Took the Buffalo Classic out this week. Wednesday my son and I found a semi-secluded spot in the Washington woods and clanged steel and split rocks. Large rocks secumb to the PileDriver. The base of the part on the right is still embedded in the bank. The PileDriver seperated the two pieces from it with one shot.

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Today I got to shoot the load over a chronograph at a range. My PileDriver load ran 1433fps out of a guide gun for one shot and ran 1580, 1544, and 1556 out of the H&R 1871.

This barrel is probably longer than the round needs because the one fired from the 26" cowboy was in the 1500+ range.

Averaging the 3 rounds yields a mv of 1560fps for a TKO of 53.7 from the 1871 and 'only' 49.3 from the guide gun. That low tko # is twice what my 325g .44 mag load produces from a hand gun.

I am pretty sure it would penetrate any animal in the Americas end to end.

Regards,
Grizz

One of my favorite targets, too. What did yours score?? :)

Ah, the first thing I ever shot with a big bore levergun.
A college friend had a Marlin 444, and brought it along when he came to visit one summer. We took a couple of shots at a rock that was about 4 ft wide, and had about 2 ft of it sticking up out of the ground. We fired a couple of shots, and didn't bust it apart, but we were amazed to see a couple of cracks that ran all the way through front to back.

I had to have one...actually I wanted a .45-70 Marlin since seeing it in the 1973 catalog, so I got one of those.

Anyway, I still think about "splitting" that big rock now and then.

I don't have any rocks to kill but I do help the enviroment by building new nesting holes for the swallows in the clay banks by the creek with my 444.

My kids enjoy bustin watermelons at 25-30 ft with the 405 gr .444 I got from this site traveling at about 1500 fps.

My kids enjoy bustin watermelons at 25-30 ft with the 405 gr .444 I got from this site traveling at about 1500 fps.
I just hope they are your watermelons and not your neighbors. :eek:

I love late october when halloween activities are finished up and my neighbor who grows pumpkins has a few left over to shoot with my 45-70.....you cant believe what Rem 300gr HP's do to a poor innocent pumpkin.

Do they explode nicely as-is, or do you have to fill with water?

Hi Guys,

Mike, that one just jumped and the parts rolled downhill about 15 feet. A cloud of dust and a satisfying TWHAP.

Not as satisfying as water, but frangible and available. Note size of 12ga hull for scale..,

Grizz