45-70 Lever action

[MarkCZ]

Has anyone got experience of hunting African game with a 45-70 Marlin underlever rifle. I am very keen to do this. I know it has the power but just wondered on what range it would be suitable.
Cheers, MarkCZ

 

[CDorroh]

http://fortyfiveseventy.com

 

[ChrisG]

Congrats on the purchase!I am sure others will chime in on African game. My experience with one is exactly 1 whitetail deer. But I shot it quite a bit and messed with all kinds of loads for it. It worked as you would expect and brought the deer down. Load was a 405 grain jsp at about 1700fps (mine only had the 18.5" barrel, hence the low speed.) It should be a great plains game cartridge! Inside 150 yards is really where it shines. If you want a dangerous game cartridge, I have to concur with the majority of experts and say "this ain't it" with the exception of lion and leopard, it's just too light. It can offer penetration or expansion, but not both. Oh it'll kill a buff with a well placed shot I'm sure, it just doesn't have the energy to cause the devastation on bigger animals. I can only comment, having seen the difference between what that jsp load did to the deer, and what my .375 h&h did to the black bear I shot. Two different worlds. The marking has a horrible stock for recoil as well. I tried 500 gainers at 1400fps and it was wayyy less comfortable than a .375 300 grainer at 2550. And the latter did more damage and plowed all the way through with no problem. Plus the .375s and .416s are a laser beam in trajectory compared to the .45/70. I think it's very good as an up close hammer, but when I got my .375 h&h I sold my .45/70. Not because I didn't like it, I just didn't use it anymore. Others mileage may vary. I have limited space in my gun cabinet and limited space in my house FOR a gun cabinet.. have fun with it though! Mine was a blast to load for!

 

[CAustin]

You will be fine with it on PG!

 

[crs]

Lots of folks have used a .45-70 in Africa. One of my friends has used his Winchester 1886 .45-70 to take critters up to cape buffalo. He also used my 1886 .45-90 to take Cape buffalo, ele, and leopard. He has written articles on the subject and if I can remember where , I will post a link on this thread.
As you can see in my pic to the left, I have also used a levergun in Africa, but it was a 1895 .405 Winchester.

PS The secret is in the bullets!

 

[Ray B]

A fiend has a Ruger Number 3 in 45-70 and he loads 400 gr Swift A-frames. I forget the velocity but I recall him saying it was only a couple hundred feet less than the 458 Win Mag. the No3 is stronger than the Marlin, so you probably wouldn't want to push them quite that fast, but even at a slightly reduced velocity I'd expect the bullet to be very devastating on any large thin skinned animal.

 

[Jono Joseph]

not a bad choice at all
I really enjoy the leveractions

Shot Shot