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45/70 factory remington 405's

11K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  444HAL 
#1 ·
Ok, I was talkin to a friend of mine about bear hunting and rifles we use and told me to try the 45/70 factory remington 405's. He said unbelievable penetration is achieved with that slow ol' bullet. He seems pretty confident that the factory 405's work on bear just as well as any other "hot loads" available for the 45/70. Just seems such a slow bullet to be such a bear slayer. Anyone have any close range experiences on larger game, particularly black bear. Please let me know. Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
Bullets don't have to be fast to go through a lot of critter. I have shot two bison with loads from 1,000 to 1,300fps and gotten through and through penetration. This with handguns, but the same principles apply.
 
#3 ·
I have killed a few hogs with Rem factory 405 loads. They seemed to work fine. I guess penetration was adequate as it was complete( no bullet recovered). I have used the BTB LFN 405 gr in handloads and taken deer with it. No problems there and complete penetration. I have not shot bear or larger game with them. After shooting various loads, I do not "need" hot 45/70 loads as the regular loads seem to have worked well for my hunting. I have used BTB 350 gr also and it has worked well. I am still looking for the perfect load in 45/70 but I am sure it will end up being a moderate velocity load and not one of the hot higher velocity loads.
 
#4 ·
Back in the last century (actually the other last century) the 45-70 killed critters big and small using loads very similar to the factory 405. Not much has changed since then (well, except we have cars, planes, interstates, huge deficits.... you get the picture!) and that bullet will still kill a big critter just fine. At the ranges most hunt bear-over-bait, it shouldn't be an issue whatsoever.

Although it's not the load I use in my 1895 for bear-over-bait, I surely would never say it's not completely adequate. It's simply not flat shooting, having a very looping trajectory outside 100 yards, but again, this is a moot point on B-O-B.

"Choot 'em, choot 'em!!" as Troy would say! :D
 
#5 · (Edited)
Remington's Factory 405 grain ammo, as well as the 300, is loaded to safe specs, allowing it to be used in old trapdoors and such. It'll have plenty of penetration and punch to get the job done. While I do have some hotter handloads for my 1895 guide gun, MOST of the stuff I feed mine fares about the same speed as the remington factory ammo. I've been using some cast performance bullets, Remington 405's, as well as some Beartooth. it's a big bullet that will penetrate most animals if placed correctly.
I won't even describe what the factory 300 ammo will do to a woodchuck we spooked.:eek: ....messy

 
#8 ·
#14 ·
Now, that there was funny, darn funny...lol!! :D
 
#16 ·
Your shoulder, or ??? :eek:

Sorry, couldn't resist! :D
I laughed at your comment because I was thinking the same thing you were. But then I remembered how I had to promise my orthopedic surgeon that I would reduce the recoil of any of my rifles that recoil more than the 38 spl/357. So all my guns have Limbsaver recoil pads, even a M-92 levergun in 480 Ruger. So while the both of us thought the same thing as a response, I was reminded instantly of the need to protect my shoulders. Neither I nor my orthopedic surgeon want to repeat the shoulder joint replacement operations I had on both sides. The days of being punched by a hard kicking rifle are over. Luckily I grew up with most rifles having some sort of buttpads except the 22 lr or a 30-30 levergun with either a plastic or metal buttplate. I must admit most pads were thin and more for protection of the buttstock than the shooter. The black Limbsaver pads don't look too bad even on leverguns. I thought it would look fugly on the 1895 Cowboy but was surprised by how good it looks. The pads are even allowed for leverguns in SASS as medical reality trumps period correctness. I may be wimpy but I have more company now that I am in a higher age bracket. Let the young healthy guys shoot the guns with the plastic or steel buttplates. Black and blue are not my favorite colors unless we are talking about clothes. The fact that I still find our responses to Dave_1 funny shows that in my case a diagnosis of dementia is very likely. Two shoulder joint replacements and my next rifle will be a CZ 550 full stock in 9.3x62...yup, dementia for sure.
 
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