.45-70 hunting load

[irishtoo]

i load for 2 handis and a win1885 .45-70. currently the load is lee 457-330 beagled to .460 cast soft weight is 365gr. used as cast. 13 gr unique. wlr primers. beeswax and oliveoil lube. i have not had an opportunity to take game with that load. i most often use a flintlock. this load prints one hole group at 50yds and 1 1/2 inch groups at 100yds. two questions for all of you. 1. about what would the fps be? im guessing around 1300. 2. is this load powerful enough for pennsylvania whitetail and black bear? recoil is nil, accuracy good, no leading. do i need to bump up the powder charge? thank you all. irishtoo

[Duckdog]

I would guess your load is between 1200 fps and 1300 fps. There is no doubt that it will work on deer and black bear at reasonable ranges. You could try bumping the charge a bit, but if your shooting less than 100 yards, you will not have an issue, with the accuracy you rare getting.

[stubert]

Your load should exceed your flintlocks energy, the bullet is much heavier, (unless you are shooting a .62 cal. thats a 345 grain ball) You should be fine.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

13 grains of Unique is not a really powerful load, but with a bullet of 350-360 grains of weight it would be sufficient for medium game. One must remember that back in the day a 405 grain bullet moving at around 1200-1300 fps did a number on big game. The accuracy you report with the Unique is impressive. You can always bump up a powder charge, but with a relatively fast powder like Unique or anything else in the same burning range you have to keep a close eye on what you are doing or pressures can quickly get out of control. There are quite a few other powders that are somewhat slower that you can try. I have always used 3031 in my 45-70's and it has worked well with moderate charges and an increase of recoil depending on how much performance you would like/need. I have no experience with Handis, but I have an original 86 and it is a very strong action that handles the 45-70 very well. Certainly 1500fps would be more than adequate for even larger game such as elk. More than that might be more uncomfortable in terms of recoil. There are tables of energy that are calculated to show muzzle energy for bullet weight and velocity combinations and others that show the recommended ME for various game. LLS

[Walstr]

I've worked up test loads [.45-70] for my Marin 1895GS using IMR 3031 and home brew hardcast lead from Lymen 457193 mold. 45gr got 1550FPS and up to 49gr yielded 1693FPS. The groups were TERRIBLE. My son had to call it quits & told me to find another friend to complete the load evals. lol Yea, somewhere along the morning, the bbl showed leading a few inches from the muzzle. A month later in August, I had just a little time to try 40gr loads & the groups were very nice @ 1.5"-2" @ 50tds., but my chrono battery was dead, so I'll have to do better testing, again.

[aspangler]

25 gr of 2400 under a 405 gr boolit gives me 1450 fps and low recoil. clover leaf groups at 100.

[Wolfer]

Other than a few shots at targets I have no expierence with the 45-70. However I can tell you a 45 cal 255 gr at 1000 fps is certainly capable of taking deer. I would be very confident hunting black bear with it.

Your load can only be more potent.

[rexherring]

Shouldn't be a problem. I've harvested several big mule deer with my BH .45 with a 255 RCBS cast at a little over 1000fps so that big slug at a faster speed should work just fine.

[TXGunNut]

Sounds good, go kill something. Only reservation I'd have would be if I felt the need to break some bigger bones on a bigger black bear but I'm basing that on hunting big TX feral hogs, no personal knowledge of black bear. We only have a rumoured possible presence of them here in TX.

[TCLouis]

Calculating fro my load and velocity to yours I am guessing 1300-1350 fps.

Gonna go through anything you aim at I guessing.

Trajectory is going to be your only issue and if you have been shooting 100 yard groups you have that figured out, but significant drop in short increments of distance will surprise you beyond 100 yards.

Try guesstimating from the calculator here and an estimated BC of .250

http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator

[pls1911]

405 grains at 1400-1500 fps is enough for anything we're likely to see on this continent.

25 grains of 2400 seems to be about universal for 300-420 Grain bullets in 45/70.
Pick a weight...shoot it well....it will be enough.

[Michael J. Spangler]

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

appears they had luck with a very similar load.
as stated above, trajectory is the only worry here. if you have that figured out then you're all set.
i just finished loading up about 100 rounds of 45-70 with the lee 457-405 over 11 grains of unique. can't wait to shoot some

[pworley1]

I have never hunted Black bear, but that load is more than enough for white tails.

[Rufus Krile]

Lee 405's at 1170fps took two black bears in the Gila Wilderness of western NM back in Sept. Bullets were cast 16:1 and were not recovered. Like they say... any faster just makes a bigger divot on the other side.