Quote:
Originally Posted by Wetwork
I picked up a Ruger/Marlin 45-70 SBL a few weeks ago. I'm pretty slight, about 140lbs soaking wet.
This spoon has become my new favorite, and I'd be willing to bet this caliber is one of the best survival/prepper firearm you can purchase.
You can use black powder, dozens and dozens of different smokeless powders, even homemade gun cotton to send a 405 grain slug down range. You can load up T-rex shoulder busting elephant droppers or load up some shotshells for grouse and squirrel.
Casting your own bullets is easy for these things.
Sure you can only shoot at the most 200 yards ethically but dudes shot buffalo at 1000 yards back in the day. Lots of stories of the slugs going lengthwise all the way through critters. Read about a accidental two-fer on Cape Buffaloo. They didn't see the cow standing behind the bull. And these bullets are barely breaking the speed of sound. For most hunting you don't want the bullet going over 1600fps. Love this thing.-WW
ps. Sure you can load it up too painful recoil, but why?
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Kind of counter intuitive, I know, but you lighter guys actually do better with heavy recoil than us heavier guys. Less resting inertia to overcome, you "roll" with it much better.
That said, the .45-70 remains the only round for which I hand load wherein my limits dictate the load, not the limits of the rifle. I've demonstrated to my satisfaction that a 400 grain bullet can be made to exceed 2,000 fps in a Marlin 1895, modern Winchester (Miroku) 1886, or Ruger #1, and can do so safely, with good case life. I just see no real reason to do so. My loads go about 1,750, mimicking Keith's 53 grains of IMR 3031 load (I use H322). I've killed a pretty good variety of game with this load and have never recovered a bullet, regardless of the size of the animal or angle at which it was hit. These go all the way through mature elk, lengthwise. More power just digs a deeper hole in the berm on the other side of them.
Here are my four "go to" .45-70 loads. From left to right, the RCBS .45-400GC that I load over H322 for use in my Marlin or Winchester. Next is the Lyman #457193, a vintage 400 grain design that I use for hunting out of my Ballard Pacific, Shilo Sharps 1874, or Remington Hepburn (the latter two in .45-90). Next are two black powder match loads, the left one being the RCBS .45-500BPS 500 grain, the right a Paul Jones Creedmoor weighing 540 grains. Both have won long range matches for me, starting out at the blistering muzzle velocity of about 1,200 fps.
And, since we are talking lever guns and Miroku Winchesters, he is my pair. Top is an 1886 Ultra Light Rifle in .45-70, bottom is a Model 71 in .348 Winchester:
These are among the best made rifles I own. Without even having yet seen Supe's 1892 (in real life, anyway), I'm sure it is every bit as well made. Looking forward to shooting that thing... I feel a lever gun and .45 Colt range day in the making...