When I first started guiding in Maine I carried a older Marlin 1895 for backup when hunting moose and black bear. I had the bbl chopped to 16.5 inches and initally had a peep sight installed in the rear.
I started out loading the older 350gr Hornady round nose bullets for the gun,which did a good job when it struck bone going in.
Shortly I switched to a 405gr WFNGC bullet from Cast Performance. These bullets are cast hard. The nose/meplate is nearly 1/3 inch. The wide flat nose makes a hole that will not plug up as easily,and lets the animal bleed. Kinda like a leather punch.
These types of bullets are great also because there is no jacket to shed when going thru the animal. The hard lead just kinda folds back into a "blob" and continues to penetrate.
My loads were shot thru moose breaking BOTH shoulders on the way through. They went thru every black bear that I hit. I only recovered two bullets that went thru moose then into a fir tree.
Would reccomend that you move this type of bullet at the fastest speed that is safely possible.
I killed several of the bigger deer with this gun also. They bleed heavy and you can see the energy transfer on impact.
I had a Leupold 1-4X24 Heavy Duplex scope on my gun. --- SAWMAN