Made the longest shot I ever made with my 45/70

[jh45gun]

I shot a doe tonite first day of the WI early doe season in a Herd Control area. I took several pics with my cell phone but I got to buy a cable for the computer to post them so that might be a bit before I can.

Deer was coming in to bait and I was hunting a friends property. We set up a shooting bench and sand bags and both of us ranged the distance with our range finders. We also figured out how much hold over I had to hold to shoot the deer. Nice doe came in and I shot her and she only went 25 yards. Shot was perfect through the front shoulder through the heart and out the other side.

My own cast bullets Lee 405 grain hollow base sized to .459 with a powder charge of 24 grains of 2400. Gun was sighted in for 100 yards so all we had to do is figure out the hold over. I would not shoot this shot off hand but with a steady rest and sandbags knowing how far to hold over it worked well. We figured 24 inches drop so I held a foot and a half over her back. Range was 193 yards.

Forgot to add I have shot many deer in my lifetime but most all of them have all be under a 100 yards in fact most were woods shots closer to 50 or less than a 100 so this was for me a shot to brag about.

[jh45gun]

forgot to add it was with my Marlin Guide gun non ported.

[home in oz]

Good Shot!

[jh45gun]

Bill I have an old Weaver 1.5 x 5.5 Variable on it and it I had it on 4.5.

[GabbyM]

Got to love it when a plan comes togethere. Congrats!

My freezer isn't even pluged in . I'm not doing something right.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Thanks for thr good hunting tale ! Always fun to read. I hunt river bottoms and cannot imagine that far of a shot... only rifle I have scoped is a AR I use for coyots.

[NickSS]

That is a good shot for a 45-70! I also made a long shot one time on a Wyoming Antelope using a laser range finder. I shot prone at a standing antelope at 416 yards. I was hunting with my Pedersoli Sharps that I use for silhouette and I know the trajectory and sight settings. I adjusted my rear sight for the range and held the front post right under its belly and fired my shot. The 400 gr slug went clean through both lungs and the animal ran about 30 yards and fell over. It was the longest shot I ever made on big game.

[jh45gun]

Yea that's over twice the distance that is one heck of a shot.

[dragonrider]

Nice shootin JH.

[Bob Busetti]

Nice shot. Congrats I have shot several deer and elk with my 45/70. As with you none were over 100 yds. I do alot of timber hunting/

[Doc Highwall]

With the 24 grains of 2400 that puts the bullet at black powder velocities, nice shooting.

[jh45gun]

Now the Lyman book says its over 1400 fps something like 1470 with a 400 grain bullet. These bullets drop at about 390 grains so not sure how fast its going.

[jh45gun]

Ok I looed it up

Well the bullet drops from the mold right around 390 grains with straight WW. Closest info I have from the 47th Lyman Book a max load at 24.6 for a 400 grain bullet using 2400 is 1497 fps. So I would expect it to be somewhere in that vicinity.

[bigted]

very cool shot jh. ive shot that distance before and figured i prolly could but havnt gotten the chance yet.

screwed around today and bought a spankin new marlin 45-70 gs. took her out and froze my finger off but what a treat. had some 350 gr fp's at around 1400 fps and a couple 405's at 1300 fps so i took her out and blazed away. cant wait for huntin seasson next spring for black bear. im gonna put a leo 2-7 x and the hammer extension so will see what she does with this setup.

anyway that venison should be extra tasty having stretched your range like you did...congrats fo sho

[waksupi]

Longest shot I witnessed was by E.G. Smith, when I still lived on the reservation. We used to go up on Chief's Cliff every weekend, just over looking Elmo, Mt., and do a lot of shooting, mainly buffalo rifles, and pistols. If you have ever drove up the west side of Flathead Lake, you most likely have seen this natural landmark.
We were shooting out on the area in front of the cliffs one day, and we saw a raven land on the cliff. I asked E.G. if he thought he could hit it. He picked up his Business rifle, adjusted the sights, and hit the raven first shot offhand, at 750 yards. I said BS, so he shot again, hitting the same spot. No reason I should have been surprised, as we did lots of off hand shooting, at unknown ranges. Both of us also pulled off some fairly impressive shots with pistols shooting up there, that it was good to have witnesses for. Back in that same time period, nearly 30 years ago, Bobby Giles and I used to win a lot of side bet money down at the old Virginia City Montana Buffler Runners shoot, on off hand matches. Not many ever thought of shooting buffalo rifles off hand at long range back then, but Bobby and I did it a lot. We kicked butt, and collected money on the 700 yard target a lot.
One time I was hunting with E.G. over by Jordan, Mt., for antelope and deer. I could see Gene about a half mile away, as he took a shot with his Sharps, then he dashed towards a coulee.
A mule deer buck boiled out of the cut, and Gene pulled his Colt and killed it. I walked down there, and he was sitting on the buck laughing.
I saw the buck was missing an antler. That is where his first shot had hit, and it had sent the antler spinning off into the air. E.G. said when the buck came out of the cut, it was on the fight, and when he pulled out his pistol, all he could think was, "just like a deer, to bring one antler to a gun fight!"
He said he was laughing so hard, he could hardly shoot.
I guess I may as well edit in one more story from that hunt. The last day of the hunt, we still had one deer tag left, so E.G. and I took his jeep up a ranch road around a large butte. We spotted a nice mule deer buck out at around 200 yards. Back then, I was shooting pistol a lot, and wasn't too concerned about the distance. 500 rounds a week of .44 magnum was average.
I got out of the jeep, sat down, and rested the pistol along my leg. I squeezed off the shot, and the buck went down immediately. As I stood up, so did the deer. Gene said, get in, he's going off the back side. We knew there was a big coulee system on the other side, and wanted to cut him off before he could get there.
We were going down the dirt track at over 60 mph trying to get around the butte, before the deer could. We saw the deer running full speed towards the badlands, and Gene told me to shoot. I thought, oh, cool, Stage Coach! I started throwing shots at the deer as he came nearer and nearer. As he was about to cross in front of the jeep, my last shot hit the antenna of the jeep!
We both started laughing like crazy. Gene threw on the emergency brake, and jumped out of the jeep, stopping the deer at a bit over 300 yards with his Sharps.
I know, I know, you shouldn't shoot out of a moving vehicle like that. Statue of limitations are past, though , so I'm not too worried about it now!

[jh45gun]

very cool shot jh. ive shot that distance before and figured i prolly could but havnt gotten the chance yet.

screwed around today and bought a spankin new marlin 45-70 gs. took her out and froze my finger off but what a treat. had some 350 gr fp's at around 1400 fps and a couple 405's at 1300 fps so i took her out and blazed away. cant wait for huntin seasson next spring for black bear. im gonna put a leo 2-7 x and the hammer extension so will see what she does with this setup.

anyway that venison should be extra tasty having stretched your range like you did...congrats fo sho

Congrats on your new gun

[jh45gun]

Boy that is a good shot to hit a Raven/Crow at that distance and to do it twice.

[John Taylor]

Longest shot I ever made on a deer was 400 yards ( at night with a permit). Maybe I was cheatin, 243 with an 8 power scope sighted at 200 yards. Aircraft landing light on top of the old Chevy. I probably would not have shot if I knew how far it was, but at night it is hard to judge distance. I was holding between the eyes and the bullet went in about 8" below the chin. A little hole in and a slit about 1" long going out, never expanded the bullet. Was working to keep deer out of a vineyard. I don't know if they allow that anymore.

[WyrTwister]

Good morning
Thanks for thr good hunting tale ! Always fun to read. I hunt river bottoms and cannot imagine that far of a shot... only rifle I have scoped is a AR I use for coyots.

One of the nice things about a Marlin is it is easily scoped .

I have shot steel rams at 200 meters with my Marlin .45-70 . Iron sights , it is a challenge for my eyesight . Scoped , not a great challenge , once you figure out the hold over .

Shooting with a rest on both .

You could use the AR for deer in my state . Just shoot the deer in the ear .



God bless
Wyr

[jh45gun]

Not sure if I want to mess with this because I do not want to have to buy Gas Checks just an added expense but has anyone shot a lighter faster bullet for a flatter trajectory and still shot the slower 405 grain bullet with out adjusting sights. How much of a difference was there between the two?