Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire .450 bushmaster v. .45-70 govt

I am on the fence about this for a new whitetail rig. I am down to these two cartridges because of state regulations requiring straight wall cases and will NOT be hand loading.
Rifle will be a singe shot (probably Ruger #1). Shots will be between 20 yards and 200 yards where I hunt.

Which round do I go with?

Ballistically either one. Practically the ammo availibilty on the bushmaster has been good through out the shortage and 45-70 non existant. I'd get a Lee loader for the 45-70 for using black and lead as well as smokeless and jacketed to have it all. Mb

Both work. You can find more Bushmaster ammo right now because it works well in the AR platform (where I have several). More than adequate for deer out to 200. After that, it falls like a pumpkin. Hornady has a 245 and 250 load.

If you hand loaded, I'd tell you to do the 45-70. It is more versatile, and you could load it from mild to wild in the Ruger #1.

Real men prefer the .45-70.

Plus 1

A .450 bushmaster is a whitetail deer laws workaround with zero history or charisma. A 45-70 has history and charisma in spades and the versatility to do more. A .450 bushmaster is a fudd chambering doing what the man tells you. A 45-70 is the stuff the Wild West Buffalo Bill and other legends.

Those 45-70 Springfield's didn't do Custer any favors at the Little Big Horn...

Just sayin'.

Nope but they had em and it’s a cartridge that’s pure Americana. Riding into a hornets nest severely outnumbered was probably Custers biggest downfall. I can’t imagine a downloaded 45-70 .450 bushmaster making a difference.

In all seriousness in a Ruger no. 1 I can’t think of a single reason to go with a .450 bushmaster.

I have have both and prefer the Bushmaster mostly because of the rifle itself.

450 uses .451 pistol bullets. 45/70 uses .458 rifle bullets. For whitetail it might not matter much, but that’s something to keep in mind. Most pistol bullets are lightly constructed for lower velocity than most rifle bullets.

In a #1 45/70 all the way. In a black rifle 450.

Funny you mention that. The guys in charge of ordnance at that time were of the mind that a repeater would cause a huge waste of ammo. When they did get a repeater, the same guys thought that too rapid of a reload could cause a huge waste of ammo (Krag-Jorgenson, clumsy to reload). Then they didn't get box magazines because "they would lose them" (M1 Garand, Springfield '03).

The guys doing the figuring weren't the ones who needed to do the shooting, but they sure knew what was best for the shooters. I'm glad they eventually came around.

If Custer and his men had been equipped with the repeaters available at the time, who knows what may have happened? I think the historical outcome may have been inevitable, but it sure would have been more costly. I don't know. One of those things to ponder or discuss, but God knows where that would lead to here.

To address the OP's question, I have both a .45-70 and a .458 SOCOM. The .45-70 is very versatile and can be quite powerful, but an AR with that much THUMP is a lot of fun.

Ruger #1 in 45-70 would do it all.

450 Bushmaster? George Bush invented it, you know it's going to suck.

Our military has hit a few home runs but struck out a lot as far as rifles and cartridges. The saving grace of the AR has been its modularity to adapt over time. It doesn’t get much more versatile than an AR chambered in 5.56. The Garand was a great rifle. The M14 and chambered in 7.62X51 not so much. Historically we’ve always been a country that loves power and precision over portability and lightweight on the fly tactics IMO.

I can see a .450 bushmaster bolt action but in a falling block I’d take the 45-70 all day there’s no real downside.

450 is gayer'n aids.

I have the .450 Bushmaster in AR style, mainly because it was a stupid low clearance price, less than $500 if I recall correctly. It is a cannon, if you hit a deer at 20 yards you're gonna take a chunk out of it. Ammo has always been readily available, roughly $1-1.50 shipped per round. Just because it's newer than the other doesn't make it less capable. This thing is extremely accurate and light. It will drop a Giraffe.

Wow, this is a tough one to reply to… Ahh, what the hell! :-)

My son has a 45-70 and I have a 450. He bought his because we had nothing like it and he wanted something different. I bought the 450 because I wanted something in that power range to replace the Marlin 1894 44 Mag I just got rid of. Bolt action was a plus and I got it in a CVA Cascade. 45-70 is defiantly more versatile for reloading, brass has been easier to find (for me at least) and there is gobs of reloading data and articles on it. The 450bm has been tough to find brass for and when I do find it, it’s a buck a piece, new or used. Few people reload it and nobody uses cast bullets in them, except for me it seems. So, loading data in general is scarce and non existent for cast bullets. I’ve been experimenting, A LOT!

I guess the only thing I like better about my 450 is the bolt action rifle, everything else about the 45-70 is better. In a Ruger #1, 45-70 all the way, 450BM would never be considered by me..

Well, if they would have had them in an AR platform and plenty of ammo then it would have made a big difference. lol

I get it.

A .450 bushmaster makes a lot of sense in a straight wall only zone in an AR platform or a bolt action. My comments were a little bit tongue-in-cheek. In a Ruger no. 1 falling block action I’d take a 45-70 all day for history and cool factor and probably resale value.