Thanks for the replies, everyone. Lots to follow up here.

I'm actually registered on that Marlin forum way back - forgot all about it - thanks for the reminder!

I have a yearning to hunt Cape Buffalo, but that may or may not ever happen. Right now I hunt mostly with two M99 Savages (deer.) The .45-70 is mostly for backup (i'm in grizzly country, there has been at least one hunter death near my farm from a grizzly charge.) I figure if you're looking to stop a charge, might as well pack the biggest wallop you can. I also figure if you're gonna pack a big bore, when you have the other smaller bores covered, there's no sense packing it with a deer load.

So maybe i'm thinking overkill, but there's the reasoning. I'd like to have the info at any rate, now that i'm getting into the reloading game.

Thanks again, folks - appreciate the responses!

From a race of hunters, artists, warriors, and tamers of horses, we degraded ourselves to what we are now: clerks, functionaries, laborers, entertainers, processors of information.
� Edward Abbey