back in about 1975-1980 I purchased a marlin lever action 45/70 , mostly because it provides one of the very best rifles to use hard cast bullets in, and that significantly reduces the cost of ammo
my first trip to the local range showed the rifle to be extremely accurate with hard cast 350 grain bullets over a stiff load of imr 4198 and a 215 federal primer,I cast from wheel weights and 5% tin alloy sized to .459, groups of under 1" for 3 shots off the bench at 100 yards were common.yeah, been there many times, back in the 1970s I saw a buddy impressively drop two deer in very rapid succession at about 200 yards with a marlin 444,
he used 240 grain soft point bullets
I went out and bought one, it worked ok, it worked better after I found 265 grain hornady bullets,
but after awhile in the later 1980s I upgraded to a marlin 45/70 , and got into casting 350 grain, bullets and eventually upgraded to a 450 marlin BLR, when they came out with those in about 2000, using 405 grain bullets,
accuracy and stopping power were marginally better after each upgrade, as group sizes shrunk and bullet weight increases and AS I GAINED MORE EXPERIENCE AND SKILL,
the results I got improved.(group sizes became more consistent and slightly smaller, with each change)
now I'm not about to suggest there was anything wrong with any of those calibers, or rifles and,
I doubt any deer or elk would not have dropped if hit well with any of those rifles.
certainly all those rifles would shoot under 2" bench rest groups and the BLR is consistently under 1" three shot groups off the bench rest,
but I don,t know anyone who can keep a consistent 2" or less 100 yard three shot group shooting from a field position,
so I doubt any deer or elk would notice.
but I certainly felt each upgrade was worth the money
velocity was not super high, probably near 1800-1860 fps, JACK was 100% convinced the 45/70 would prove to be an excellent elk rifle after seeing how in stomped deer id shot, but I was always hesitant because I knew the range and trajectory limitations, but after thinking about how rarely we had seen elk out past 200 yard I decided to bring the rifle as my back-up elk gun.
so it was not long before I took the rifle deer hunting where it proved to be one of the best rifles Ive ever owned, fast handling ,accurate, and it seriously hammered deer so I started thinking seriously about ELK, so on the next trip I brought it along as my spare rifle, during the first three days I hunted with my 340wby like I do most years but we seldom saw elk and watching the usually saddles proved to be wasted time.
So on the fourth day of the hunt I started still hunting the lodge-pole pines and conifer thickets on the north and east facing slopes of a couple canyons and glassing the south and western slopes that tend to be much less thickly covered with vegetation in most canyons.
that's the type of hunting that's usually proven to be productive after the first few days when the elk may be more willing to expose them self's during day light in open areas, but they soon learn to stay in the thicker cover on the remote area slopes, where they can find water and cover after opening day confusion. that day turned rather cold and it started to intermittently snow and sleet, making hunting a bit less enjoyable, but it seemed to get the elk moving a bit as I saw several cow elk sneaking thru timber at times, use of a cow call tended to stop them, but I only had one bull elk tag and wanted a really clear shot,so cow elk were not on the menu, about 5 pm I was sitting on a stump in the edge of a clear cut logged area thinking about how cold I was, and thinking about the walk back to camp for some hot coffee mixed with coco and a warm sleeping bag, when I noticed movement at about 120 yards , I slowly dropped behind the stump and used my day pack as a cushion for the rifle and watched the the rifles 4x scope as several cow elk drifted in and out of the mixed brush., the sun was rather low and lighting was less than ideal, but I eventually made out the 4 legal antler tines in the bulls rack moving in the brush on the edge of the clearing.
once a shoulder was exposed, I lined up the cross hairs in the scope just behind the shoulder about 1/3 way up the chest and fired figuring on breaking him down, before he ran up over the ridge into the adjacent steep canyon. at the shot ,I saw a good deal of water droplets fly off the bull where the slug impacted and it temporarily staggered him, he bolted and started running as if unhurt, but it rapidly became obvious he was hard hit, as he was circling back and fell within a few yards.
JACK had been sitting on a stump about 200 yards further along the ridge watching his own section of the clear-cut and he walked over to see what Id shot at.
we looked for the bull in the failing light and found him after about 5 minutes of looking, the area always looks different once you start moving so it helps to take your compass bearings and locate obvious features to key your location from,especially as it was snowing lightly and starting to look like it might snow harder.
the hard cast slug had zipped thru, the rear of the near shoulder,expanded slowly, and it exited the far side lung, the bull had run about 20 yards but mostly in a circle starting uphill and curving so he was headed down hill before he eventually fell between two stumps on the far edge of the clear cut, I tied a large orange ribbon on the tree next to the bull as it was getting dark, and left a trail of ribbons on branches walking directly down hill as I walked to the logging road a few hundred yards lower to get help dressing out and packing out the bull.
I got all the Coleman lanterns in camp filled with fuel, as it was cold and pitch black,and started back with several of the guys,because we had no idea if the snow would make finding the bull far more difficult by morning, it took us about an hour to find the bull, and several hours to pack him the several hundred yards to the truck on the logging road, but we eventually got most of his meat packed into a 160 qt and a 72 qt cooler with lots of dry ice.
my first trip to the local range showed the rifle to be extremely accurate with hard cast 350 grain bullets over a stiff load of imr 4198 and a 215 federal primer,I cast from wheel weights and 5% tin alloy sized to .459, groups of under 1" for 3 shots off the bench at 100 yards were common.yeah, been there many times, back in the 1970s I saw a buddy impressively drop two deer in very rapid succession at about 200 yards with a marlin 444,
he used 240 grain soft point bullets
I went out and bought one, it worked ok, it worked better after I found 265 grain hornady bullets,
but after awhile in the later 1980s I upgraded to a marlin 45/70 , and got into casting 350 grain, bullets and eventually upgraded to a 450 marlin BLR, when they came out with those in about 2000, using 405 grain bullets,
accuracy and stopping power were marginally better after each upgrade, as group sizes shrunk and bullet weight increases and AS I GAINED MORE EXPERIENCE AND SKILL,
the results I got improved.(group sizes became more consistent and slightly smaller, with each change)
now I'm not about to suggest there was anything wrong with any of those calibers, or rifles and,
I doubt any deer or elk would not have dropped if hit well with any of those rifles.
certainly all those rifles would shoot under 2" bench rest groups and the BLR is consistently under 1" three shot groups off the bench rest,
but I don,t know anyone who can keep a consistent 2" or less 100 yard three shot group shooting from a field position,
so I doubt any deer or elk would notice.
but I certainly felt each upgrade was worth the money
velocity was not super high, probably near 1800-1860 fps, JACK was 100% convinced the 45/70 would prove to be an excellent elk rifle after seeing how in stomped deer id shot, but I was always hesitant because I knew the range and trajectory limitations, but after thinking about how rarely we had seen elk out past 200 yard I decided to bring the rifle as my back-up elk gun.
so it was not long before I took the rifle deer hunting where it proved to be one of the best rifles Ive ever owned, fast handling ,accurate, and it seriously hammered deer so I started thinking seriously about ELK, so on the next trip I brought it along as my spare rifle, during the first three days I hunted with my 340wby like I do most years but we seldom saw elk and watching the usually saddles proved to be wasted time.
So on the fourth day of the hunt I started still hunting the lodge-pole pines and conifer thickets on the north and east facing slopes of a couple canyons and glassing the south and western slopes that tend to be much less thickly covered with vegetation in most canyons.
that's the type of hunting that's usually proven to be productive after the first few days when the elk may be more willing to expose them self's during day light in open areas, but they soon learn to stay in the thicker cover on the remote area slopes, where they can find water and cover after opening day confusion. that day turned rather cold and it started to intermittently snow and sleet, making hunting a bit less enjoyable, but it seemed to get the elk moving a bit as I saw several cow elk sneaking thru timber at times, use of a cow call tended to stop them, but I only had one bull elk tag and wanted a really clear shot,so cow elk were not on the menu, about 5 pm I was sitting on a stump in the edge of a clear cut logged area thinking about how cold I was, and thinking about the walk back to camp for some hot coffee mixed with coco and a warm sleeping bag, when I noticed movement at about 120 yards , I slowly dropped behind the stump and used my day pack as a cushion for the rifle and watched the the rifles 4x scope as several cow elk drifted in and out of the mixed brush., the sun was rather low and lighting was less than ideal, but I eventually made out the 4 legal antler tines in the bulls rack moving in the brush on the edge of the clearing.
once a shoulder was exposed, I lined up the cross hairs in the scope just behind the shoulder about 1/3 way up the chest and fired figuring on breaking him down, before he ran up over the ridge into the adjacent steep canyon. at the shot ,I saw a good deal of water droplets fly off the bull where the slug impacted and it temporarily staggered him, he bolted and started running as if unhurt, but it rapidly became obvious he was hard hit, as he was circling back and fell within a few yards.
JACK had been sitting on a stump about 200 yards further along the ridge watching his own section of the clear-cut and he walked over to see what Id shot at.
we looked for the bull in the failing light and found him after about 5 minutes of looking, the area always looks different once you start moving so it helps to take your compass bearings and locate obvious features to key your location from,especially as it was snowing lightly and starting to look like it might snow harder.
the hard cast slug had zipped thru, the rear of the near shoulder,expanded slowly, and it exited the far side lung, the bull had run about 20 yards but mostly in a circle starting uphill and curving so he was headed down hill before he eventually fell between two stumps on the far edge of the clear cut, I tied a large orange ribbon on the tree next to the bull as it was getting dark, and left a trail of ribbons on branches walking directly down hill as I walked to the logging road a few hundred yards lower to get help dressing out and packing out the bull.
I got all the Coleman lanterns in camp filled with fuel, as it was cold and pitch black,and started back with several of the guys,because we had no idea if the snow would make finding the bull far more difficult by morning, it took us about an hour to find the bull, and several hours to pack him the several hundred yards to the truck on the logging road, but we eventually got most of his meat packed into a 160 qt and a 72 qt cooler with lots of dry ice.
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