I finally got out to sight in my new 45/70 that I got for Christmas. (I know, what took so long... )

My much better half got me the H&R 45/70 Stainless Ultra Hunter with the thumbhole stock. I loaded it up with 52grs. of IMR4198 driving the Hornady 325 grain FTX bullet. I got an average velocity of 2291 fps and I have to say I was damn happy with that. Especially since there was no signs of pressure problems. (Except my sore shoulder last night.... )

It hits like a freight train. First shot took my Caldwell magnum gong and pulled the stakes out of the ground and flipped it on it's back. After driving the stakes in on an angle, three shots pulled them out three inches. My 7mm Rem Mag didn't do that....

Now I have to just practice like heck out to 300 yards to get to know the nasty drop this gun has and I plan on going after my Elk this year with it. Should be a blast.

Nice. I just got a Handi-rifle in 45-70 from my wife for our anniversary. Just got the dies and stuff in, havent even shot it yet.

very nice...those elk arent going to know what hits em.

Grant, sweet! Do you have enough eye-relief with that scope? What distance was your gong?

Eye relief seems fine. No scope eye yet.....

I was shooting at 100 yards. Point blanks info puts me at 3" high at 100 will give me 3" low at 200 and 10" low at 250. Still have to put that to the test.

Ohhhhyeah!!!!!

BAAABOOOOOOOMMM!!!!
My favorite rifle with my favorite caliber!!

Just the right gun for our avatar too

....Absolutely!

The Handi-rifles are fast becoming a favorite of mine and the 45/70 will probably be my go to gun. Huge stopping power, limited range, it's going to be a challenge hunting any species with it. I think I'll have to take a fall black bear with it too.

HhHhmmmm....thought ole Grant looked familiar...
I had a 45-70 Marlin lever gun but it was too finicky to feed and not reliable, I went for a Springfield trap door instead and love it. I power it down a bit from your load (because of the antique action) but I use the same powder. I shoot a 405grn cast boolit with 31.5grns IMR-4198 for around 1312 ftps and a velocity of around 1463. Plenty for me and pleasant to shoot. The antique is very accurate and it's really fun to shoot, easy to get hooked on the caliber when it performs so well.


Suz

I'm liking this 45/70. After looking at the primers a little more carefully I decided to drop the load to 51 grs. It only dropped the average velocity to 2249 and didn't seem to boot me so hard. The grouping didn't seem to be affected in the slightest, so that's good.

Welcome to the 45-70 club, Grant. My Marlin 1895 with a 22 in bbl is my favorite out of all in my gun cabinet. It hits hard at both ends... LOL I load mine with Hornady 350 gr fn and Imr 3031 to 2150 fps. Try 3031 IMR I'm sure you will like it. I used to have a scope on it but replaced it with a Lyman receiver site a few years ago and I like it better. Have fun, it's a great cartridge.
By the way Suz, mine is not finicky at all and is most certainly reliable.......... just like the rest of my Marlins. It also happens to be very very accurate.

Suzanne wrote:

HhHhmmmm....thought ole Grant looked familiar... I had a 45-70 Marlin lever gun but it was too finicky to feed and not reliable, I went for a Springfield trap door instead and love it. I power it down a bit from your load (because of the antique action) but I use the same powder. I shoot a 405grn cast boolit with 31.5grns IMR-4198 for around 1312 ftps and a velocity of around 1463. Plenty for me and pleasant to shoot. The antique is very accurate and it's really fun to shoot, easy to get hooked on the caliber when it performs so well. Suz

Huhhhh??????? 1312 or is it 1463??? Do you use a chronograph?????? Sorry Suz, just wondering.......???? Just don't ever tell me or make anyone believe Marlins are finicky or unreliable cause that is absolute B.S. Marlin has been making quality firearms since before 1872. You should know, check your history...!

I don't know where I got the first number from, I wrote it in my load book but it should be footpounds of energy, and the velocity of 1463 fps is from Hornady. I was probably trying to figure out if it was powerful enough to hunt deer with and so was looking into the hitting power.....I dunno



did I cross
all the I's
and dot the T's
Suz

Suzanne wrote:

did I cross all the I's and dot the T's Suz

Nope...! Phony as a 3 dollar bill........!

You may get the rest of these cats scattering for the ladder ... but not me! I don't run from B.S. .... or anything else for that matter!! Just so you know....!! LOL

I guess my opinion doesn't suit you, but if you saw the gun I bought new (but a display model and got a better price) you might be put aback at the condition the manufacturers let it leave the factory in. Remington started making the Marlins and they did a rather poor job on detailing, and fit and finish. Not a big deal to me, because of the price, and I'm used to making a gun function better and feel better in my hands. They left a lot of sharp corners that I easily rolled over with a file and spot blued, I left the wood alone but also worked on smoothing up the action which was gritty feeling along with the trigger. I don't know how you got the idea that I was bad-mouthing Marlin guns (just this one). Visit the Marlin Forum sometime and you'll read exactly what I'm talking about in the 45-70 forum.

A marlin 30-30 was my first gun ever and I love it and use it every deer season, don't have any qualms with it, it's been very accurate and was so right out of the box. The 45-70 though was finicky feeding the rounds, I had to experiment with overall length quite a bit to find what would work and the published length didn't work. I also never got an accurate loading after trying quite a few powders and bullets, I have the targets to prove it. At 50 yds I was getting spreads of 3 and 4 inches. For me, I put enough work into it for better results, but didn't get better results, so I sold it. Bought a Springfield Trapdoor that I have had much better results shooting (and it's an antique). Don't have to worry about if the case will load or eject, it also shoots very accurately and will shoot at 50 yrds a single large hole in the target. More to my liking.

You don't run from BS, I don't run from a fight! You're calling my opinion BS is rather nasty and I don't appreciate the phony as a 3 dollar bill crap either! If you don't like someone's opinion you're free to say so but to insult on this forum is not the way we do business. I've always respected you and your opinion and what little snippets we do throw around are taken as light hearted and humorous. You seem to have a serious problem with your anger. No I will not PM this, this needs to be resolved with the eyes of everyone in attendance. Thanks for making my morning wake-up so pleasurable.


Suz

I've read and heard of a lot of complaints about Marlins made after the fall of 2010, after production moved. Reliability was a problem. There was a recent article (Rifle Magazine, July 2014) about how they are addressing the problems and improving quality. Luckily my guns are older than that and work fine.

Energy for a 405 grain bullet at 1463 ft/sec should be 1925 ftlbs.