Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles who's shooting a marlin guide gun ?

my friend in pa., got one for christmas from his son, and knows nothing about the 45-70. i know little.

he wants to know, what's the most accurate load out of a non ported g.g. ? he reloads so any info would be appreciated.

he see's all these bullets, and knows not where to start. me either.

I shoot a 400gr. Speer FP in front of a compressed load of 748. It's pretty warm so I would work up to that carefully.

Tell him to go on marlinowners.com. Alot of knowledge and info under the 45-70 heading. Also a good read is "Forty Years with the 45-70" around $20 on Amazon.

I have been hunting with one for quite a while. Everything I have feed it tends to shoot well enough for me. One thing I have found is that shooting lead cast the rifling fouls very quickly and accuracy goes down quick. Some of the guide models have micro groove which will turn you away from lead cast. I have been using 350gr hornady in mine that shoot 1" at 100 yards. I also shot a brown bear with this bullet at 120yards and the bear did get up.

I use a 300 grn Speer UniCor and 51 grns of Re7. That's an accurate, moderate load. I've gone up to 54 grns, but I scoped my Guide Gun and with that load it's hard to keep the scope out of my face. Pretty high recoil, but extreme muzzle jump.

Something I found out using IMR4064 is lots of unburned powder grains in my barrel, so if you shoot 300 grn bullets you need a faster powder like Re7.

Spend $15 for a Lee Factory Crimp die. Makes crimping a lot easier and it's not so critical to keep the cases trimmed to the same length.

My favorite loads are starline brass, 405gr remington bulk or kodiak bonded bullets and H322, I get 1925fps with 52.0gr and no pressure signs. It is a serious load and will shoot thru a 20+ ich spruce tree with the kodiak bonded bullets.

Make sure you stick with one kind of brass as there is a lot of difference between the differen brass makes. I stuck with starline and won't bother with any other brass in the 45/70

The most accurate load I fired from my first guide gun (ported) was 41 grains of Re7 under the 400 grain Speer FP. They all made a single hole at 100 yards. It's a great hunting load. My current unported GG is not quite as accurate, but plenty accurate enough for big game at 45-70 ranges.

BEWARE: The 400 grain Speer bullet will NOT chamber in a USRAC (Miroku) 1886 OR a new Ruger #1 with the bullet seated to the cannelure. They wouldn't in mine anyway. Both rifles went away 'cause I was too pissed to "fix" them.

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I second the recommendation for a trip over to the Marlinowners forum. Some fellows there who really have their act together with the big bore Marlins. I've owned two .45/70 Marlins, one a Guide Gun.

It's real easy to get caught up in the search for shoulder-pounding macho loads. No need. Loaded moderately the darned thing does quite well.

My most accurate jacketed bullet loads were with Reloader 7 and either the 400 gr Speer or the less expensive 405 gr Remington. Both worked well. The 300 grain Sierra is a lighter alternative, fine for deer sized game I'd imagine, and very accurate as well. Recoil with a modest 300 gr load is considerably less than when pushing a 400 gr bullet hard. H4198 is another good alternative, as is H322... All those served me well.

The "ballard" rifled .45/70's are very good with cast bullets as well. H322 and 425 gr Beartooth cast bullets was another winning combination.

Regards, Guy

thanks so far guys. he's not wanting a macho load, and after shooting the leverevo stuff, is worried about a scope claiming rights to part of his face when he puts one on !!

i'll send him to the marlin site.

just seein what most are using, in the way of powder and bullets. looks like re7 is used the most.

I've got an 1895 XLR 45-70 that I had cut back to 17" to have a pistol grip "guide gun"

I'm shooting 47 grains of RE 7, with a Hornady 350 grain FP for 1800 FPS. This load shoots great in my little rifle, and has light recoil.

Haven't killed anything with it ...yet!

Virgil B.

I shoot the cheap 350gr Rem bullets over Re7, with open sights at 50yds about 1 inch groups (would do better with a scope, but haven't gotten around to mounting one - will eventually just for accuracy testing, then back to open sights).

Mine seems to shoot anything that I've put through it accurately. I like the 300gr Nosler and the 300gr Speer Hot core a lot. The recoil on this rifle is not bad at all (it is ported-loud, but maybe knocks the recoil down a bit. I also shoot a NEF .45/70 a lot and it has suprisingly little recoil for what it's pushing. I like the guide rifle a lot. Very quick handling and eay to shoot. I haven't started reloading for it yet, but look foward to.

I shoot my marlin guide gun 45-70 with a factory 300 grain Winchester bullet, I use it for a brush gun. On the bench at 50 to 75 yards I get good bullet groups and that's good for factory loads with open sights. I started reloading when the price of ammo jumped up, but for now I'm just reloading for my Ruger No 1. I was lucky to find a guide gun ported so when I do start reloading a hotter shell for that rifle it shouldn't be too bad. I haven't got a deer with it yet, but I'm sure a factory 300 grain bullet from the guide gun will bring a whitetail with no problems.

I've had a guide gun for probably fifteen years, give or take a couple. I think they were pretty new on the market when I got it anyway. I shoot 400 grain Speer FNSP's over 54 grains of Varget in Starline cases, CCI 200 primer. Quite an accurate load and kills deer very well. Not much of a plinking load.

40-46 grains of Varget under a Remington 405 grain jacketed bullet.