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I'm fortunate enough to have one of the original 450's, in fact one of the first handful made.  I looked into coming up with something similar out of a Marlin, simply to save wear and tear on my cherished original.  In a nutshell you're far, far up a creek without a rowing device.

The 450 is based upon the 348 Win case and built on the Winchester Model 71 action which originally housed it.  The 450 is simply too long to function through the Marlin action without regard for the higher pressures you might encounter.  Hold the two actions side by side, and you'll notice there's a whole lot more steel in the 71.

You can track down one of the Model 71's released a few years back by Browning and proceed with making up a 450.  I almost did that myself, but got sidetracked putting together a 44 caliber (.429) wildcat for a Marlin based upon the 45-70 blown out to remove taper and form a shoulder.  

Call it a "super" version of the 444 with a whole lot more powder capacity for pushing 300-grain and heavier bullets to considerably higher velocities.  Not saying it is anything close to what you are looking for, but since you are already contemplating a wildcat I thought I would mention it. Great performance on game with the higher sectional density of .429 bullets of the same weight as .458's, plus I can shoot cheap pistol bullets through it for plinking and practice.

Message Thread:

• .450 Alaskan CowlitzSteelie Feb 22 2006
  • Other Choices Wyatt Feb 28 2006
  • 450 AK alaska bush man Feb 25 2006
  • marlin BrownBear Feb 23 2006
    • New 71 CowlitzSteelie Feb 23 2006
      • 71's BrownBear Feb 23 2006
  • 450 AK or some other monster masher... Murphy Feb 23 2006
    • Bummer CowlitzSteelie Feb 23 2006
  • Conversion Snowwolfe Feb 23 2006
    • .45/70 conversion CowlitzSteelie Feb 23 2006
  • 450 BrownBear Feb 23 2006
    • Johnson Rifle alaska bush man Feb 27 2006
    • .450 Alaskan CowlitzSteelie Feb 23 2006
      • xlr BrownBear Feb 23 2006
        • XLR CowlitzSteelie Feb 23 2006