Many - MANY years ago I spent an entire summer casting 500 grain bullets and reloading and shooting an old .45-70 trapdoor Springfield that a friend didn't have much use for. Seems that it bit him as hard on the back end as it did the single doe he killed.
I shot that rifle across a lake in southern New Jersey (Yes - there WAS a time when one could shoot just for the pure fun of it in New Jersey.)that we had actually measured and marked off in 50 yard increments becausae this was also where we hunted the geese and ducks that slid up and down the Atlantic flyway. At the end of the summer I was out of lead and had learned a LOT about long range shooting, range estimation, and bullet drop.
More thhn anything else I learned that the point at which the bullet enters the critter, and what it hits as it courses deep into the interior of the beast, will decide how effective a cartridge is or can be.
I now own only two rifles chambered for this wonderful old cartridge,a Ruger #3 and a custom Siamese Mauser. The Mauser has killed two Cape buffalo with a single round per animal. I was close (70 yards) and both broke the spine. Love those rifles and never learned as much from another rifle as I did from that ancient Trap door.
Like ALL CARTRIDGES, you can learn a bunch of stuff from the .45-70 - so go enjoy it and don't worry who tells you what. Put a 500 grain cast bullet or a 350 grain soft where it belongs and you will, as our ancestors did - make meat.
Terry
