If you load 300gr Hornady or Barnes X to 2200 - 2300 you will be very happy with performance on deer.
My deer hunting buddy (my brother) has killed 6 or 8 bucks with the 300gr Hornady loaded to 2200fps. With the exception of the one he hit in the leg (sorry bro!) all were very quick one shot kills with essentially no blood-shot meat.
I use the 375 for the same reason. We get great kills without messing up the animals. Those who have cleaned deer shot with bullets travelling over 3000fps or so know what I'm talking about. Yuk! Of course, we hunt areas where the range is short and we are not concerned about trajectory considerations. But if you were hunting a pipeline, you probably wouldn't be using a 45-70!
I have killed 4 deer with a 45-70 (2 with a Marlin and 2 with a double). Two of them fell in their tracks and the other two ran only a few yards. All the kills were with Wichester 300 grain factory ammo. Two shots were quartering frontal and two were broad side. All shots exited and caused substantial damage to internals without a great deal of meat damage. Exit wounds were good size and blood trails were easy to follow if it had been necessary.
I have shot deer with teh 300gr sierra's in my Thompson Contender and have great results from 35 yards out to about 90. All broadside shots and large exits. In my guide gun, I shoot the speer 400's @1850fps. Only one deer shot with this load. A 180's pound buck at about 30 yards. Hit was high rear of lungs, but no dammage to liver or heart. The deer ran about 25-30 yards, and then died. This deer was one that jumped up from his bed when I was walking to my stand, so he was a bit jazzed up. Bullet performance was not a much as with the 300's @ 1750fps in my TC, with less dammage to tissue and not as much of an exit hole. I think that if heavy bone had been hit, it would have been a real mess.
I have killed around 25 deer with various 45/70 rifles.The 45/70 is deadly on deer.Most of the deer that I have shot with the 45/70 have fell within 5 feet or less.I have only had one tht ran over 50 yards and even then he left a real heavy blood trail.Always have large exit wounds and less meat loss than is usally typical of the common high velocity calibers(30/06,270,7mm mag,etc.).The faster the 45/70 bullets are pushed the bigger the exit wound is generally and with increased velocity kills are usally quicker,but with increased meat loss.The 45/70 is my favorite deer cartridge.Other hunters are usally amazed at how little meat loss there is on deer shot with the 45/70 compared to other calibers.I have killed most of my deer with handloads,but I have killed a few with factory loads too.
I have taken 3 mule deer with a 45-70 and 400 grain Speer FN bullets. It tears out big hunks of meat and leaves a bigger exit hole than a 7mm mag. One deer was quartering away and the first shot went along the side of his paunch and entered at the rear of the rib cage. When I got over to the deer, his paunch had fallen out. The speer bullet is soft and expands rapidly.
Posts: 18352 | Location: Salt Lake City, Utah USA | Registered: 20 April 2002
There is something to be said for a heavy, large diameter, slow to moderate velocity bullet. They hit with authority to say the least! I used to be a "velocity nut" until I saw the way my uncles 45-70 knocked deer off their feet. Now instead of a "velocity nut" I am a big bore "junkie."
Posts: 414 | Location: Missouri | Registered: 28 February 2002
I shot some deer and elk with the 45-70 and it did OK and left good blood trails..Mostly I used Factory stuff and it was kinda like punching a broom handle through them..
I really liked the 45-90 on elk with the 350 Round Nose Hornady, it is the toughest bullet out there and it really worked well.
But I gotta tell you those old guns have the most rainbow trajectory in the world and most any place you hunt these days you can get a long shot....Because of that and the fact that they are limited to 200 yds max then I would just as soon have a 30-30 or even a 25-35.....
i have killed 3 whitetails in last two years with 45/70's. year before last took 2 with a pedersoli rolling block & as i had just purchased it, i was shooting factory ammo with 405's (had not had time to work up loads & had not got molds). first was a doe at 76 yds with an angling neck shot. slug turned & exited behind off shoulder. exit hole same as entry hole, minimal meat damage. dropped in tracks. two weeks later an 8 pt at 70 yds & only shot was thur small opening in brush at the shoulder. put it thru both shoulder blades. deer went bout 10 yds & died. exit hole same as entry hole, very minimal meat damage. last year a doe at 80 yds, neck shot just below skull, droped in tracks, almost severed head & front shoulder on off side dislocated from impact as deer was driven down . this shot was with ruger #1 shooting 55 grains 3031 & hornady 350 jsp. this bullet is flying right at 1900 fps. now only shoot blackpowder in roller with 495 gr cast bullets & 65 grains of goex & this combo fly at around 1250 fps. have to add my favorite truism to this--"if it ain't a 45/70, it's just a passing fad". jim
I have shot one deer and one antelope with my 45-70. The deer was at 90-100 yds on a dead run. The shot hit the heart and he ran about 100 yds before bleeding out. Talk about a blood trail, he was completely covered in blood from his head to his tail.The load was a 385 hollow point soft lead over black powder at 1150 fps from a 20 inch barrel.
I and millions of buffalo have to disagree with you Ray on the max range of these guns. If you peruse any of the buffalo hunter books, shooting animals beyond 200 yards was no trouble using BPCR in 45 and 50 cal mostly. Then of course there are the 1000yd Creedmore matches and one young Billy Dixon whom connected with a Commanche (I think) chief at an obscene distance near Adobe Walls. Was it luck in Billy's case, yeah, but the bottom line is that these guns can have a much more effective range than 200 yds ..... with practice.
Posts: 211 | Location: West of the Big Muddy | Registered: 15 March 2001
Kernel... I believe that many bison were shot at ranges beyond 200 yards. I also believe many of these bison were shot with little more regard than to just "slow them up a bit" untill the next best shot(s) were able to put them down. A lot of non-sense I believe existed with bison and american hunters... its ashame that it was a common practice to shoot them from moving trains. Also if you read yarns about various bison hunters back then, many were so enamored with there pet cartridges that they made silly comments on how there particular cartridges penetrated from the bisons hip and was recovered in there toung, at 300 yards. Ray is not arguing with bison or bison hunters... he simply said that the 45-70 has a rainbow like trajectory... which it does.
Posts: 2045 | Location: West most midwestern town. | Registered: 13 June 2001
I've had no problem dropping deer with the 45-70. The only one taken with factory. Federal 300gn HP was head on in the center of the chest. All I can say was half the gutting job was done for me. The others have all been with 500gn paper patched pure lead through the lungs broadside. After you hear the "THWACK" it's all over except slowing your breathing down. Have a great time with that round, it's my #1 gun.
A client I once called on had killed some 38 deer with his old 1886 Winchester last I knew. He told me that he used the old 405gr Winchester bullet of which he had a healthy supply. He had scoped this old shooter and claimed that out to 150 yds it did not matter what angle the deer was standing at. He simply lined up the crosshairs and cored a half inch plug straight through. He never recovered a slug and most deer went down immediately. Claimed he could eat around the bullet hole too.
I shot a single deer with the 300 or 350gr HP from Hornady in a 45/70 I had owned. The deer took a double-lung hit from about 50 yds and went down immediately.
