.45-70 and Colorado elk

[spelunkerrn]

Hi everyone,

Elk season is upon us now and I am thinking of hunting with my C Sharps 1875 .45-70. The only bullet mold I have is a Lyman 457125 405 gr. Roundnose design. I would load it over a compressed load of Pyrodex RS. I'm concerned because I keep reading on other forums that a bullet with a flat meplat is ideal and the round nose designs just punch through the elk. Last year with my Marlin guide gun I was shooting Leverrevolution 305 gr bullets and with a shoulder shot the bullet just disintegrated on the cows shoulder bone. Soo.. I was thinking for this year that a nice soft glob of 20:1 cast would probably mushroom nicely if put in the boiler room. What do you think?

[Bullshop]

I think your thinking right but I would go even softer to at least 30/1 or even 40 or 50 to 1. There was a fella here that drew a bison tag and shot one in the head with the same bullet cast from ww. He hit just below and behind the eye and the bullet went clean through. Problem was the the buffalo ran into the heard and was lost. Next day they were glassing the heard and could see the one he shot because there was blood on both sides of the head. It was feeding with the heard as normal. WW and 20/1 are close in hardness.
I also think the 457125 is not a 405gn but more like 520gn depending on the alloy.
Maybe you ment the 457124 which I think is marked 405gn.
5,000,000 buffalo cant be wrong.

[elk hunter]

For what it's worth, years ago I shot a big Mule Deer buck with a gas checked 405 grain round nose bullet made from wheel weight lead, propelled by IMR 3031 from my 45 - 2 & 1/10th Sharps. The bullet shattered when it hit the large upper leg bone. The buck died, but not before I put another one through his neck. Inside he looked like someone shot him with bird shot that managed to get to the lungs.

If it were me, I'd cast the bullet fairly soft and would consider filing a large flat on the nose.

[Larry Gibson]

Concur with Bullshop, go softer at 30:1 or 40:1 if the rifle will shoot it accurately for hunting.

Also consider the M1873 cartridge used a very similar shaped bullet of 16:1 alloy and it killed all sorts of game, 4 and 2 legged, quite well. The M1873 TD with that load made the West safe for the M1873 Winchester;-)

Larry Gibson

[spelunkerrn]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I think this year I'll stick with the 45-70 Marlin and buy a new mold with a more suitable bullet profile for next year.