I've hunted a bit with the 45-70 and like what it can do. I must admit, however, that chasing heavier bullets down the barrel with one of these light rifles - even "only" at 45-70 possibilities, can get "enough" rather quickly. (And my 358 Norma Ruger M77 with the factory standard [hard] pad doesn't bother me a bit.) Run some 350 or 400 A-Frames hard if you want to maximize you 45-70/90!
BTW, seeing what "energy" can do one has only to view what it can't do sometimes. I once put two 200 Nosler BTs into the stomach of a smallish caribou at 50-75 yards. (My shooting was okay; I placed both shots nearly the same, but the sights were way off.) The rifle was a 340 Weatherby, a rifle that has pushed its bullets to 4999 calculated FPE. But that caribou took both bullets without losing its feet (in spite of the stomach and its contents being pretty well scattered about.)
There's nothing wrong at all with an energetic collision, but it has to affect important stuff. Otherwise it's wasted.
