SIXGUNS BEYOND THE .44 MAGNUM -Part III-

JOHN TAFFIN

THE MAMMOTHS: In the early 1960's, Idahoan Stu Brainerd and Arizona Gunsmith Clarence Bates put their heads together and came up with two working sixguns that would handle the .45-70 rifle cartridge. They were not the first as Elmer Keith reported on a rather crude .45-70 revolver in the late 1950's.

By the mid 1970's, Earl Keller of Indiana had started producing the Century Model 100 .45-70 sixgun and I waited eight years to get mine which is serial number 276. That should tell us how many of these big sixguns were made before Keller's passing.

The current Century Model 100 is advertized as having a frame of 120,000 pound tensile strength bronze and stronger than the original guns. The cylinder and barrel are 4140 steel and in addition to the .45-70 chambering, Century has added the .30-30 Winchester, the .375 Winchester, the .444 Marlin, and in a special sixgun known as The Mother Load, the .50-70. All of the Century sixguns weigh right at six pounds which helps to dampen recoil of these rifle cartridges quite effectively. I would much rather fire a .45-70 or .50-70 from a six pound sixgun than a six pound carbine.

This is a lot of sixgun and I simply cannot see a whole lot of use for the .30-30 or .375 Winchester in a sixgun this size. I have both chamberings in T/C Contenders and they make dandy hunting handguns and even with a scope weigh a whole lot less and are easier to pack than the Century. Moving up to the .444 Marlin, I still find the chambering questionable as it is rather mild in the Century and can't really do anything that a .44 Magnum or .445 can't do in a much smaller sixgun. Factory loads in the .444 Marlin will do 1500 feet per second in the Century and I can get this much out of a long barreled .44 Magnum sixgun with proper handloads. Now we come to the real reason for the Century, the two nineteenth century black powder cartridges that become modern day powerhouses when handloaded and fired in the mother of all sixguns. Century tells me they have run the .50-70 up to 1800 feet per second with 450 grain bullets. That is a TKO rating of 59! Even in a six pound sixgun this load is a kicker to say the least. All of my loads for the .50-70 have been assembled with RCBS's #50-515FN, a 525 grain bullet from my alloy. At 1400 plus feet per second care must be exercised when shooting off sandbags to prevent getting hit in the head. At 1324 feet per second, the .45-70 hits a TKO rating of 35 with a 405 grain bullet, while at 1437 feet per second, a 525 grain .50-70 bullet rates at 55 on the Taylor Knockout Formula scale!

As this is written, another 'beyond the .44 Magnum' sixguns are emerging. Wesson Firearms is just starting to produce their latest SuperMag chambering, this time a stretched .41 Magnum to be know as the .414 SuperMag. Brass will be available from Starline.

Is it really possible to go any further in developing powerful sixgun chamberings? I would say no but better minds than mine have been wrong before. Ain't progress wonderful?