45/70 options, old tech . old school , but very dependable performance in the hands of a good marks man, who understands its limitations

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.
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I have to point out that almost anything a 45/70 in a RUGER/ marlin will do,
the 45/70 and 450 ruger and even the 458 win and 458 LOTT are not high velocity flat trajectory cartridges,
but they all can be exceptionally effective rifle cartridges if used by a hunter who understands their strengths and limitations,
where I hunted ELK in Colorado, everyone said I needed a 7mm or 300 mag for their flat trajectories, but the ELK tended to be found in well wooded canyons where shots over maybe 100 yards were rather rare, yeah I rarely had 400 yard shot opportunities, but in 45 plus years of hunting I bet those came up less than 5-6 times, while shots at walking elk in timber at 50-120 yards were seen at about every few days.

a 450 marlin in a browning BLR will do as well or even better

they both throw a 350-430 grain hard cast bullet,
that if properly designed provides a very dependable,
accurate and lethal projectile, when pushed to near its max safe velocity.
I've used a old marlin 45/70 with hard cast, gas check,
lead alloy 400 grain bullets to hunt ELK in the thick aspen for 5 decades,
its performed flawlessly, but I recently swapped to a 450 marlin BLR and have zero regrets.
hard cast gas check, alloy lead bullets may be old school, but they work flawlessly.

keep in mind the BLR is basically a front locking bolt action, magazine fed repeater ,with a lever actuating the bolt ,
for a marginally faster repeat shot than most people can duplicate with a bolt action,
and the box magazine that allows pointed projectile designs
most other lever actions are rated for significantly lower cartridge pressure levels.
you can do FAR worse than hunt with a BLR,
you could do far worse than a BLR in chambered in 325 mag as a near universal hunting carbine


Cartridges available in the Browning BLR:[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browning_BLR
.22-250 Remington
.222 Remington
.223 Remington
.257 Roberts (Discontinued)
.25-06 Remington ( Limited Run of 150 for Kones Corner)
.243 Winchester
.270 Winchester
.270 Winchester Short Magnum
.284 Winchester (Discontinued)
.30-06 Springfield
.300 Winchester Magnum
.300 Winchester Short Magnum
.308 Winchester
.325 Winchester Short Magnum
.358 Winchester
.450 Marlin
6.5mm Creedmoor
7mm Remington Magnum
7mm Winchester Short Magnum
7mm-08 Remington
See also
hardcastonly is online now
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if your into handgun hunting, using cast bullets,
consider the fact that hard cast gas check bullets have been available for hundreds of years, they are comparatively cheap to make, tend to be exceptionally accurate if properly made and loaded, and they were used to eliminate 60 million buffalo (mostly with rifles), all the bad guys in the old west, attacking Indians and still they tend to work exceptionally well on big game if the proper design and caliber is used correctly, while some more modern jacked designs are marginally superior for self defensive work,
I've used a 357 mag with an 8" barrel, a 10mm with a 6" barrel and a 44mag and 500 mag with 8"-10.5/8" barrels all work well.

in the 357 mag the 158-170 grain bullets work far better than the lighter weights, in the 10mm 170-200 grain seem to be the most accurate, lighter and heavier tend to have accurate issues in guns I tested, in the 44 mag, rifles and revolvers, I used the 270-310 grain excel on game
and the 500mag seems to really like the lee 440 grain cast/gas check design
Id really suggest the REVOLVERS used with 6"-10" barrels with proper hand loads as they tend to be marginally more accurate on average and much more powerful
 
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