So I acquired a Marlin .45-70 for keeping the bears in their lane up at the Beta Site. A nice enough gun, but I need to tweak it a bit here and there. It was shooting quite low so I was going to swap out the front sight blade for something a bit shorter in order to bring things up a bit. In the process of trying to tap out a very stubborn front sight insert I managed to experience mission creep where the tapping became hammering and…broke the front sight ramp.
Alright, since the whole front sight issue is now moot, theres no reason not to replace the front sight assembly with something a bit more purposeful. My first email wasto the Skinner Sights people. And their failure to respond to my query kinda queered me on getting their sights. Alternate choice? XS sights. Threw a set of these on the shoulder-cannon and they seem to be ideal.
Thus far, mods are new sights and a safety delete. Need to pick up a few spare parts (springs mostly). Might add a touch of engraving for giggles.
What I really need to do is sit down at the reloading bench and decide on what the load for this thing is going to be. I like the idea of a 300 gr bullet around 1800 fps. If you’d feel safe with a 300 gr. .44 at 1200 fps then this would make sense. I could go to the 400 gr., which is probably what most would recommend, but I think the lighter 300 gr. bullet will kick less and allow fast followups while still not really giving up much in terminal performance. But…I’ll experiment. I’ve some gas-checked hard cast bullets that might be just the ticket.
Now I just have to find the time to park my butt in front of the reloading bench and the shooting bench.
Why not install an optic? just curious.
Not really seeing a need for it. This is mostly for close-in less-than-a-hundred-yards sort of stuff, and for that a good sight of irons should be just fine and maybe a little speedier to pick up.
I’m not trying to sell anybody on anything but a Red Dot sight with a circle Dot reticle is about the fastest sight acquisition you can possibly find. Get the one with the green rather than the red color
In all our competitions that are short range IE that is out to about 200 yd the people running red dots consistently finish the scenarios faster than those using any other types of sights.For distances up to 200 yards the circle Red Dot reticle works great.
I shoot a modern 86 Winchester in 45/90 Hornady FTX 325 grn @ 2400fps. This is a light load. 4high, zero, 4 low from 1-3 hundred yards with the buckhorns as low as possible.
I’ve got one over the kitchen door. Buffalo Bore 430 gr low recoil. Functioning is more important than range accuracy.
I wrapped my handle with leather for a personal touch
The one .45-70 that I’ve got is an 1873 Springfield Infantry Trapdoor. It’s very pleasant, and fun, rifle with the .405 Cavalry loads.
My veterinarian bought a .45-70 lever gun; loaded the hottest rounds first so that as we shot it hurt more and more
My experience has been that heavy slow bullets are pleasant to shoot and light fast ones not so much. The Remington yellow box of 410gr at 1100 fps are quite nice to shoot (if you can ever find them).
If they had a hard cast bullet that would be my bear load. I’m not sure anything over 1200 or 1300 fps really adds anything as long as it’s a hard cast bullet with a wide flat face (meplat?).
i agree,
as always shot placement is crucial, stand your ground and take your shot ( you ain’t gonna outrun em). one of the largest grizzlies ever taken in Wyoming was by a woman with a 22 rifle. she knew just where to hit em. her name was Bella Twin. here is a link to the story.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/08/04/grandma-who-killed-huge-grizzly-with-1-shot-from-22-still-amazes-wyoming-hunters/
I love the last picture, with the bear skin spread out, and her little body pictured below! Good story!
Thanks for the link, cool story. But it says she was a Canadian who shot the bear in Canada, not Wyoming. Using a Cooey was icing on the gateau eh.
I shoot 450 grain bullets backed by 90 grains of black powder out of my .50-70 Sharps. I personally wouldn’t go any lighter. For the .50 Beowulf I went with 600 grain hard cast wide flat nose bullets chugging along at ~ 1,300 fps. Both seem to kick about the same. Followups with the Beowulf aren’t significantly slower than any other of my ARs.
Steinel Ammo has a good selection of .45-70 loads if you’d like to try different options before settling on a reload to go all in on. If going with 300 grainers, I’d definitely make sure that any jacket was tough and not prone to separation.
https://steinelammo.com/product-category/rifle-ammo/45-70-govt/
This outfit has a good choice of 45-70 bullets. Plus they are real pretty
https://acmebullet.com/product-category/bullets/45_70/
The 500 grainers are a hoot to shoot with black powder
Oh, I’ve no shortage of .45-70 lead bullets. I must have a dozen moulds ranging from a 300 gr. GC all the way up to a 535 gr. Spitzer boattail. Just gotta see what the gun likes.
are you shooting for sport or self defence?
I do not believe anyone in Montana shoots grizzlies for sport since they are protected.
BTW, XS sites are my go-to on my handguns, and have excellent customer service: I lost a screw once and they had a replacement to me the next day
I’ve always thought bear defense could be pretty adequately done with a short (18.5-20in) barreled pump shotgun loaded with slugs.
Bonus, Everyone reading this probably owns a short barreled pump shotgun and a couple boxes of slugs.
I’d go with a 12ga with slugs. Lots cheaper, too.
.45-70 is a great cartridge, especially in a modern rifle with modern ammunition; I like my Marlin 1895. But….why not an 18 inch 12 gauge with Brenneke 1 3/8 ounce Black Magic slugs?
Versatility, mostly. Both will do the job, the Marlin gives me the advantage of longer range accuracy as well if I want to keep just one gun for deer and elk season as well. However, I’ve a few 14″ 870’s here that would be good candidates for a ‘bears only’ kinda thing.
Beside that “we’ve got guns at home” (spoken in Dad voice) my biggest reason for the 12 gauge is ironically versatility.
Put an old pump shotgun at the cabin. Have a variety of shells for it. You can shoot any sort of game and defend yourself just fine. Also if it gets robbed well you lose $400 in value.
Years ago I took a stainless Marlin Guide gun, shortened the barrel to 16.25″, the LOP to 12.5″ w/a REAL recoil pad, and put a 2x pistol scope on it in the scout configuration. It’s loaded with Buffalo Bore’s .45-70 Magnum (Item 8D) 500-grain FMJ-FN; 1625 fps rated. Comes on target quick and does not get hung up on things in the truck. Close your eyes in the dark though.
Not a .45/70, but a Marlin 336 30-30 with XS Scout scope mount and Leupold 2x handgun scope does a pretty good job of ‘everyday ranch rifle’ carry. Just enough eye relief to get about 95% of the full view in scope. Thirty-thirty ammunition used to be MUCH more inexpensive than it is today, about a 1/3 of standard deer rifle ammo cost. Now cost is pretty much equal.
I set up a Remington 750 carbine in 30-06 for the same purpose. I found that the 870 express sights fit perfectly on it. They are a great setup for under 75 yards. I may end up installing a small dot like a Holosun 507 though. Once you are used to dots on your handguns, it sucks shooting irons.
Just so you know. I have an H&R trapdoor copy of the old Calvary carbine.
My best performing load was with a 405 grain soft point. The recoil was manageable. The factory loads in this caliber suck. I was using IMR 3031 as my propellant. On deer the 405 soft point stops them cold. Never hunted bear. Although from what we are hearing the idgits that run the DNR here have been so successful in their bear management we have them showing up in the suburbs of greater Detroit.
Let me consult my records for the load. I’ll send ot to you. I was developing a standard all purpose load.
Checked my load data. 45/70 405 jacketed softpoint. 38 grains of IMR 3031. Muzzle velocity is 1310 fps
This is the only load I used. Pretty sure with the si,Eaton of some of the deer here this should work on bears.