Henry Rifle Forums

How many of you have taken your 45-70 out for elk? What kind of ranges did you see? What ammo did you use?

I've been wondering the same thing .... I've elk hunted didn't have a 45-70 at the time .... my biggest question is range, sure hope some of our folks can comment from experience .... based on my research, my starting round would be a 300 grain CT Ballistic Silvertip Bullet ===> https://www.nosler.com/45-70-govt-strong-actions-only pushed by 51.5 grains of IMR4198 .... Nosler makes a couple of other very interesting .458 bullets but they do not give 45-70 loading info for them

Killed my last dozen or so with a 45-70. First few I used buffalo bore 405 grain 2000fps. Didn't kick as bad as 3.5" 12 Guage slugs but it was a close second. Switched to Hornaday lever evolution 325 grain since but I'm starting to question the construction of these bullets. I'm a meat hunter and hunt an area with plenty of elk so I can be selective with my shots and wait for a good broadside opportunity. My fear is hitting a solid bone with this bullet. It should never happen but if it did I fear it wouldn't end well as I recover bullet fragments and seperated jackets with the broadside rib shots I take.I hunt the trees mainly and shots are under 100yds but I'd be confident to 200 if it presented itself. May switch to a winchester or core lokt when I'm out. Good luck in the draws fellers.

Dennis H wrote:I hunt the trees mainly and shots are under 100yds but I'd be confident to 200 if it presented itself.

very impressive .... over time I've heard many conversations centering on taking 100 plus yard shots .... sometimes I can't help but believe that many if not most folks really don't fully appreciated what it takes to make a clean shot at 100 much less 200 yards .... from what I've seen firing on various ranges, I'd be comfortable out to about 150 yards .... under the right circumstances, I can't rule out pulling the trigger at 200 .... I'm looking forward to build a strong load around the 300 gr Nosler

I don't think you can go wrong with a nosler partition. It's a well proven bullet. I shoot a scoped guide gun, open sites don't work for me any longer. I struggle to read the ticker on the bottom of the tv!

Dennis H wrote:I don't think you can go wrong with a nosler partition. It's a well proven bullet. I shoot a scoped guide gun, open sites don't work for me any longer. I struggle to read the ticker on the bottom of the tv!

I've seen your several recent posts. Welcome to the forum from CT and thanks for adding your experienced voice to the conversation.

Ive taken mine elk hunting but I havent seen one within range to shoot at yet. I use my reloads which consist of 47 gr of reloader 7 and a Hornady 350gr flat point. Al