By Jim Dickson | Contributing Writer
In 1873, the U.S. Army adopted the .45-70 as it’s standard service round.
Like all standard Army cartridges it quickly became a popular civilian caliber. Equally effective on men and big game, it soon proved worthy of its popularity and every type of commercial rifle action that could accommodate it was soon chambered for it. It’s power and accuracy combined with low felt recoil made it an excellent all round cartridge able to handle anything North America could dish out.
Sure there were more powerful cartridges but they were not as good a choice for the frontier where you might have to fire lots of shots in a hurry at attacking Indians or bandits. The accumulative effects of recoil quickly add up and the effect on accuracy can be serious in such encounters.
The Army was right to insist on recoil levels that the average man could take and fire 100 rounds a day without flinching. They quickly rejected the contemporary British .577-450 Martini Henry round as kicking too much. The .45-70 did the same job and did it better because it could be fired longer without flinching. Even today the .45-70 will be found to have some of the least felt recoil for its power of any cartridge out there.
For example, I have fired an awful lot of rounds through a Rossi 92 lever action in .45 Colt and a case hardened steel frame, octagon barrel, 8.1 pound Henry .45-70 lever action. Neither rifle produces any noticeable recoil but when firing a lot of rounds at one time through anything larger than a .22 the accumulative effects of recoil start to be noticed. I was surprised to see that the .45 Colt-caliber Model 92 Rossi lever action’s recoil was noticeable before the .45-70 Henry rifles recoil was.
This absence of recoil is an important factor in accurate shooting. Most hunting guides will observe that the average client shoots best with a .30-06 instead of a magnum unless he has fired an awful lot of practice rounds through that magnum. That is part of the reason behind the famous Victorian big game hunter’s advice on elephant rifles, “Use your big gun on everything laddie and count it practice for the day your life depends on it.”
Sadly, few will undertake the expense of the ammunition and the recoil to follow that advice as borne out by countless tomb stones of former big game hunters who were killed by big game that they could not stop in time with their lesser caliber guns.
Power wise, the .45-70 is more than adequate for anything on this continent. Old Alaskan hunters who have used both the .375 H&H magnum and the old standard velocity .45-70 load rated for the Trap Door Springfield rifles say they have equal stopping power on the giant Alaskan grizzly bears.
Many of today’s loads have greater Taylor Knock Out Values than the heaviest factory .375 H&H magnum 300-grain bullet loads and a couple of them have equal Taylor Knock Out Values with the .450-400 and the .404 Jeffery, which was loaded to the same velocity as a bolt action version of the .450-400.
Why is that such a big deal? Because in the glory days of British colonial hunting these were the minimum legal big game hunting calibers in places like Kenya where the .375 H&H magnum was illegal to use for hunting the giant forest hog as too many men had been killed because they could not stop these 500-750 pound animals in time with the .375 H&H magnum.
What has that got to do with your average American deer hunter? Well, America is facing large areas being overrun with wild hogs since in most places we lack mountain lions to keep their population in check. I know of at least three hogs that were shot that scaled over 1,000 pounds apiece! I sure don’t want to tackle that with a 5.56 caliber AR-15.
Another reason that deer hunters in areas without bears might need a powerful stopping rifle like the .45-70 is domestic cattle. These kill 20-22 people on the average each year and many hunters have to go past them. My wife, Betty and I both grew up exposed to cattle and we had cattle on our farm in North Georgia. One time we were hunting on a state game management area that had leased grazing rights to cattlemen. Betty was faced with a belligerent bull and had to fire a shot over its head to make it back off. Had it not stopped her next shot would have killed it. Another time we were hunting on a quota hunt on Sapelo Island which has wild cattle which you are not allowed to shoot. The state Game and Fish Commission would drop you off at your designated hunting area before dawn and come back to pick you up for lunch and at night. One evening we picked up a hunter badly shaken from an encounter with an angry bull that he did not have an adequate rifle to stop had it charged. It’s only prudent and good life insurance to have a rifle capable of dealing with anything that you may encounter.
Some people might question the accuracy of such an early cartridge. Well, I still have a Frankfort Arsenal loaded .45-70 match cartridge loaded for the 1,000 yard matches in the 1920’s where some of the shooters were still using the .45-70 alongside star gauged barrel M1903 Springfield match rifles.
Sure the cartridge is not as flat shooting as a .30-06 but back then people learned to estimate range accurately and today’s shooters have modern laser rangefinders for long shots. Statistics show that most deer are actually shot inside of 100 yards anyway so what’s the problem?
Some folks will say that you don’t need that much power in a deer rifle. These are folks that have never had to track a heart shot deer that made the famous 100 yard dying deer dash zig zagging over gravel or swamp land, or areas with too many other deer tracks. A big entrance and exit hole lets out more blood for tracking and stops a deer quicker. Also the .45-70 is legendary for its brush bucking abilities that deliver the venison when higher bullets blow up or get deflected in brush.
The traditional single shot .45-70 rifles are still being made and while there have been bolt action rifles made for the .45-70 in the past and Siamese Mauser rifles and British Enfield rifles have been converted to this caliber, most rifles will be lever actions. These are generally the Winchester or the Marlin type with the Marlin type having a solid top receiver facilitating the mounting of scope sights. Of these I have found the casehardened steel frame octagon 22-inch barrel Henry the fastest and steadiest on target for I can shoot tight groups off hand at 100 yards with it and I can only shoot 10-inch groups off hand at 100 yards with some of its competitors. Just how steady a rifle holds for offhand shooting means more than how accurate it may be from a bench rest when you are actually shooting game.
With all the different .45-70 loads available now here is a look at some that I have tested and can safely endorse.
- The Remington 405-grain Core-Lokt at 1,330 FPS. This duplicates the old Trapdoor Springfield black powder load’s ballistics and for a long time this type of load was the only one available. It worked then and it works now. Taylor knock out value is 34.3.
- Remington 405-grain Core-Lokt SPCL High Velocity at 1,600 FPS. The use of the .45-70 in powerfully built lever action resulted in this more powerful load from Remington. Taylor knock out value is 42.39 which exceeds the .375 H&H magnum 300-grain load which has a Taylor knock out value of only 40.4.
- Federal 300-grain SP HP Power-Shock at 1850 FPS. A popular deer hunting load with a Tylor knock out value of 36.3.
- Hornady LEVERevolution 325-grain FTX at 2,050 FPS. This high velocity load has a soft plastic tip enabling it to have a good aerodynamic shape with no danger of the point of the bullet setting off the primer of the cartridge in front of it in the tubular magazine of a lever action rifle. It is by far the flattest shooting 45-70 load and would be an excellent choice for elk hunters who often have to make very long range shots. It’s Taylor knock out value is 43.59.
- Black Hills 405-grain FPL at 1,250 FPS. A load favored by cowboy action shooters it still has plenty of power for anything on this continent. Taylor knock out value is 33.1.
- Black Hills 325-grain Honeybadger at 1,933 FPS out of a 26 inch barrel. This is a revolutionary high tech marvel that shoots completely through American buffalo. It is a monolithic solid that has deep flutes in it. These flutes are larger at the front and narrower at the back. When passing through flesh the blood and tissue is forced outward along these flutes and they end up traveling 35% faster than the bullet itself because of the large pressure differential between the fluted regions and the free stream velocity. This tissue and fluid velocity of 2610 FPS creates a cavitation passage far greater than the solid bullet yet because the bullet itself is not expanding it penetrates far more deeply than an expanding bullet. You have the best of both worlds. A solid bullet and the effect of expanding bullets in one Honeybadger bullet. It’s Taylor knock out value is 41.1.
- Georgia Arms 405-grain FPL at1300 FPS. An original black powder velocity number that still delivers the goods. Its Taylor knock out value is 34.2.
- Steinel Ammunition Co. 500-grain hard cast lead and soft lead loads at 1,485 FPS. The hard cast lead is designed to penetrate deep without expanding and the soft cast load reliably expands as only a solid lead bullet can. These are not jacketed in order to keep the pressure down. They have a Taylor knock out value of 48.5 which is the same as both the .450-400 and it’s bolt action version loaded to the same velocity, the .404 Jeffery. This is serious big game medicine.
- Steinel Ammunition Co. 730-grain hard lead subsonic at 1,000 FPS. Designed for those who have a suppressor on their rifle but don’t want to sacrifice power for quietness with a subsonic load, this delivers a Taylor knock out value of 47.76 which might be very important one day when culling wild hogs if you run into one of the 1,000-pounders.. It’s worth knowing that when the Afghans were fighting the Soviets they found that the old .45 caliber 480 grain bullet of the .577-450 in the Victorian Martini-Henry single shot rifle more effective than modern high velocity cartridges at destroying the tail rotors of the Soviet Hind helicopters thus causing them to crash. For those of you having a problem with Soviet Hind Helicopters this round would be even more effective.
- Steinel Ammunition Co. also loads a 325-grain brass monolithic solid at 1,740 FPS with a Taylor knock out value of 37 and a 300-grain JHP at 1,840 FPS with a Taylor knock out value of 36.
As you can see, the .45-70 may be 152 years old but it still is as modern as tomorrow. No other cartridge available today offers such a range of power with such low felt recoil.
