I think a great many guys who stick their nose up at the idea of using what they perceive as older lower velocity cartridges like a hot loaded 45/70 or 450 marlin have that opinion because they have little or no experience in the field with someone using one.
at the risk of proving Im an old geezer,Ill tell you this.
as an example,
back in the late 1969 season here in Florida I was hunting with a guy, who had just purchased a 444 marlin, JACK, had sighted it in 3" high at 100 yards the previous weekend and had a weaver 4x scope on the rifle,he had loaded it with speer 3/4 jacket hollow points.
JACK, was using the rifle he had purchased for an up coming elk hunt after reading the advertizement posted below.
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we were walking across a large field when we saw two bucks stand up at about 150 yard out and stand staring at us, in those days the daily bag limit was two deer a day. before I could even say a thing JACK, fired that rifle twice in very rapid succession and to my amazed young eyes both deer dropped on the spot. I,d never seen deer drop instantly when hit and I sure as hell never saw two deer shot and dropped almost instantly within feet of each other.
right then I knew I needed to buy a similar rifle, which I did as soon as funds allowed and it worked great for several decades.
I eventually sold that rifle to upgrade to the 45/70 version and I sold the 45/70 after about 15 years to upgrade to the 450 marlin BLR and in each case the results were both impressive and in my opinion an improvement, (the 450 marlin BLR is not significantly more powerful than a 45/70 but the BLR is more accurate in my experience,and handles better, I primarily hunt ELK in thick cover and wooded canyons.
I think most guys read far to many magazine articles and get the idea most game is shot at extreme ranges mandating a flat trajectory rifle, but its been my experience that shots over 250 yards are rather rare.
yes when I first started hunting out west I had assumed the same thing and used a 30/06 which I eventually upgraded to a 340 wby, but the truth is that all but 2-3 shots Ive ever taken at elk, and of all the elk Ive killed, could very easily have been made with a 45/70 as I said, shots over 250 yards have been rare. while Ive used a 340 wby and 375 H&H much more often, Ive used a 45/70 with hard cast gas check bullets on two elk and dozens of hogs , its a darn effective caliber, once you can punch a big hole in one side and out the other on an elk, the markings on the brass cartridge case are not critical

Last edited by 340mag; 05/27/13.