Lightweight .45/70 boolit choice ?

[BobT]

I just put together a little bitty .45/70 carbine. It's a Thompson Center Contender Super 16 and it weighs just under 4 lbs. 6 oz. so saying it's a handfull with factory ammo is an understatement! I would like to deer hunt with this little gun and am looking for recommendations on a good boolit, ranges will be fairly short and I'll add a scope so it will probably pick up another pound or so. I was thinking about a soft cast Gould HP but any other recommendations are welcome.

Curiously, I did a search for .45/70 and came up with "sorry no matches" ! I know there are tons of .45/70 posts on here why don't they show up on a search?

Thanks in advance!

[HWooldridge]

You can go to a 150 gr collar button design and have a basic equivalent to a lightweight 45 Colt load. They are quite accurate to 50 yards - I've killed feral hogs with my Rem rolling block using these light pills, and that's with open sights. A scope would surely work out to 100.

[koger]

I would use a 350 gr HP Lyman/Gould mold, made out of softer lead. Use a minimum Unique load and it will get the job done, somewhere between 13-15 grs of powder should suffice. Kills like lightning. About the softest recoil i can remember, about 1/3 or less that of factory loads.

[sukivel]

I just put together a little bitty .45/70 carbine. It's a Thompson Center Contender Super 16 and it weighs just under 4 lbs. 6 oz. so saying it's a handfull with factory ammo is an understatement! I would like to deer hunt with this little gun and am looking for recommendations on a good boolit, ranges will be fairly short and I'll add a scope so it will probably pick up another pound or so. I was thinking about a soft cast Gould HP but any other recommendations are welcome.

Curiously, I did a search for .45/70 and came up with "sorry no matches" ! I know there are tons of .45/70 posts on here why don't they show up on a search?

Thanks in advance!

Try 45-70…


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[Tripplebeards]

If your already wanting to down load a brand new rig and still wasting a lot of powder in that big case and also trying to chase minute of deer accuracy you might want to re think your caliber choice. Either that or you can burn through a bunch of trail boss. Any way can put on really thick recoil pad? I remember someone used to make a butt stock with a piston in it at one point, but I don’t think they went over. I’m not a big fan of muzzle brakes, but you can always thread and put one on the front of the barrel just like the American or gunsite scout 450 bushmaster style. Sounds like a fun little gun but as soon as you’re dealing with recoil, it’s not fun anymore. Kinda like my 6 1/2 pound pump 35 Whelen 7600. Eventually, it’s gonna get a nice thick recoil pad on it. I can tell you my bolt gun in 44 magnum feels like a 22 Winchester magnum with Trail boss and still as accurate out to 50 yards or more. After that distance, the group start falling apart my guess is because it’s not enough velocity to keep those heavy Boolits stable. Faster speeds they hold up quite well and very accurate.


A 450BM, 460s&W, 454 casual, or 45 Colt barrel might be in your future?

[BobT]

Try 45-70…


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Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

Nope, still didn't work!

[Sgt H]

I'll 2nd the Lyman/Gould HP being an excellent choice for your application. I have harvested quite a number of white tails and one turkey with this boolit loaded over BP and smokeless. I load them to about 1450fps about the original BP velocity and they have been very effective. Cast them soft, 20/1 or even 30/1. I find them just as effective as the 300JHP factory or equivalent loads with less recoil. Still given the lightweight of your Contender, recoil of the Gould boolit load is going to be about like a full power 30-06 in a typical sporter.

[gumbo333]

BobT don’t feel bad. I’ve been reading castboolit for years, I’ve never made the search function work. Go to Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo and search for light 45/70 loads, it will show many, some at castboolits.

[BobT]

If your already wanting to down load a brand new rig and still wasting a lot of powder in that big case and also trying to chase minute of deer accuracy you might want to re think your caliber choice. Either that or you can burn through a bunch of trail boss. Any way can put on really thick recoil pad? I remember someone used to make a butt stock with a piston in it at one point, but I don’t think they went over. I’m not a big fan of muzzle brakes, but you can always thread and put one on the front of the barrel just like the American or gunsite scout 450 bushmaster style. Sounds like a fun little gun but as soon as you’re dealing with recoil, it’s not fun anymore. Kinda like my 6 1/2 pound pump 35 Whelen 7600. Eventually, it’s gonna get a nice thick recoil pad on it. I can tell you my bolt gun in 44 magnum feels like a 22 Winchester magnum with Trail boss and still as accurate out to 50 yards or more. After that distance, the group start falling apart my guess is because it’s not enough velocity to keep those heavy Boolits stable. Faster speeds they hold up quite well and very accurate.


A 450BM, 460s&W, 454 casual, or 45 Colt barrel might be in your future?

I'm not wasting any powder yet but my plan was to use Unique and a bullet in the 350 grain +/- range, just looking for some ideas from the folks who have already done it. I might put a different recoil pad on it at some point but for now I'll leave it as is. The Bushmaster is a no go as this is a Contender and I doubt there is a way to make the rebated rim work in a break open gun, I already have barrels in .45 Colt and .357 Max that I can use, I simply like the .45/70 and want to use it in a particularly thick spot I hunt sometimes where close encounters with big boar hogs are not out of the question so I want to have the option of having something with a little more oomph if I need it. Trail Boss would work and I have a pretty good pistol load for the .45/70 that might work in the carbine but I can't get any more Trail Boss and don't have too much left. I'm not particularly sensitive to recoil, I just don't need that much to have an effective load for deer out to 100 yards or so but I can still have the power in reserve if I need it. The .460 might work but I'm not sure if I can get a Contender barrel chambered in it.

[15meter]

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

Nope, still didn't work!

Try a search from outside the forum, use your favorite search engine, Duck, Duck, Go, the "Google", Bing what ever. State Castboolits in the search string: "45-70 loads Castboolits". Or similar will probably get you better results.

[gumbo333]

BobT, also check out gmdr.com for light loads in several bullet weights.

[sukivel]

I load the MP 462 Hammer 340 grain solid with 31 or 37 grains of imr 4198. The 31 grain load is very easy to shoot.


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[R-71]

I don’t have a specific load to recommend but a 300-405 grain bullet at trapdoor velocity should work well here. About 1200 fps.

[Mr Peabody]

I'd try the 300gr RCBS plain base, the gas checked version is very good too

[warren5421]

I loaded up rounds using .45 Colt loading and filler using a 300 -327 gr round that a friend cast for me. Recoil was very light.

[Duckiller]

I have used a 330 gr Lee boolit with a starting load of Trail Boss. Next to no recoil and fun to shoot. I got a 1895 Marlin Cowboy and wasn't sure what to shoot in it. Got a 330 gr and 400 gr Lee mold just to start out.With starting loads of Trail Boss both boolits have been fun to shoot. Haven't shoot deer with either boolit. California said I had to use non lead loads. Haven't figured out where to go deer hunting in Oregon yet.

[T-Bird]

+1 for the Gould

[openbook]

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

Nope, still didn't work!

With the CB search function, I’ve found it doesn’t like single, short search terms, especially numbers. Try something like “45-70 light loads” and I bet you it will work.

[Tripplebeards]

The Gould would be my pic. Lee use to make a single cavity 405 grain HP as well.

[Bigslug]

Nothing mysterious here - just replicate the old black powder-level loads for the trapdoor cavalry carbine - 405 grains in the ballpark of 1200 fps. Lots of data available to do that.

Any of the 400-ish grain "flying phone pole" bullets with @ .34" meplat would serve your short range role wonderfully. NOE currently has a few of the 460-396-RF in stock in a GC or plain base with the hollow pointing option. Should serve you well.