45-70

[Dean2]

Trail Boss, start at 8 grains with a 400 grain cast bullet and work your way up till you get velocity and accurracy you are looking for. The Lyman cast bullet book has all kinds of other loads using Unique, 2400, 4759, 3031, 4227 etc. that are 1000 fps to 1800 fps for use with cast bullets.

For a shot load you are basically replacing 400 grains of bullet (just over 1/2 an ounce) with shot. Start with any 1200 fps or under loading, such as the above 8 grains trail boss, covered buy a thin card or felt wad ( you can also use many of the low speed loads in the Lyman book), add 350grains of 8 shot, cover with another card wad and add melted wax or do a light roll crimp, to seal wad. (410 card/felt wads work just fine but you can also buy 45 caliber wads at the muzzle loading supply houses. If you weigh the two card wads they usually come out at 50 grains or so. Thus, between them and the shot you have 400 grains replacing the usual single projectile.) Try different loads till you get one that pattens okay. (Play with the number and thickness of the wads, and amount of shot to get a load that just fills a case to the rim.)

One of my favorites is 11 grains of Unique, one 1/16th inch felt wad, 400 grains of #8 and a 3/16th card wad, with a roll crimp. Patterns well out of my Marlin 1895.

[CR5]

Originally Posted by gitrdun

Hi CR5, I do believe that you can get a real nice Tru-Glo sight with the fiberoptic rods for your 45-70. I've installed the Williams version on a Win 94. Very nice open sight. Lyman also makes a neat flip up tang peep sight

I've tried to find tru-glo for it but everyone says they are not available for the marlin. I think I'll pick up a set of the williams ones.

[jungleboy]

Thanks Dean!!

[Dean2]

JB

Something I should have mentioned in the first post on shot loads, if you have trouble getting a decent pattern at 20-25 yards you can try using a short 410 plastic shot cup. In the ballard rifled Marlins this often helps a lot. Use the cup over the over powder wad, use 1/8" over powder if you can find it. The fibre wads are usually pretty easy to separate.

[CanuckWR]

Originally Posted by CR5

I have a Marlin 1895 45-70 and I love it. It is an excellent bush gun.
Factory Remington 400gr loads are very light in recoil, Federal 300gr are a little more, the Hornady LeverEvolution 325gr are pretty snappy (probably comparable to a 30-06 for recoil, maybe a little more), my handloads are 405gr around 1800fps and they make my shoulder pretty sore after a few shots.
The 45-70 is very versatile and can be loaded from very mild to more than I can handle for recoil and will be effective all the way through the range.
I am still in load development trying to find a load that gives good groups and is tolerable for recoil.
I would feel very comfortable carrying it in bear country with the Hornady rounds or some nice handloads.
Buy an aftermarket recoil pad if you are going to handload for it and it tames the beast quite nicely.
I'm not very impressed with the factory sights but there are a few options in the aftermarket for it, skip the scope other than for at the range during load development.

Good luck

Wait until you see my recoil pad... Seems my stock isnt the same as the newer marlins.

I tried doing a rapid fire drill with mine at the range and with open sights I emptied her into a bear sized target at 50 yards with some healthy reloads in about 4 seconds. I know a person has a second or two, maybe, during a charge but I had 3 land where they would stop a bear on their own. Of course this was not with the prospect of a larger nasty bear coming at me with no love in its eyes, but at least I have an idea of what I can do.