.45-70 Maximum range?
I love my Marlin 1895G. I have it set to zero (fixed 4x) at 100 yards and it nearly cloverleafs.
What would be the MAX range that it would be lethal on deer sized game?
Probably 200 lb hogs really.
What would be the MAX range that it would be lethal on deer sized game?
Probably 200 lb hogs really.
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Honestly, it is as far as you can shoot the rifle with absolute confidence in hitting the target with lethal bullet placement on the first shot. For most shooters that is between 125 and 200 yards. If you practice offhand shooting and can hit a paperplate at a certain distance with every shot. That is your comfort kill zone. 0 -
200-250 w/ your 1895G would be a good comfortable working range.
With a longer barreled rifle coupled with long range sights (or scope), and practice you could extend that range considerably.
Trajectory on the 45-70 is basically a "rainbow" and once you've got the drop doped out and a good rest you can reach right out there, especially if you handload.
If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!0 -
Yeah but, assuming I could hold steady (in my blind with a padded rest) what distance is the 300 grain load lethal?
300 yds, 500 yds?
I probably didn't phrase my question properly.0 -
At 300 yards with commercial 300gr. bullet load your going to be around 750 ft. lbs. at 300 yds. and around 500 ft. lbs. at 500 yards
If you moved up to a commercial loaded 405 gr. you'd see around 850 ft. lbs. at 300 yds. and 675 at 500 yds.
Hogs a very tough critters ... me, I'd stay at 200 or less as I like 1,000 ft. lbs. or better for 'em because it's a good solid, clean, kill if I do my job.
Deer, if you hit 'em right you could take them out to 500 yds., but again I prefer clean kills and I'd try to stay around 300 at the max end.
If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!0 -
Limitation is not power, but your ability to estimate range. The cartridge has plenty of power at long range for deer size game, the trick is being able to estimate range and set your sights to hit. Old buffalo hunters (admitedly using heavier bullets) made kills at longer ranges than you will probably be shooting at. I've read some old accounts of shooting and killing pronghorn at up to 1000 yards using the old Malcom scope. Choosing the lighter 300 grain bullet will lessen bullet drop to some extent and you can improve things more by handloading hotter loads or buying some of the hotter commercial ammo on the market, which will give you something similar to the old British .450 31/4" black powder express, which was reckoned to shoot "point blank" to 150 yards. Unless you're really good at estimating range and have your sight settings worked out, I wouldn't try shots much beyond 200 yards. If you're shooting at black powder veocities you'll have to work out leads for moving targets at long distances as well. It takes a long time for those big bullets to get there! 0 -
I've got a good friend who has been a pack guide near Talkeetna, right there on the Susitna River, Alaska, now for more than thirty years. Ted only packs two big game stoppers for around the 'cabin forest' use anymore - a Browning Mod. 1886 and a slugged Defender 12GA (bears). He swears by it's - the SRC's - ability to muscle it's way through underbrush and small branches - without much deflection - better than anything else he's got in his arsenal. He takes lots of Moose and Elk with it. He'd know - he's always been pretty much a one shot hunter - he says he carries the rest around for balance.!
Dialed 911
I'm on hold
Sure wish I had that gun I sold!0 -
As these other guys have said, with the .45-70 it's not horsepower-it's trajectory. My 405 gr. handloads (albeit, nearly twice as potent as most factory loads) still have a lot of oomph left at 385 yards (max. dist. at my buddies range. Problem is, the bullet drops a good 3 feet at that range. I have utmost confidence the round would kill an Elk at 400 yards.......If I can hit it.
It's easy to spot liberals-they are the ones who have no assets to protect and need every handout they can get. They have forbeyed themselves ascendence to a productive lifestyle.0 -
There was an account of some cowboy knocking an indian off his horse at some 800 yards in some book somewhere. I don't recall the cowboy's name but it was enough to start an argument in modern times that I read about online. They had a 45/70 and I think a 45/90, loaded in black powder. They also had a chronograph and an engineer with his computer and ballistics software.
To make a long story short, after a couple test fires at shorter range the engineer went to his computer and came back wth 15 degrees elevation at the 800 yards or whatever it was. The first shot hit the target, I think it was 800 yards. I'll see if I can come up with the link.
Anyhow, that BP 45/90 was calculated to be travelling over 300 FPS at 800 yards, so a smokeless load in 45/70 should be able to do the same.
"You can build a man a fire and keep him warm for a couple hours or douse him with fuel oil and keep him warm the rest of his life"0 -
That was Billy Dixon at the Battle of Adobe Walls, June 27,1874. A group of Buffalo Hunters stood off a large Commanche warparty. Near the end of the battle Billy killed a mounted Indian who was mooning them from what he thought was a safe distance. The distance was surveyed the next day by a U.S. Army survey team at 1,538 yards...nearly 9/10 of mile! Rifle was a Sharps chambered in .45-100 (550 grain bullet) and scope sighted. Billy always said it was a fluke, but it goes to show how well those old boys knew their trajectories and could estimate range. 0 -
Don't make the mistake I did by loading the 300gr HP. I shot a pig at about 80-100yds and wasted a LOT of meat. From now on it's the 350gr or larger FN. 0 -
Hit them in the head, just under the ear. You wont waste nothing but brains, and ears. 0 -
I have a Ruger #1 Sporter in .45-70 with a Bausch & Lomb scope. I have been quite pleasantly surprised at how well it reaches out to 200 yards with accuracy and lethality using plain old 400-grain cast cowboy loads. The .45-70 is a surprising round. 0 -
A hundred fifty years ago they learned that the best way to deliver a lot of power downrange with black powder was to use a long .45 slug. Thus most of the buffalo guns were .45 caliber.
Of course with the advent of smokeless powder completely new loads were developed around the .30 caliber.
Today, the White rifle co. uses this principle. They make inlines in .45 and shoot big 400 gr plus slugs. They don't need a big powder charge, often use only 70 grains but can still make long range kills, like they said above, you have to have that rainbow trajectory figured out.0
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