I'm going to be hunting this year in the woods of PA for whitetails with my 45-70 guide gun. I've used a 30-06 in the past so I'm wondering what the best factory load for this would be. I don't think there is a possiblity of a shot over 100 yards. I also haven't been able to get set up for reloading as money is a little tight right now so I'm stuck with factory ammo. All i've been able to find around here are 300 jhp grain winchesters 300 and 405 grain remingtons and 350 grain winchester partitions. Any reccomendations??

Any of the 300 grain loads will work fine on a whitetail. I'd use what ever load shoots best in your gun. Any of the 300's are more than enough for whitetail.

FN

350 Win Partition ?? I use 300 Win Partition as I've found it better than the other 300s.They are accurate and effective.I'll be in the PA woods too.

It could be 300 win partitions. I was wondering if they are worth the money compared to the regular 300s. I've heard horror stories of the regular winchester 300s breaking up and not gettind decent pentration.

I never tried any of the partitions in my 45-70 but had all the penetration and expansion I needed using the standard 300 grain factory load from Winchester. I used these bullets on feral hogs and deer, never recovered one of the bullets but the deer and hogs were pretty close to where they were hit. A couple of the hogs were over 200 pounds.

http://www.garrettcartridges.com
http://www.buffalobore.com

Not that you need cartridges loaded that hot for whitetails...

Pertinax

It won't make any notticable difference between various factory 300 gr spft points. I however would not use hard cast bullets. The expansion would not be enough for my liking on smaller stuff like deer. The bullet will sail through the deer and not expand. A softer bullet or a jacketed soft point, will also be likely to pass through but, you will get some extra damage from the expansion.

If you want to use cast use home cast bullets that are soft. 20:1 or softer. Wheel weights are not soft enough. The Gould hollow point is a very good design.

Another option is pure lead. I killed a buck this year using pure lead and black powder in my Browning '86. Worked great. Another way to shoot pure lead is with a paper patch. I made a swage for paper patch bullets. Patched with a double layer of onion skin typing paper they are very accurate. They are also fantiastic killers. Thye expand like stepped on bubble gun and stay together.

One way to get soft bulets may be to buy from a caster that caters to the black powder sillouette (SP?) crowd. They use soft bullets. Leading wil not be an issue that outweighs the enhanced terminal performance, to me.

Of course you can go buy a box of factory ammo, in whatever weight strikes you fancy, and go kill your deer. Sometimes we over think this stuff. : )

Dave ,BTW welcome to the forum. I found sometimes the standard 300s expanded too much for me at short ,under 50 yd ranges. Partitions expensive ? With a 45-70 you shouldn't need more than one round !! sighted in at 100 ,the 300s drop about 5" at 150 yds. The 45-70 doesn't work like high velocity rounds but it works very well.

THe winchester supreme loads have worked pretty well on moose too. I reload for all of my 45/70 shooting but would feel comfortable using the winchester supreme load on deer or even bigger.

I have killed 5 whitetails with a 45-70. I have shot them with 300 grain loads from Winchester, Remington and Federal. All worked fine on them and I could tell no difference in penetration or killing effect.

Perry

try the 300 gr nosler partitions...

http://www.cpcartridge.com/45-70marlin-P.htm

get em here or check some of these others out

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Roberts:
I'm going to be hunting this year in the woods of PA for whitetails with my 45-70 guide gun. I've used a 30-06 in the past so I'm wondering what the best factory load for this would be. I don't think there is a possiblity of a shot over 100 yards. I also haven't been able to get set up for reloading as money is a little tight right now so I'm stuck with factory ammo. All i've been able to find around here are 300 jhp grain winchesters 300 and 405 grain remingtons and 350 grain winchester partitions. Any reccomendations??

PM sent to you buddy

Martin