frontstuffer �
First, Marlin has quite making �showerheads�. They stopped in 2002 I believe. Although you still find new guns for sale with the ported barrels, the new GG�s, GS�s and full-length 1895�s are unported.
For downloading the .45-70 you can go as light as 250g with a Barnes X, but I shoot 300g cast at 1167fps using a paltry 13.5g HS-6 and a CCI 200 primer. About half the recoil of a .30-30 and near one-hole accuracy out to 50 yards, after which the trajectory becomes somewhat problematic. My girls love these loads.
Since I got it two years ago (three?), my .45-70 has become my most-shot firearm. Plinker loads, hunting loads, and what I call my �Rhino Blaster� loads, 460g hardcast at 1812fps. From 7 foot-pounds recoil to 48 foot-pounds, squirrel heads to rhino, my loads have it covered. I don�t know how you could be more with a 444.
I�m not knocking the 444, but if you don�t handload there is a much wider selection of factory ammo for the .45-70. If you do handload, it appears to me that there is a better selection of premium bullets for the .45-70, with more load data available for a wider range of bullets as well.
Whatever you chose, I�m sure you�ll enjoy it, and that�s what its all about.
Last edited by Coyote_Hunter; 03/10/05.
