45/70 Deer Loads

[hunterwinco]

I have a bunch of the rem. 300 grain HP's to load up.  Does anyone have a good deer load with a light jacketed bullet such as this?  I'm looking for a 100-150 yard, accurate, trap door type load.  1500-1800 fps mellow type load for hunting with my handi-rifle.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[McLernon]

I use 350 gr. Hornady JRP and JFP over 50 gr of IMR-4064. It runs around 1600 fps and there is some recoil but not bad. The 300 gr. HP looks a bit fragile so that's why I opted for the 350. It is very accurate too.

Mc

[burntmuch]

Im using 42 grains reloader 7 under rem 300jhp. Real comfortable. went all the way to 50 grains. Recoil gets stiff  at 48 grains
 Good luck.  Jay

[Ranger J]

I tried 49 gr Re#7 with Rem 300 HP this year and found it too much bullet for whitetails.  While it was a very accurate load it did massive damage to the deer with tennis ball size exit wounds.  I will be trying to develop something a little less damaging for that bullet for next year.  One thing I can say was it sure killed the deer dead.

RJ

[Slufoot]

I have a bunch of the rem. 300 grain HP's to load up.  Does anyone have a good deer load with a light jacketed bullet such as this?  I'm looking for a 100-150 yard, accurate, trap door type load.  1500-1800 fps mellow type load for hunting with my handi-rifle.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hello hunterwinco, I've taken several deer with this bullet in handloads from my 1895G 45-70 Marlin and also from my 50 caliber muzzleloader using sabots designed for .458" bullets. If you keep the velocity in the range you mentioned I think you will be happy with the results. I shot 7 or 8 deer with my 45-70 with a load that clocked 2100 FPS and the deer all dropped in their tracks but as  Ranger J mentioned, there was quite a bit of meat damage and large exit holes.
The last deer I shot with these bullets out of my Marlin was a nice 8 pointer at about 90 yards, I had worked up a great shooting load using this bullet at 2250 fps.  At the shot the buck dropped, I walked down to him and when I rolled him over I said to myself, "Man there ain't no sense in this". The exit hole was the size of a cantaloupe!
I have since switched to the Remington 405 grain loaded to 1750 and it worked great on the one doe I shot with it. I hit her right behind the shoulder and she ran about 30 yards and fell over. There was very little meat damage and the exit hole was about the size of a quarter. I'm sticking with this load in my Marlin!
My muzzleloader pushes the Remington 300 grain bullet to about 1900 fps and at this velocity it does a much better job of not ruining as much meat. I think if you keep the velocity in the 1800 fps range it will give you outstanding results on deer.
I've got a Handi rifle in 45-70 that I will be working up a load for, and yes it will be with the 300 grain Remington at somewhere between 1800 to 1900 fps.

GOOD SHOOTING!
Slufoot

[coyotejoe]

I load that bullet in my old H&R Shakari, which is not built for the high pressure loads of the SB2 handi. With 16 grains of Unique and a tuft of cotton filler, I get fine accuracy at about 1350 fps. That is a very mild recoiling load, not into the velocity range you specified but last season it took the biggest buck mule deer I've ever seen and bullet performance was all I could ask. The deer went a few steps and collapsed, DOA by the time I walked up to it, with a nice exit just cutting the back edge of the off side shoulder and no blood shot meat. It really doesn't shoot flat enough for 150 yards but is accurate and deadly to 100 or a bit more and very pleasant to plink with. To an old fart who no longer enjoys the hard kicking magnums, pleasant recoil counts for a lot and to one who often hunts with a flintlock and round balls that Shakari seems like a modern magnum.

[MSP Ret]

coyotejoe, you are a man of much wisdom (and much common sense also)....<><....

[EsoxLucius]

H&R HandiRifle 45-70 22" barrel
300 grain Remington Hollow Point seated to 2.54" COL crimped with a Lee Factory Crimp Die
Powder Charge Velocity* Pressure, CUP*
Varget  57.0  1770 16,300
H335  57.0  1901 17,500
H4895  58.0  1805 16,500
Benchmark  59.5  1907 19,400
H322  54.0  1850 18,100
H4198  45.0  1807 16,700
IMR 4064  57.0  1865 22,500
IMR 4895  57.0  1826 21,700
IMR 3031  56.0  1884 21,100
IMR 4198  45.0  2008 23,500
* approximate

You could actually work down from these loads to find one with acceptable accuracy, velocity and recoil.