Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers Anyone take deer with the .45-70?

Very nice Ranch13!

Thanky kindly sir. Twas alot of fun. Sad part I missed a really nice muley buck a couple days later. That ol sharps just ain't the best rifle fer jump shootin deer at dusk in the canyons. lol

I haven't hunted mule deer in many years. Too dang crowded around here in the general season since they began publishing map atlases. I wait until November and chase whitey anymore. Need more limited quota areas and less general tags.

That's why I like to wait and hunt the last of the season, most of the rappies have gone home, the speedo's on the 4 wheelers have busted the budget on gasoline and left, and if a persons careful you can find deer in unexpected areas, with nobody else around....

I've shot quite a few critters with my .45-70. Bear, hogs, and african plains game. My problem is I can't hunt deer, here in Indiana, with my .45-70 rifle....


maddog

Yep I agree. Had a couple of friends from the Campfire out on the opener. Too dang warm then for me to shoot anything but we got them filled. I was going to head out this weekend to fill a doe goat tag and look for whitetail and elk, but the rain started. I am not going to tear up my friends' roads. To many other azzhats will though. I will wait for a while.




That is just plain wrong. My condolences!

Zip code change seems in order there, maddog.

Aw c'mon guys. Show the real rifles you used. The TV shows and magazines will tell you those bullets are so slow that smaller game like deer can dodge them before they get there. Just like 30-30's will bounce off deer.

Don't you guys pay attention to the "experts"?

Yep, and I'm also guilty of using a .308 alot, which is barely adequate for coyotes....

I am thinking about a .300 Ultramag AI, though. I just have to justify stretching my shots to 60 yards..

Shot a doe antelope yesterday with the Marlin XLR 45/70. The Hornady LeverEvolution almost took her head off. It was only about a 75 yd shot and I wanted as much meat as I could get off her shoulders for making some jerky.

Now my oldest son wants a 1895 XLR just like it....

Yes, I have shot everything with a 45-70 from chucks to buffalo...

That last pic is classic. The .45-70 doing what it does best.

I have taken a few deer with my early 1895 Marlin and a Ruger #1. I have only used 300 gr bullets of one variety or another. Early on they were 300 gr. Sierra flat points without the hollow point. Broadside, they put deer down pretty quickly and worked fine. Bullet performance can vary dramatically. One deer was shot at the top of the neck offhand at about 60 yards. The bullet hit the spine and was found under the hide flattened like a coat button. Penetration was -- well, how thich is a buck's neck --7 or 8 inches maybe? A harder bullet would have punched through but not those early Sierras. Another deer was taken at 150 yards on a steep downhill shot resting the rifle over a friends knee. That Sierra bullet entered high on the rear leg and penetrated diagonally into the far shoulded, breaking it and lodging again under the skin. The bullet had part of the nose smeared off and looked pretty much like a cylinder. So, one bulet penetrated 8 inches and the other went the whole distance through a deer. The difference was of course due to the impact velocity. My standard handload of 48 grains of IMR 4198 gets about 1900 fps out of a 22 inch barrel.