What's a good bullet for the 45-70? 45-70 boolits

jethunter

jethunter

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I recently got a winchester 1886 45-70. I've never loaded 45-70 before and not quite sure where to start due to the wide variety of compinets available.

What is a good bullet/load for general moose/deer/elk hunting? I'd like to try some cast bullets, what's a good bullet weight to use?
 
Also The Bullet Barn here in B.C. They offer 350-450 gr. hard cast. They have a couple of distributors in AB- the Bullet Bench in Calgary and P&D in Edmonton.

And as an alternative, check out the Belt Mountain Punch solids (www.beltmountain.com) - turned brass jacket with a wide meplat and a lead core. I just re-read an article Brian Pearce did on them in Rifle Magazine (July-Aug. 2008). According to him, these are popular with Ed Stevenson, one of the outfitters up in Alaska, for sorting out problems with the big bears.

:) Stuart
 
Ive been trying out Ben's 500gr. bullet. Nothing like loose fillings...lol

I think 405gr. is a classic bullet weight for the 45-70. As for J word bullets..I think the 350gr. Hornady is a good one.
 
Ben's 420 grain "Hammers", destroy all. Taken some coyotes with them, was very effective.

My load - IMR 4198, 44 grains, Large Rifle CCI primers gets me around 1850 FPS. Kicks like a mule though.
 
Logan_Lamothe said:
Ben's 420 grain "Hammers", destroy all. Taken some coyotes with them, was very effective.

My load - IMR 4198, 44 grains, Large Rifle CCI primers gets me around 1850 FPS. Kicks like a mule though.
Click to expand...

What rifle is that in and how long is your barrel?
 
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CanuckWR said:
I use Ben's 510grn with blackpowder and have a few hundred of his 480grn gaschecks to try with smokeless. The 510's have gone to 500 yrds for me and easily cut down good sized trees, my personal choice for squirrel defense.
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Squirrels? Logan_Lamothe is using it for coyotes...

Well, I guess that leaves the 577 Tyrannosaurus or 600 NE for whitetails.:p (And no doubt Ben has bullets for those, too.)

:) Stuart
 
The original 405 grain Winchester mould has really, really deep grease grooves. My Browning B78 loves this bullet - loaded with FFg of course. I suspect it is the right bullet for your rifle too.
 
I been playing with heavy smokeless loads in my Marlin 45/70 alot this fall, and a new 400gr hollow point gas check(very large HP) has been most accurate, slightly more so then the new 340 gr HP, both plain base and GC. The beauty of these is that they can do them up in flat point as well, but haven't compared for accuracy vs H.P.....The 325gr. VERY WIDE Flat point GC remains a fav. though as it doesn't bang me around as much as those 500s in my 7 1/2lb. rifle. A 450 gr. Plains slug from my .54 ML. nearly cut a coyote in half, earlier this week while I was deer hunting, with the pure lead slug. I hope everyone's fall has been productive and enjoyable out in the field.....Ben
 
Ben,
Those moulds wouldn't be from Mihec in Germany? I've seen mention of some of their HP .45 pistol bullets and the comments have been very favourable.

:) Stuart
 
My newest molds are from Mihec, NOE, and BRP, although the excellent BRP molds are no longer in production. I'm waiting for ones from NOE (.513"-500gr. Hollow Pt.), Mihec (.460"-150gr. gallery), and NOE (.225-62gr.).
 
In 45-70, for the heavier hotter loads, cast and jacket bullets, I use a Marlin 1895GS.

Marlin1895GS45-70.jpg


Usually, for cast bullet shooting and with loads a little lighter, I go with a Pedersoli Sharps.

Pedersoli1874Sharps45-70.jpg


From a buddy locally, I get a great selection of cast bullets, ranging from one that's325gr GC to a 530gr GC 'beauty'. Again, most of my cast shooting is with the Sharps.

45-70lightcastloads-1.jpg


For loads using jacketed bullets, two that stand out for me, primarily for use in my Marlin 1895GS, are the 400gr Speer and the Remington 405gr
 
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