. pretty easy to load something like .45-70 with black powder though being a straight wall case fill it up with BP(goex or the like) to where the bullet will give it some compression and seat the bullet.

 

[sail32]

Yes, go with the 45-70, it is a better hunting cartridge.

COTW 8th Edition, shows the factory loading for the 40-60 Marlin as 260 grain bullet at 1385 fps.

Mike Venturino, in his book, " Shooting Lever Guns of the Old West ", show the ballistics of the 40-60 WCF as a 215 grain bullet over 55 grains of 2Fg, for a velocity of 1,480 fps.

Both are a little better than the 44-40, but not by much. The 215 grain bullet from a 44-40 is about 1.150 to 1.379 fps for a 1873 Winchester.

See " My Black Powder Journey ".

https://sites.google.com/view/44winchester/contributors/john-kort/two-peas-in-a-pod-by-john-kort

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?265478-My-44-40-Black-Powder-Journey

A 1881 Marlin in 45-60, which is a short 45-70, and ballistics, from the mentioned book are, a 324 grain bullet at 1,310 to 1,351 fps, may be a consideration.

The 40-60 Marlin and the 40-65 WCF both use the same cartridge case and can be made from 45-70 cases.