The .50 Alaskan Lever Gun

Plenty of juice for moose!

Written By Jeff "Tank" Hoover

2021

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Darrell Harper’s Marlin 1895 GBL .45-70 converted to .50 Alaskan by SSK Industries
of Winterville, Ohio. It bagged a nice moose, now a cape buffalo is next on the menu!

It’s been over 25 years since I first read about the .50 Alaskan cartridge. The history captured my imagination like no other. Why wouldn’t it? The cartridge and rifle were designed by two Alaskan “sourdoughs,” a term used for identifying Alaskan bushmen who know what they’re doing, surviving by using their resourcefulness and wits.

For years, this story stuck with me, dreaming of having a Marlin 1895 .45-70 converted to .50 Alaskan and then heading to Alaska to hunt moose and bear. Imagine my surprise when friend Darrell Harper tells me he did this very thing! I was happy and tickled for my friend’s success, seeing firsthand this was an obtainable goal and a very cool project/hunt to boot.

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A happy hunter, Darrell Harper with his beautiful moose!

The .50 Alaskan

Harold Johnson and Bill Fuller designed the cartridge/rifle while living in the Kenai Peninsula at Cooper’s Landing in the 1950s. Johnson designed the .50 Alaskan using the .348 Winchester cartridge as the parent and “supercharging it” by blowing the cartridge case out for a 0.510″ bullet.

The cartridge would need to be capable of taking the largest brown bears Alaska is known for. In true Alaskan form — i.e. resourcefulness — Bill Fuller used an old section of a .50 caliber BMG barrel. A skilled machinist, he threaded and turned it down to proper dimensions for fitting onto a Winchester 1886 rifle and chambered it for the blown-out .50 Alaskan cartridge.

Johnson cut 720-grain .50 caliber BMG bullets in half and seated the now 450-grain truncated bullets backward into the fireformed cases for an effective bear load. Johnson stated, “I never recovered a slug from a bear or moose, no matter what angle the animal was shot at.”

Darrell’s deal

Darrell Harper is not your average hunter. For the past 10 years, he’s hunted exclusively with big-bore handguns. He’s hunted Africa, Australia and all over the USA, taking both cape and Asiatic buffalo with a handgun as well as Alaskan brown bear, caribou and elk.

Like any successful person, Darrell sets goals and his next is another Cape buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe. He took a Cape buffalo in South Africa with his .475 Linebaugh revolver but Zimbabwe has a foot-pound restriction for the calibers used. The next best thing? Using a lever gun! However, Darrell’s largest lever is a Marlin .45-70 1895 — even with stoutly-loaded Buffalo Bore ammo, he would fall short of Zimbabwe’s requirement.

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A close-up of the XS Sights scout rail, winged rear sight,
Trijicon red dot sight and Cerokote finish by Apache Machine

The sight picture of Darrell’s .50 Alaskan with Trijicon red dot and back-up peep sight.

The Gun

To hunt in Zimbabwe, Darrell purchased a used Marlin 1895 GBL with the intention of converting it to .50 Alaskan. It was sent to SSK Firearms of Wintersville, Ohio for the work. SSK installed a custom 0.510"-diameter barrel, Pachmayr decelerator recoil pad and a New England Custom Guns banded front sight ramp with a silver bead. They did all the necessary action work so the .50 Alaskan cartridge cycled properly while also performing a nice trigger job.

After receiving the gun from SSK, Darrel installed an XS Sights Lever Rail and mounted a Trijicon RMR reflex sight. He also installed an XS Sights winged rear peep sight to use in conjunction with the silver bead front sight for a backup sighting system.

Since this gun is for dangerous game, Darrell installed a safety delete from Bear Tooth Mercantile. Steve Roe, owner of Apache Machine & Custom, LLC, applied a beautiful Cerakote graphite black finish.

Darrell used solid brass bullets from Cutting Edge Bullets for his Alaskan hunt.
The big .50 Alaskan is on the right with the .348 Winchester on the left.

The parent cartridge for the .50 Alaskan (right) is the .348 Winchester (left).
Starline brass conveniently makes brass for both calibers.

The Load

Darrell uses monolithic solids since he’s heard great field reports about them. Using 0.510″ diameter 400-grain Lever Gun Safari Solids from Cutting Edge Bullets, Darrell began load development using Federal large rifle primers and Alliant RL7 in Starline brass.

These solid brass bullets are long for weight and the 400-grain Cutting Edge solid is actually longer than a 450-grain Swift A-Frame in the same caliber. Load development was minimal — the gun fired the 400-grain bullet over a case full of RL7 with great accuracy.

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The Tale

Darrell shared the story of his .50 Alaskan hunt:

I scheduled a September 2020 moose hunt with the Shoemaker family in Becharof National Wildlife Refuge. With an upcoming cape buffalo hunt, I thought it would be nice to have some large animal experience with the .50 Alaskan before tackling a dangerous cape buffalo.

We flew into spike camp a few days early and met my guide, Austin. On the flight in, we saw several cows along with two bedded bull moose. We also spotted another bedded bull less than 200 yards from camp!

On opening day we were glassing the area and saw moose antlers a couple hundred yards away in the river bottom! After studying the bull, we agreed this was a legal bull we watched the previous day but Austin didn’t feel he was a “first day shooter.”

We glassed for a couple of hours, spotting several brown bears along the river, but no additional moose. My binoculars kept going back to the legal bull, which was about 350 yards away from our vantage point.

I was glassing upstream when Austin spotted a bull a couple of miles away downstream. The bull moved into thick brush before we got the spotting scope on him and Austin wanted to get a closer look. After hiking a mile the bull was still a ways off so we picked an opening in the brush to navigate toward. If we could reach the opening undetected, there was a good chance we could get a look at the bull.

It was a tough hike, crossing several gorges, alder and willow thickets, tromping across wet, spongy ground before finally making it to the opening where he’d be visible in the basin below. We begin crawling toward the edge. I was behind Austin when I notice a large set of moose antlers below us to our left. Studying the bull, we decided we would take him.

We needed to get closer since the bull was over 500 yards away. We low crawled away from the bull, keeping out of sight. The wind was perfect, blowing directly from the bull, hitting our faces.

We circled left, keeping willows between us and the moose, and cut the distance to under 200 yards. This was the maximum range I felt comfortable with my reflex-sighted .50 Alaskan. Continuing our stalk, we made it about 150 yards from the bedded bull. Crawling to a clump of willows, we cut the distance another 40 yards.

I placed my backpack on the ground as a shooting rest. With Austin ready to back me up, I pulled the hammer back on the lever gun. Austin grunted and the bull stood up, exposing his left shoulder. I placed the red dot and fired. We were rewarded with the tell-tale “thump” of the big 400-grain bullet hitting flesh. The bull reacted but didn’t take a step. “Hit him again,” Austin said as I worked the lever.

Once again we heard the “whump” of the bullet hitting. The bull turned, facing us, head drooping low and stopping me from taking a frontal chest shot. The bull finally exposed his chest and I fired my third and final shot.

Cooper’s Landing in the Kenai Peninsula is where the .50 Alaskan
was born out of necessity by Harold Johnson and Bill Fuller.

Time Ticks By …

It’s been 25 years since I first read about the .50 Alaskan. I think it’s time to get one built and book a hunt in Alaska like Darrell. Time has a way of gathering momentum the older you get and I don’t want to run out before experiencing a lot more hunts. I’ll bet you do too!

Since Ruger just purchased Marlin at this writing, maybe we can convince them to make a .50 Alaskan lever gun for us?

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