Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots My new journey with the old 45--70

Versatility and longevity are certainly words that can describe the 45-70. First introduced in the 1873 Springfield Trapdoor the 45-70 has just refused to die. The modern trend towards speed, flat trajectory and magnum belts can't be found here. My hunting is now in the deep dark timber of northwestern Montana. I don't need a belt, other than on my pants. I do need a cartridge that will deliver a deep penetrating bullet that puts a ton of energy on big targets. The 45-70 fits my bill perfectly.

There are so many firearms that have been chambered in this cartridge, most load references list 3 or 4 categories covering relative strength of the weapon and allowable chamber pressures. I have a 24" T/C Encore that falls into the strongest category. Any loads discussed here should certainly not be used in any Trapdoor weapon and may be iffy for the 1886 lever guns, cartridge overall length may preclude the use in the Marlin and 1886 lever guns. Ruger #1, Siamese Mauser conversions and the Encore are ok.

My Encore is fitted with a Flex Tech stock set complete with the Limbsaver super squishy recoil pad and a stock bag that pads the cheek. The sights are Williams peep rear and Encore white bead front. Total weight 5 lb 12 ounces as described with 5 cartridges in the loops.

Our first range test was with the new Winchester Dual Bond 375 grain loads. Factory claimed ballistics of 1500 fps are spot on with our chronograph.

5 shot groups easily fall under 1" at 50 yards with the aperture sight and my aging eyes. Recoil is certainly energetic. Calculated free recoil energy is 48 ft/lb and it does get your attention. That being said, my 10 year old whip of a boy shoots the little rifle with glee. I think his lack of body mass (and fear) lets him just roll with the recoil where it punches us older folks around.

We recovered one of the 375 grain Dual Bond bullets from the frozen dirt backstop. Remarkably it retained 335 grains.


Given the amount of recoil my shoulder measured, I am having serious second thoughts about developing +P loads. The rifle is capable of much higher pressure loads running the 350 grain Hornady flat point at speeds of 2100 fps. I will develop these for the big bruins we are encountering but will likely hand the rifle off to a teenage son to range test.

This will never be an "all around" combination but with some imagination it can be very versatile. 3500 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle is easily attainable. Everybody talks about the rainbow trajectory of the old war horse, however, if sighted 3" high at 100 yards it only drops 4" at 200. In my country 200 yards is a seriously long poke. 200 yards is my maximum range for elk, I prefer 1500 foot pounds of energy delivered for a big bull. For deer I would be willing to stretch the range to 250 where residual energy is still over 1000 foot pounds. For these longer shots I would mount a fine little Leupold M8 2.5X in place of the Williams peep.

Part 2 +P load development

Our work with jacketed bullet loads shows fine accuracy with the Hornady FTX 325 grain. Starline cases with Remington 9 1/2 primers seating for cartridge overall length at 2.550".

Start load was 49 grains of H335

Velocity - 1905 average

Maximum load in my rifle

54 grains of H335

Velocity - 2080 average

The maximum load is sighted for 3" high at 100 yards and is 5" low at 200. The accuracy of this bullet is delightful but in light of some spectacular failures using the 30 caliber version of the FTX I will likely not be shooting anything bigger than whitetail deer with this combination. Will need data from expansion media before convinced this is a large game bullet.

The heavy cast bullet we chose for the 45-70 is a gas check Lee design, mold number C457-500-F. The projectiles are flat point with a profile similar to a cruise missile. Shortages of gas checks held us up for a while until we found James Sage in Alabama. He is making top quality aluminum gas checks that work great. His Gator checks are conventional copper. He is not a sponsor in any way but a recommended vendor.

http://www.sagesoutdoors.com/index.php

My Lee mold drops this bullet at .4574" weighing 501 grains after the gas check is seated. If you think that bullet casting is a difficult proposition, please try the aluminum Lee molds. You will be casting good bullets in minutes, not hours.

Prepped with the Lee liquid alox tumble lube and sized .457" we started working loads with Alliant Re-10X.

These bullets are long loaded well over SAAMI spec. Overall length is 2.800.

Starting load 37 grains is well within SAAMI pressures and runs out at 1500 fps.

Maximum load 44 grains. Velocity 1743 fps

The recoil on this load is brutal. Not one for plinking.

So, is there a plinking load for the 45-70? Sure there is.

Cast a batch of Lee .457" 200 grain R.E.A.L bullets. (We use these in our Ruger Old Army too.)

Use a large rifle primer and seat these over 9 grains of IMR Trail Boss to an overall length of 2.290"

Subsonic, cheap to load and delivers 45 ACP energy. Coyote accurate to 100 yards and costs about the same as a rimfire.

Interesting. If you have a mind to, try the Barnes 300 grain TSX FB. I had some great accuracy with this from my Browning 1885. With RL7 max load the book says 2500FPS! I don't have a chronograph but I'll bet it was doing all of that from the long barrel of the Browning. It was fun to go the other way on the bullets with the 45-70. Usually folks go big and slow.

I enjoyed loading and hunting with my .45/70 Marlin for several years. Was very tempted to go with a .45/70 Ruger Number One, and may well do so someday.

It's a really neat old cartridge. Fun to load, fun to shoot. Well, mostly anyway!

Thanks for the suggestion Mark, the TSX interests me. Now, to find some......

I found them at a local shop but they can be had direct from Barnes.

http://barnesbullets.myshopify.com/collections/tsxtm-bullet/products/458-cal-458-300-gr-tsx-fb

A great and suprisingly accurate round. A buddy and I have been playing with the Marlin Guide gun versions lately, and the snail's pace factory ammo is a pleasure to shoot. With a need for speed and 405 grain slugs, however, hopped up handloads do get ones attention. Hope to drop an elk or two with mine in coming seasons.

I'm running the 300gr TTSX Barnes in my Ruger #1, and it shoots well even though it is designed for the .458 SOCOM. I'm not yet at max, but 2300 fps with H4198 is within reach, using Hodgdon data. Recoil is plenty, but certainly not painful.

I found 300 gr. TSX in stock and have some on the way. Tex, have you run the TTSX on game yet?

I didn't get my 1885 running the TSX FN until after my caribou hunt last year and I ended up using a swift AFrame in 350grains. Worked great but I still want to hit something with the 300 TSX.

I may have to try that as well!