Here's an interesting perspective, what do you think?
http://forums.basspro.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=002012Its a great but also limited range round. Now before someone starts yammering about 1,000 yard 45-70 shots I'll say you can shoot TARGETS with it at long distances. In a modern gun like the Marlin with modern medium pressure rounds its a good 150-200 yard gun with enough oomph for just about anything in North America.
Few people have ever ACTUALLY fired a 45-70 on paper at any distance (Or any rifle for that matter)and therefore have no real idea what kind of trajectories we are discussing. Suffice it to say I have shot my 1873 Springfield trapdoor with buffington sights a fair amount on NRA standard 600 yard rifle targets. On a good day with little wind I could manage to keep the bullets in the scoring circles (about 4' across) and at 600 yards the round had a 30+ foot high trajectory. To contrast...my .308 with 175 grain HPBT match ammo would require about 45-50 inches of elevation from my 200 yard zero and on a good day I have no problem keeping 20 shots inside of a 10" scoring ring. The 45-70 is subsonic somewhere around 350 yards. My 308 will not be subsonic until around 1200-1300 yards.
At one time the 45-70 was the standard US Military caliber (Custer's troopers were armed with 45-70 carbines at Little Bighorn) But it was eclipsed by the advent of smokeless powders and stronger bessemer process steel mills which allowed firerarms to be made to withstand VERY strong breech pressures.
The original military ammo used a 500 grain round nosed .45 bullet in front of 70 grains of FFG black powder. The standard military arm was the 1873 Springfield Trapdoor rifle...it was used until well into the 1890's when it was replaced with the 30-40 Krag.
Pull up ANY ballistic chart on a the 45-70 and you will see that at 200 yards the drop is measured in feet not inches. This is partly because the tubular magazines require blunt nosed bullets which have poor ballistic charachteristics. Most commercial loads are limited to 400 grain bullets at around 1300 fps due to the fact they may be used in old weak Trapdoor springfields, Modern lever rifles can be loaded ot the mid 30,000 PSI level which is about double th pressure a Springfield will withstand but you will pay premium money for ammo loaded to these specs such as Buffalo Bore ammo. If you really want to eek out the performance in a levergun and are on a budget you should consider reloading. You cannot reload the 45-70 to modern centerfire pressures except in the strongest actions like a Ruger #1 where it can be loaded to just shy of .458 Win Mag potential. Don't do this in a levergun as you will eat the bolt as it explodes through you mouth and eyes.
The 45-70 is a heck of a short range game round. If you want to shoot animals beyond 200 yards you might be better served with a modern high velocity round.
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Does this guy make sense?
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