Does anyone have a good heavy load for the 45-70.
I was thinking that a load around 3500 ft lb with a monolithic 400 grain bullet would be a good bear stopper round and shouldn't be that hard to obtain. I have seen loads that reach 4000 ft lb but they are a bit excessive and usually lead with a gas check.

May I suggest the right bullet over energy and velocity. Look at the BBW #13 Cutting Edge Bullets 458, 400 grain flat nose bullet for lever guns. Penetrates like a hot knife through melted butter.

I've used 48 to 49 grains of RL-7 in my double with CEB #13 400 grain solids at about 1950 fps.

What type of bear?

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
May I suggest the right bullet over energy and velocity. Look at the BBW #13 Cutting Edge Bullets 458, 400 grain flat nose bullet for lever guns. Penetrates like a hot knife through melted butter.

+1 Boomie!

You might try the Barnes Buster. It's very reliable and can be driven to 1950' in the 1895 and to 2100+ in the Ruger #1

Barnes Manual #4 lists a 300 TSX at 2505 fps with 58.5 grns of RL-7. This load is for the Ruger #1 only. I just sighted in my new #1 with this load last weekend. In my rifle, it is safe and shoots well. I haven't put it on the chrony yet however so can't tell you exactly what I'm getting velocity wise. I'll report back once I get more info.

We hunt in country that has grizzly bears up to 1200 lbs, one was just shot last year that was stalking a hunter calling elk. His partner saw what was going on and shot the bear 5 times with a 338 mag. You should be able to find the pictures on UTube. Thanks for the info gentlemen, happy hunting.