Quiet 45-70 loads

[Larry Gibson]

Paco Kelly had a lot of cat sneeze loads. The key is heavy for caliber and long barrels. He expected the max range to be 20-25 yards usefulness. I don't think you're getting to 100 yards without a can.

Certainly not quietly.......

[BLAHUT]

I am going to agree with Larry on the cat sneeze load and deer, wrong tool for the job. That said I load 12 grains of Unique under a 300-350 grain boolit. These run 1100-1150fps and are pretty quiet out of my 26" 1886 and 30" Sharps. Use these for shorter range gong matches out to 250-300 yards. My load for deer is the Lyman/Gould hollow point, cast soft over 30 grains of 5744 and is very effective.

In my 45/70 guide gun for big bears; I load a LEE 515 gr pure lead bullet over 27 grs of 5744, about 1200 FPS; not quiet but very effective......
In my 45/60 I load a LEE 500 gr pure lead bullet over 11 grs of unique; very accurate; somewhat quiet; puts deer down like right now...
Quiet is subjective ?? A .22 LR is quiet and will put deer down at 100 yds; not the best choice though ??

[popper]

Remember that the gasses at the muzzle are 1 1/4 x the bullet fps. Unless really slow you still get the shock wave.

[rodbolt55]

Try Trail Boss. Not being familiar with your caliber I can tell you about my experience with .41 swiss vetterli. 300 gr cast with WW. 13 gr trail boss. chronographed at 15 ft was 1150 FPS. battle sight at lowest it shot 16" high at 100 yds. My daughter was embarresd at the range. Big old long military rifle, sounded like a high powered air rifle. I have used trail boss loads with lead and jacketed for about 15 different old military stuff from 6.5 swiss to .43 dutch. that powder simply does not go BANG, it goes puff. I even stepped my .41 swiss loads to 16 gr max,chrono went to 1250, still sounded like an air rifle. But I have found Trail Boss works well with a lot of old black powder cartridge weapons.

[TNsailorman]

I don't think "quiet" and the 45-70 go together even with can on the end of the barrel. Unless you are deaf to start with. james

[pls1911]

12-15 grains of Unique pushing an RCBS 300 or Ranch Dog 350 is danged quiet out of a 34” Sharps, and accurate to boot. Deadly at my normal range… under 100 feet.
Shorter barrel guide guns are equally accurate with this load, but report is a bit more like a 45 Colt.

[nanuk]

I have not I do load a Lee R.E.A.L. 200 grain bullet sized .457" over 5 grains of Red Dot (+ filler) I get 850 f/s and tight 25 yard groups basically making it a .45 acp load to light for deer for my thinking. It does shoot point of aim at 25 yards with my Marlin sighted at 100 yards with modern hunting load .

IF for some reason I needed a heavy deer load that was quiet a heavy bullet at 1000 f/s would be a good choice but remember you are going to have a rainbow trajectory .

Using the trajectory tables, the 45/70 is easily PBR to 100yds using an 8" kill zone. surprised the heck out of me the first time I ran them.

JBM:
Barnes 300gr FNSP w/.227G1
1000fps
(my 45/70 shorty is scoped, longer ones use irons) Sight above bore 0.7"
worse case temp/pressure: no wind... at 100 yds, it makes little effect
assume gun capable of 2" groups at 100yds (makes easy maff)
Using an 8" kill zone, I calculate where the bullet is never more than 4" above/below POA (gives me close to real world trajectory)
MRT: 50yds
ZERO: 88yds
MaxPBR: 99yds 877fps/512fpe

I doubt any deer can withstand a center chest shot w/300gr .458 877fps

with a big heavy boolit, there's no issue with penetration

as for quiet? Noise levels are in the ear of the beholder!
If the gasses are 1.25 above, and you want to reduce any supersonic: use 800fps
MRT: 42yds
ZERO: 73yds
MaxPBR: 81yds
100Yds: up to 8" below POA
(still using my 2" grouping and 8" kill zone)

everything gets better with heavier boolits, warmer temps, higher sights, better accuracy...

my closest neighbour is over 500m away, I know nothing is silent, but I would like it at least not so noisy as to make them think "Home Invasion"
my longest shot would be under 50 yds.
I think a 420gr boolit at 750-800 would work just fine for my needs

[fixit]

Thank you, guys...... this is the line of discussion I was hoping for! Keep it up!

[glaciers]

Interesting thread. Most posts here are dealing with the report of the rifle with a given load.
Question I have is how good of a killer would a 300 - 310 grain soft lead slug be at a muzzle velocity of 800 - 850 fps with in 25 - 30 yards.

[HWooldridge]

Interesting thread. Most posts here are dealing with the report of the rifle with a given load.
Question I have is how good of a killer would a 300 - 310 grain soft lead slug be at a muzzle velocity of 800 - 850 fps with in 25 - 30 yards.

That's basically a 45 Colt load with a heavier than standard slug - I should think it would kill most anything on two or four legs...

[MT Gianni]

Interesting thread. Most posts here are dealing with the report of the rifle with a given load.
Question I have is how good of a killer would a 300 - 310 grain soft lead slug be at a muzzle velocity of 800 - 850 fps with in 25 - 30 yards.

I think it would be death on 120 lb whitetails. I don't know how it would rate on 250 lb game or greater weights.

[fixit]

The more I think about it, the more likely I'd be going with a 400 grain or more flat point for penetration and b.c.. The longer slug should retain velocity better, even with a flat point. Oh, how my shooting budget would go up if I had a more accessible area to shoot!