Marlin dark is 45-70 for deer and bear in thick brush?

jonyork

jonyork

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Hey folks,

I’m thinking about getting one of the new fangled marlin dark in 45-70 for deer and bear in the western Quebec dense brush forests.

What do you guys think? Overkill? Wrong caliber?

Over a 100 yard shot would be extremely rare for the woods I’ll be in.

Thinking the 45-70 with the hornady leverevolution 325 FTX would be a pretty sweet combo.

Thanks!
 
That'll do fine. You could go with less of a caliber in terms of recoil (and cost) such as 30-30, but that marlin dark is a cool rifle. Buy what you'll be happy practicing with.

Cheers!
 
A bear stomper that doesnt dead stop bears. Curious, are there bears? That caliber is stupid expensive, only rather expensive if you load if there aren't bears, a Jm Marlin in anything...30/30, 32, 35,; would be much more realistic if your set on a lever. In a bolt, owe say pick of 40 calibers if its only Deer.
 
I've got an old Marlin .45-70 that was made to a similar spec to the dark long before Marlin introduced it. Never hunted deer with it but have hunted them with loads of other calibres - I reckon it'll do the job just fine.

Friends that have similar guns tell me that the FTX isn't all that great at holding together. It does give a better trajectory but that's not really what the .45-70 is about. I'd just load it with hard cast bullets with a nice broad meplat, they'll slam anything you point it at and penetrate end to end. When you want an animal to leak blood and die, two holes are better than one!
 
njc110381 said:
I've got an old Marlin .45-70 that was made to a similar spec to the dark long before Marlin introduced it. Never hunted deer with it but have hunted them with loads of other calibres - I reckon it'll do the job just fine.

Friends that have similar guns tell me that the FTX isn't all that great at holding together. It does give a better trajectory but that's not really what the .45-70 is about. I'd just load it with hard cast bullets with a nice broad meplat, they'll slam anything you point it at and penetrate end to end. When you want an animal to leak blood and die, two holes are better than one!
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Yep!
 
nowarningshot said:
A bear stomper that doesnt dead stop bears. Curious, are there bears? That caliber is stupid expensive, only rather expensive if you load if there aren't bears, a Jm Marlin in anything...30/30, 32, 35,; would be much more realistic if your set on a lever. In a bolt, owe say pick of 40 calibers if its only Deer.
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Bears are everywhere in Canada; plenty in Quebec. Nothing is a guaranteed instant stop. It's not expensive if you load cast. Should check out prices if you are recommending .35 as cheap...
 
Wouldn't say that the 45-70 is overkill at all. Maybe not needed; NoWarningShot has a point in that a 30-30 will do fine. Very little bloodshot meat compared to faster cartridges. Forget the FTX. And handloading is a good plan, as the 45-70 is a bit expensive for factory rounds. I wouldn't bother with jacketed too much; cast is much more affordable and really all you need unless you are attempting maximum pressure loads.
 
I agree with others. No reason not to go .30/30 in that situation. Having said that, if you want to have a black wooden rifle, there's no need to pay a premium for it. Every hardware and big box store sells black spray paint lol. Now if you really want a quality black lever rifle, the Henry version would be the safer choice.
 
I own one and hands down it’s my favourite gun.

You will not be disappointed, specially for bush work, short barrel light gun, heavy caliber to drop anything in North America and with a muzzle brake it kicks like a kitten.

45-70 is not that bad vs other premium hunting rounds for price.
 
nomad 68 said:
I agree with others. No reason not to go .30/30 in that situation. Having said that, if you want to have a black wooden rifle, there's no need to pay a premium for it. Every hardware and big box store sells black spray paint lol. Now if you really want a quality black lever rifle, the Henry version would be the safer choice.
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Why would the Henry version be better than the marlin?
 
It’s a great rifle. And a great caliber. It’s a very nice rifle to walk with in a thick bush that’s for sure. The ammo choice 325 lever revolutions do tend to come apart. They do have the 250g mono flex that are a bonded, they are supposed to stay together. I don’t have any experience with them in a hunting situation yet. just started to use them last year lol.

Brodie
 
Interesting, I gravitated toward the FTX since it worked good in my grandads old 30-30 on a deer so I figured it would be good in 45-70 but maybe not.
 
Brodie720 said:
It’s a great rifle. And a great caliber. It’s a very nice rifle to walk with in a thick bush that’s for sure. The ammo choice 325 lever revolutions do tend to come apart. They do have the 250g mono flex that are a bonded, they are supposed to stay together. I don’t have any experience with them in a hunting situation yet. just started to use them last year lol.

Brodie
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Monoflex are all copper bullets like the Barnes TSX etc. So they're better than bonded, they're all one solid piece. Quite light at 250gr though, they would have a very poor SD so not sure how well they penetrate? Fine for deer but not sure about bear?
 
Forgive my ignorance, if the FTX in 325 separates, how would that be worse than a regular cast bullet? Don’t those fall apart as well?

I find it interesting that hornady 325 and 250 have similar fps, which means that the 325 is a significant bump in power
 
I've shot a couple of deer with my 1895 in .45-70. It works well. If it's what you want, get it, use it and enjoy it. I use hand loads in mine, but then I haven't used factory ammo in any rifle since the Liberal ban hammer of May 1st.

In terms of your question about cast bullets, I don't cast them myself, but...my understanding is that a properly cast bullet with the right alloy (for hunting purposes) will be as tough, perform and penetrate just as well as a monolithic solid. On the other hand, if those conditions are not met, the bullet will be brittle or too soft. If brittle, the chances of it coming apart on impact or shortly thereafter increase greatly.
 
Chuckbuster said:
I've shot a couple of deer with my 1895 in .45-70. It works well. If it's what you want, get it, use it and enjoy it. I use hand loads in mine, but then I haven't used factory ammo in any rifle since the Liberal ban hammer of May 1st.

In terms of your question about cast bullets, I don't cast them myself, but...my understanding is that a properly cast bullet with the right alloy will be as tough, perform and penetrate just as well as a monolithic solid. On the other hand, if those conditions are not met, the bullet will be brittle or too soft. If brittle, the chances of it coming apart on impact or shortly thereafter increase greatly.
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And how do you feel about it being a good short range dense bush/brush catridge?
 
jonyork said:
Thanks,

This video is a large part of what formed my plan, https://youtu.be/P5dve7vAY9I at the 12:30 mark he does the 45-70
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Yeah, that's an interesting video. I first saw it myself a year or two ago. I note that his .45-70 rounds were loaded with 350 grain Hornady RNFP bullets. Those are the same bullets I use in my hand loads.
 
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