My buddy has just won a guide gun. I have a 1895ss in 45-70 but I know these two have different rifling. Has anyone got a pet load for plinking and one possibly stout enough for bear??

Don,

Most reloading manuals have data for three different power levels for the .45-70:
"Trapdoor" (28000CUP or less)
"Modern lever-action (i.e., Marlin 1895)" (40000CUP or less)
"Modern rifle (e.g., Ruger single-shots, bolt-actions)" (over 40000CUP)

For plinking, the "trapdoor" loads are a good place to start. For big game hunting, do NOT exceed the 40000CUP threshold; it's not worth wrecking the gun.

I have an 1895 with the Ballard (as opposed to Micro-groove) rifling, but have not had done any load development or hunting with it.

There are some purveyors of hot ammo out there. An internet search with the the keywords "high performance .45-70" should locate them.

George

If you are shooting factory ammo the PMC 405 grain Cowboy load is about as cheap as they come for a plinking load. For game up to the Brown Bears the Buffalo Bore 45-70 Lever Gun Magnum 350 grain load is probably the best.

If you reload 300 grain Remington hollow points are about as cheap a bullet you could find. 30 grains of Alliant 2400 would give you about 1550 fps in the 1895G for a good plinking load.

For the big stuff you could load either a 350 grain Hornady FP or a 350 grain Kodiak Bonded over 54 grains of H4198, W-W cases, CCI 200 primers, 2.55" COAL for about 2100 fps in the 1895G. Reduce by 10% and work up in your rifle watching for signs of excessive pressure or velocity.

For plinking I'v been shooting Lasercast 300gr,just received some of the Rem 300 HPs but haven't tried them yet.
Lasercast 300 gr-WW case-CCI 200-OAL:2.515
IMR 3031 37gr=1398fps-43gr=1461
H4198 26gr=1188fps-32gr=1384
I'v been buying these at a local dealer,$6.95 per 100.
Jeff

thanks for the replies. I think I'll try my old standby load for the 1895ss---54 grains h322 over a rem 300 hp. Gives about 1800 and good accuracy in my gun--now watch the ballard rifling in the guide gun won't like it. I'll research a charge of re 7 that will give about 1800 and do up a batch of 10 of those too. Thanks again for your effort.

Max load for the marlin is 54.0gr of H-322 and a 400gr bullet. At least that is what I have read, and it is my hunting load for my guide gun. The load you quoted is a max 300gr load for the weaker actions. It is also the load I use in my contender. Easy to see if the bullet is a HP of not. The 400gr speer is a great 45-70 bullet.

54 gr of H322 with a 405 grain bullet is a stout load. The guide gun can handle it, but 50 grains was all I wanted to shtand behind plinking. I think 54 would be more than enough for a bear stopper - enjoy!

For curiosities' sake let us know how you made out with that load?

Here's one for the 450 Marlin. The 450 has a teeny bit less case volume than the 45-70 so you would see less pressure than this. The SAAMI for the 450 in the guide gun is 43,500psi.

Swift 400-gr. A-Frame, 55.5gr H322, 1928fps, 3303ftlbs @ 40,900psi

That data is from an article I have saved in Word, it has a bunch of tested loads for the 450 Marlin including accuracy and down range performance. I posted it at "http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nef-singleshot/files/" file name is "450 Marlin.doc". I don't know if it will let you in without a Yahoo account, if not email me at chevota@hotmail.com and I will send it to whoever wants it.
I posted here about Alliant RE-10 yesterday, it looks like it might be great powder for 350, maybe 400gr bullets. Unfortunatly no tested data is out yet.