Factory 45-70 Ammo Recommendations Please

[gunned]

What have your experiences been with factory loads for the old 45-70?
Plenty of selection south of the border for this, but I haven't had much luck finding anything other than regular Federal 300? and Remington 405gr. Ofcourse it isn't like I 'need' anything else.
Cor-bon, Garret and Buffalo Bore (if I remember the brands) seem to offer some of the really potent stuff that makes the 45-70 live up to its reputation - just can't seem to find anything like it imported locally (checked wholesale and P&D). Handloading is not an option at this point either unfortunately.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[fallairfever]

Gunned,
What you really need is a .270 :D Deadly on deer and enough gun for moose if you know how to use the gun!!
Personally I reccomend a ruger :lol
tonnes of factory ammo to be had as well. :rollin
Hope this helps! ;)
Your buddy FAF!!

[gunned]

Glad to see the influences I have had on you shining through, patients grasshopper and you shall learn even more!:lol

:rollin

Remember "shot placement" is more important than anything, so you should head to a range soon! Unless the vitals on your 2007 bambi will be 14"-16" diam. and you keep your shots under 50 yards - then you should be alright.;)

[fallairfever]

Ouch, that hurt! :o
Well could be worse I guess could have gone out and bought a beautiful brand new remi just to find out I dont like it, :( then buy a awesome brand new guide gun just to find out I cant find ammo for it :rolleyes ...

But I digress, hopefully someone can help you find some ammo, Good luck.

[Roebag]

Gunned,

I like the PMC 350gr factory loads, they are far hotter than the Federal 300 gr. and accurate too. It's hard to even make loads for the lever action guns that are hotter than the PMC's
The remington 405 gr bullets would'nt even hit the back stop(hitting the dirt below) through my marlin guide gun at 100 yds, when the PMC 350's were dead on.
I think Remington loaded the 405's for the old action guns. I wouldn't use these for hunting.

First 45-70 Deer. I like using it for hunting
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s89/roebag/Hunting/DSC00944.jpg

[gunned]

Thanks Roe for the information, I'll have to find some and try them out. I didn't realize Federals were so wimpy. Nice deer.

[Nait Hadya]

tried federal,winchester and remingtons. placed an order for some hornady leverevolutions no idea when or if they will arrive.

[Puma]

Gunned,

To get the most out of your .45-70, find someone who reloads or learn to do it yourself.
The factory ammo is loaded way down in pressure to accommodate older weaker fire arms like the trap door.

This is not to say you need to load the ammo up to insane pressures. Just take full advantage of its potential.

My own experience with PMC is that its not very uniformly loaded. I have chronographed their loads and had extreme spreads in velocity from the same box of ammo.
Some say PMC stands for Poorly Made Crap.

I load for my GG, and love the performance I can get from it.
It easily puts five shots from 100 yards into a one inch hole.
My last Mulie was shot at 125 yards with a 300 grain Hornady and he flipped over and was dead before he hit the ground. Little or no meat lost or damaged.

[Roebag]

Gunned,

It is true what Puma says about PMC factory ammo, it can be inconsistant. I too reload for my iron sighted GG but I use the Hornady 350's. But I still say if your buying factory ammo for the 45-70 the PMC stuff is still your best bet
When I first bought my GG, I bought 5 boxes of factory ammo, 2 boxes of Federal 300's, 2 boxes of PMC 350's, and 1 box of Remington 405's just to shoot off and get a good number of brass to start reloading. After shooting all this factory ammo all that witnessed it would agree that the PMC was far better than the Federals and Remingtons.
I never had any intentions of ever hunting with this gun. I bought it to keep as a camp gun, but after seeing how accurate this gun was with the iron sights I was determined
to shoot my WT last year with it. I'll probabley carry it again next year for my deer hunting trips

[gunned]

Tried out the Leverevolution today. They are a little stout compared to the Federal and Remington. Didn't have much time, so mostly sighted in a new set of Skinner Sights on the Guide Gun. Man those little levers are fun! :) Half a box of these shells is about all I can handle from the bench right now though. :eek These loads appear to be much better than the Federal and Remington offering. Need to go back and get better with the 'ghost ring' sights and then have a true range report. I would still like to try other loads, maybe I'll have to get into loading my own for this gun - because it is so much fun to shoot. Too bad I just sold off all the reloading stuff - doh!

[fallairfever]

Dont you have a deck build, get to work slaker!

Sounds like fun at the range, wish I could have gone. Hope you have some time to go next time I am up your way.
FAF

[Nait Hadya]

Gunned,where did you find the leverevolutions?

[gunned]

Picked them up a couple of weeks ago at Wholesale in Edmonton. I don't think they had that many in stock. I grabbed 2 boxes and should have picked up more because they seem to work pretty well (on paper anyway).

[The Moose Whisperer]

Hey Gunned,

Were they the "original" leverevolutions or the "new" ones. Originally Hornady's literature had the .45-70's at 2050fps, but now they are down to 1875fps or somewhere in there. I wouldn't really care which I got, I just want to get my hands on a few boxes to try them out. Everything I've read about the leverevolutions on paper is great, I'm just hoping they work well on big game. As for the gun, I also have a guide gun and love it. I got it in stainless and put a silver 2.5x Leupold scout scope on it... should be deadly for moose/elk this fall.

[gunned]

Whisperer, the ones I have are only at about 1850 fps if I remember right. Unfortunately they aren't loading them up as fast, apparantly due to the powder that they were using not being available anymore. I don't know how much truth there is to that, I read it on another board somewhere. I might have to start handloading this one to really push it to its potential. Those guide guns are pretty nice to handle. I removed the lever and put a slight radius on the sharp edge that contacts the shell carrier. This is recommended to prevent the 'Marlin Jam'. Just a heads up in case anyone hasn't heard about this inherent problem. Google it and you'll find some info.