Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Favorite 45-70 load?

Good kind of hogs!

What load did you settle on?

Ed

I'd bet that Marlin puts the whack on 'em.

I went with the 405 grain round FN over 50.5 grains of Varget. The 4198 loads put a Whack on me! My magazine tube screws were backing out after those tests. I had a box of the Varget loads left over from earlier tries.

The Varget loads were accurate enough to put down the little brown dotted sow at 16 paces/26 yards. I just held on the shoulders and pressed and she plopped down, kicked her hind legs a little, and stopped right there. While daydreaming an hour later, I spotted the boar down the sendero to my right. He was rooting away from me, so all I had was a California Heart Shot. While repositioning myself he turned left. I held on his shoulder and got the same results as the dotted sow. I paced that one at 78 paces/130 yards. Both hits splintered the shoulders and tore up the tops of the lungs. I did not recover either as they both passed all the way through, with a slightly larger exit hole than entrance hole.

I was lucky in the that same "hold" landed the same place at both ranges. I love me this Marlin!

Thanks for all the advice and therefore encouragement. I am still going to try to develop a more consistent accurate load. And then go bunny hunting.

14-15 grs of Trailboss & your favorite cast boolit

My favorite is a 415 gr cast HP at 1860fps in front of 45 gr of R-7. Tight groups and what impressed me most is that accuracy was excellent over a wide velocity range.

The bullet is from a custom mould made by CBE. Normal cast are fine but you do need to hit bone for them to be most effective.

Nice hogs! I shoot more black powder than smokeless in 45-70, but when I do use smokeless, it's usually AA 5744 or IMR 3031 with a 405 grain cast bullet at black powder velocities or a little more. I've never enjoyed shooting the warmer loads in the 1500-2000 fps range. My most memorable hunt to date was this mule deer taken with black powder and 540 gr cast bullet in the 1100 fps range - 150 yard shot with front sight post holding on the spine.

Walking up to a blood puddle and legs in the air:





A year later:

That's not a blood puddle, thats lungs sucked out of an exit hole!

and a beautiful rifle!

Dunno if it's my favorite, but thus far, the funnest .45-70 load has been a paper patched 270-SAA and 15 grains of Trail Boss out of my #1.
1200 FPS and at least as accurate as I can shoot standing off a monopod (which ain't very) at 50 yards.
If it'll ever warm up and dry up I've got a few more of those to play with. Plus some patched 405HB's on top of 48grains of 3031.


I think somebody said "rabbithole"?..................

50 grains IMR 3031 + 405 grain Rem jacketed bullet. Marlin 1895 45-70, 22” barrel, Ballard rifling. 1 to 1.5 moa. No chrono, but guessing about 1675-1700 FPS.

Row on top........



Sittin' on top of 65 grains of Swiss 1.5FG and a card wad.

Looks like the second from the right when all jammed together.



It's my favorite squirrel load.

Boom........

Dan I'm amazed you use something so lite for squirrel.

One on the far right is for fox squill. I use the .45 on greys.

Hunting load: Hornady 350 gr RNFP over 45 gr RL7. Runs about 1750 fps and very accurate in my Marln1895. For plinking I loves me some 405 gr cast over 14 gr of Unique. Call ‘em my “popcorn loads.”