Back when Marlin first came out with the .45-70 GuideGun, I immediately went to my local gun shop and had him order me one sight unseen. Something I had never done,before or since with a wood stocked gun. According to my records I have taken five whitetails with it, all small bucks and does. I have used 405 grain factory loads,300 grain hollow point factory loads, 300 grain Hornady hollow point handloads at about 2100fps, and 350 grain Hornady soft points at about 1950fps. All of these loads produced acceptable accuracy+/-1.5" at 100 yds. None of these loads produced excessive tissue damage on the deer that I have taken, and with all of these loads there was never an easy blood trail to follow. I know that is contrary to what is always written about the .45-70, but that has been my experience. When I first got the rifle I has it drilled and tapped for a Williams peep sight, and hunted with it like this for two seasons. It was a very handy rifle like this, but I hunted with it less and less as I grew more dependant on scopes. I eventually put a Leupold Vari x II 1x4 on it and have had it on ever since.This year I have developed a handload with the 300 grain Partition at about 2000 fps and will be carrying it into the Adirondacks again. The guide gun remains one of my favorite woods rifles of all time, I just wish I could find a nice set of walnut stocks without Marlins gaudy checkering on them.
