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Nitro, I was kidding. I understand your concern about the seemingly common obsession with hotrodding the .45-70 and then proclaiming it the equal of the .458 WM, etc. I agree with you. I am a big fan of the .45-70, particularly in the accurate and handy Marlin, a gun that can stand significantly heavier loads than the old Springfield Tradoor, etc. But I'm not going to proclaim my rifle a .458 Winchester Mag Lever Gun, either and I get a chuckle when I read others doing so.

As for selling more .450's than .45-70's, I'm not so sure. You might have a good point in Australia where they could serve a practical purpose, but I don't think any side-by-side rifle is going to be a BIG seller anywhere, and the .416+ heavy calibers are not really big sellers even in bolt guns. "Classic cordite" isn't going to set any sales records in any guns and I suspect such shells would have a tough run for their money stacked up against the .45-70 in a race in the USA. Big talk always accompanies the heavy calibers by aficionados of them, but as for actually selling them, well, that is a tough job. When I was working in retail, we sold 4000+ guns per year and I considered the .416+ calibers to be "loss leaders" of a sort, making big headlines, attracting many bwana-wanna-be's, but when push came to shove on the sales floor, we sold 100 or more "less powerful" guns {.338, .300, etc} for every one of the .416+ biggies. For simple reasons; A guy could use the smaller bores whereas he could look at and pretend with the big ones. The guy may have come in to the shop to handle a .458, but he went home with a .338. And it happened all the time.

Before I get swamped with howls from the defenders of big-bores, I'm not condemning the ownership or use of them in any way, but I AM stating that from a marketing standpoint, the heavies are tough to send out the door. They are a very slim slice of the gun pie. Sure, there are shops where they are sold, there are dealers that sell them. But for a company to weigh the pretty-popular .45-70 against the not-very-popular .450 NE, and tool up to produce the .450 would be a difficult decision to make and if I was on the marketing board I'd vote .45-70 all the way.

I still think the heavies are great marketing tools for gun companies, but as for mass appeal and big money being made from them? Watch the next economic slowdown. They'll be the first ones to disappear from the catalogues. If there is little market for the .45-70 in the Baikal sxs, I doubt there's a market at all for the .450 NE.

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