I picked up a H&R 45/70 for the primitive weapon deer season today. Anyone have any loads that have worked well? Any thoughts on the strength of this gun and what load data I should use?

Any load for the Marlin 1895 is OK for the H&R.

Congrats on the new rifle! I've found that mine is particularly fond of hard cast 405 grain bullets. For deer, however, try Hornady's 350 grain round nose or their new Leverevolution loads. I've only used the round nose and it doesn't expand too fast and it drops them fairly fast.

quote:

Originally posted by Bullie:
I picked up a H&R 45/70 for the primitive weapon deer season today. Anyone have any loads that have worked well? Any thoughts on the strength of this gun and what load data I should use?

How does a .45-70 qualify for the primitive deer season?? I thought that was for muzzleloaders ???

Until you settle on a handload the Remington 405 gr factory load works just fine.

I load mine fairly warm .. and call it the "Crackhead" big bore..
not the drug.. .that it CRACKS your head

bowhuntrrl,
Too many deer. Not enough being shot. MDWFP decided to make it a little easier. In Mississippi you can use cartridge and rifle combinations that can be dated prior to 1900 I believe.

Now that the State made the rule that you can use the H&R rifles you can't find the things and when you do they bring top,top dollar. Before you could not give them away in 45/70 here. They really shouldn't call it primitive weapons season though.

as I understand this (second hand) the season is to include blackpowder rounds... not near 458 winmag loads

jeffe

I thought that same thing that they had to be loaded with black powder. I asked our game warden and he said no that standard centerfire loads were ok. I did some further checking and after several articles in the newspaper and calls downtown to the MWFP headquarters they said balack powder was not necessary. Only the caliber was specific. Those calibers include .44 magnum, .45 Colt, .500 S&W, any caliber over .38. The rifle is ver specific as well.

http://www.mdwfp.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10913

Single shot only. You see why everone is buying up the H&R's because no one wants to spend the $1300+ for the Sharps when they can spend $200 however increasing these days to well over $300 for the H&R. The state last year was able to sneak this whole thing in on us with no warning. Someone with one of these companies lined the pockets of our corrupt state govt.

Mounting a scope on this thing is a little more difficult than I expected. Extra-High rings are necessary to clear the hammer. So, still havent shot it. Anyway, the blackpowder discussion... The original writing had black powder necessary along with lead bullets. The latest version I have seen gives the ok to modern bullets and smokeless. So, hey sounds like fun to me and alot less mess and cleaning. Cept for the deer.

quote:

Originally posted by Bullie:
Mounting a scope on this thing is a little more difficult than I expected. Extra-High rings are necessary to clear the hammer. So, still havent shot it. Anyway, the blackpowder discussion... The original writing had black powder necessary along with lead bullets. The latest version I have seen gives the ok to modern bullets and smokeless. So, hey sounds like fun to me and alot less mess and cleaning. Cept for the deer.

Make sure you have enough eye relief. A scope on this gun can introduce itself to your eye rather rudely.

ZM

quote:

http://www.mdwfp.com/Level2/Wildlife/hunting_regs.asp#PRIMITIVE%20WEAPONS

Interesting...

"All muzzle-loading Primitive Firearms must use black powder or a black powder substitute with either percussion caps or #209 shotgun primers or flintlock ignition. Breech loading single shot rifles must have exposed hammers and use metallic cartridges."

So a muzzleloader can use 209s but a breechloading percussion rifle is prohibited (don't suppose many folks are running Sharps rifles with paper cartridges in any case).

quote:

Originally posted by jackfish:
http://www.mdwfp.com/Level2/Wildlife/hunting_regs.asp#PRIMITIVE%20WEAPONS

Maybe Mississippi's hunting laws are different, than Wisconsin's???

300magman-

I went to the page you gav the link to. Their reasoning reminds me a bit of how a state defines an "assault weapon".

They say any Sharps, but no Ruger No. 1/3, because of no exposed hammer. A Sharps "Old reliable" has no hammer. Then no T/C- hammer, but modern design. A break-action is modern??

Looks like the state should just have a "single shot rifle" season, rather than what they give us on their web page.

I'm smellin' some politics, too

Well, it seems this is working out well for H&R/NEF. There is a backorder-waiting list at the Walmart near my home for the Handirifles. MONTHS! When have you ever heard of a H&R product being on backorder?????

It is amazing how ridiculous that law is for the single shot rifles. It just appeared overnight in the rules last year. No warning, no debate, no announcement. What ever company did the lobbying, I don't know if it was NEF or who ever but they put enough money in the right pockets to get this done overnight. I don't care if we have the single shot rifles or not. I would just not call it primitive weapons season.

We have more deer here than some of you outside Mississippi could posibly believe. We already have one of the most hunter friendly limits of any states and no tags or draws required. I see soon we will be going to 1 buck and 1 doe per day every day of the season, essentially no limits.

Oh and Bullie is right, you can not find these guns at a normal price.