Man that thing kicks like a mule. I shot it off the bench 9 times this afternoon, that's all I wanted. Gonna order a recoil pad for it, I believe. Should stomp the crap out of some deer though, was shooting 300 grain JHP's. The 400 grain solids would kick even more I bet.

 

Deer?

that thing is severe overkill for deer. Ive shot one deer with one, and It had a good recoil pad, but the poor deer was pretty much ravaged with about a 3.5 inch diameter hole on the other side of the lungs and heart. Needless to say dropped it dead in its tracks,

Just curious, how big do deer get up where ur at? If ur lucky, down here at biggest they are bout 165 or so without guts. Most i shoot are between 120-140 without guts, does are at about 85-110 lbs

Have a good one!

Rick

 

What kind of .45-70??

Marlin lever-gun, 86 Winchester, Sharps, 73 Springfield, or what??

I love a .45-70.

 

Those are some tiny deer! I shot a 6 pointer and a 8 pointer last year. The 6'er was 174lbs gutted, and the 8 pointer was 188 gutted. 2 years ago I shot a doe that weighed just under 155 gutted. I thought we had small deer here compared to some from the friendly neighbors to the north. A friend of my dads shot one in Canada last year that went almost 230lbs. He said that it was an average sized whitetail!

 

I know it's overkill, but when I'm hunting in the woods, I HATE bloodtrailing. Wastes the last few minutes of daylight and can blow a good stand, all that stomping around in there. I wanted a rifle that would cross their eyes and knock em down flat. That way you know right where he is. A big buck around here is 200 lbs dressed, most run 160 to 180.

The rifle is Marlin's new 1895 cowboy rifle. It has a 28" octagon barrel and a full length mag tube, no checkering, and a straight grip. Really cool looking, I wanted one bad for a long time, but there were none to be found. Finally found one, I'm thinking about getting the band at the end of the forestock silver plated, that would look pretty neat. I'm just gonna use it as a tool for killing deer, but it makes it more fun to hunt with cool rifle. My buddy has some handloads for it that are supposed to be awesome, but believe me there will be a recoil pad on there before I shoot any of them. Gonna put a 3-9 scope on it, prolly a Leupold variX II.

 

Sounds like a really nice rifle; I guess I need to go find me one.

Please tell me that it doesn't have that ridiculous safety button, in front of the hammer.

A hammer and half-**** are all the safety needed on a lever-gun.

(The word that I typed there rhymes with lock and it keeps removing it for some dumb reason.)

If I intend to keep one, I get rid of that mess and fill the hole, so it looks like it was never there, but it is quite a chore to get rid of something that shouldn't have been there to begin with.

 

I've been lusting after a Marlin stainless .45-70 government "guide gun" for a while now... but the worst mule in the toolbox is my VZ-24 Mauser - gives ya lots of respect for the dudes that used 'em all day long!

 

I use a 45-70 TC for an elk hunting handgun. The cartridge has better accuracy potential at short ranges than most people give it credit for.

300 grain hollow-point wouldn't be too much of an overkill for deer, IMHO. After trying all kinds of brands and loads, though, 400 grain bullets with big loads of Reloader 7 are about the only thing my gun shoots well.

 

the .45-70 makes a nice deer gun. Makes the deer lay down nicely.

One of the local outdoor shops has a .45-70 pistol. Looks nice, but not exactly one I would want to pack around.

 

Lord, after shooting my rifle, you couldn't pay me to shoot that round from a hand gun. It is accurate though, I had em touching at 50 yards with the iron sights. The scope should help it, and get me a few more minutes of shooting light. The .45-70 is a beast, I had thought I wanted a 450 marlin, but couldn't get the same gun in that caliber. Glad I didn't, judging from the recoil. It would knock me out of the stand.

 

The phrase "Everything is bigger in Texas" doesn't apply to the deer. A lot smaller than the dang "corn-fed" animals we have here. Too many deer here for my taste.

 

Are you shooting hot handloads or somthing?

I've found the recoil from my guide gun to be fairly light even with 400+grn factory rounds?

45-70 is a fun all around gun.
Mine loves anything in 300grn, quite accuate. Winchester makes some nice supreme partitions.

 

Hell, if you need that much power, just fire a barrett 50 caliber at it or something.

 

that sounds like more fun than a human being should be allowed to have

 

Lawmakers in California would agree...