OK question. If you were going to load one bullet for everything (IN NA) in the 45-70 what would it be?

405 grain Hard Cast. It will completely penetrate any animal on the continent. Anything bigger will just hit the dirt harder on the other side...

Beartooth PileDriver Jr.

I found that a 300 grain GC'd does nice on every thing from squirrels to deer. When I was younger I used Lyman's 445 GC'd for the same game. It's pure death on turkeys.

Jim

Squirrels? Turkeys? Do you hold off those little critters so the wind from the .45-70 knocks em out? Kinda like tree barking squirrels? Can't imagine what you use on big game. I just had a vision of a turkey running 50 yards after getting hit, lol. Sorry I must apologize for my rather strange sense of humour. .45-70 for squirrels, wow.

405 grain hard cast X2

525 gr Bear Tooth Piledriver ! over a bunch of H322 powder for 1550 fps ! RJ

405 hc with a wide meplat

Agree with shrapnel - 405 gr cast (WW or 20/30/40:1) is hard to beat out to a couple hundred yards.

As cast and recovered bullet . . .


These are from a Lyman 457193 mould, other similar designs available.

I also shoot a lot of 405gr cast, but I'm currently obsessed with the Hornady 350gr JSP FN. Here is my 100-yard 'cold barrel round' from last Saturday morning. 45gr RL-7, CCI 200, W-W brass at 2.095", Lee factory crimp; 1725 fps. Couldn't be happier with it.

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300 Grain Nosler Partitions are good if you can find some.

I have friends that shoot the 300 grain Speer offering and say it's one of the best bullets made. It's bonded.

Big cast bullets are cool too.

Any of them will work. They all make big holes in things.

I wish they still offered them!!!!

I shoot the 350 Hornady FP @ 1922fps from my Guide Gun a lot. The 425 Beartooth would be hard to ignore but the big Hornady seems to be pretty solid.

It's a well kept secret here in Central Virginia and in the Shenandoah Valley about the squirrels being tough and vengeful in this neck of the woods.When I shoot at one of the critters I want to make sure I 'em get dead fast.
I like to shoot the turkeys on the wing. Those big ol bullets weigh them down so they land and I can run over and cut their throats.

I won't waste a 45 caliber bullet on our deer. I take my grandson'd pellet gun for shooting them. Some of our older squirrels are bigger them the deer.

Jim

I'd shove a 350 grain Hornady round nose using 57 grains of IMR 3031. That load was obnoxiously accurate in my guide gun. Absent that, I'd go with the 350 Swift A-Frame

405 grain cast wide meplate - 1st choice

350 grain Hornady - close second - first choice if I didn't have access to cast bullets and I didn't cast

Little I have shot my .45-70 I have relied on Horn. 350 FN..