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...and the good news is that Rika has made a good choice of calibers for a hunting round or target round, and that she has made an excellent choice of a rifle to shoot it through.
After reading Andy's posts about the inadequacies of this round, I decided to do a little research on it. Here is what I came up with, and it surely does not agree with his review of this round:
The 45/70 Government Round is the oldest centerfire cartridge still being chambered for modern rifles and is in production by numerous ammunition manufacturers. Please go to http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/4570g.html for more info. Now if it has been around for as long as it has been, and since it is the oldest centerfire round being chambered for modern rifles - one might draw the conclusion that there must be a reason for its longevity!
It is commonly used in Creedmore Matches and other rifle matches ranging from 200, 300, 600, 800, 900 and 1,000 yards. These matches require that you fire the round using a rifle with metallic sights at the above mentioned ranges. A popular rifle to use in these matches would be a Sharp's Buffalo Rifle. A 500 grain bullet weight is often used to help offset wind effect. If anyone would like to read an article on a match in which this round was fired you can go to: http://www.rbgc.org/bulletins/oct_00.pdf which is where I found this information. I am certain that if I searched further I would be able to find that the 45-70 round has been used effectively by expert marksman at greater distances as I recall watching a show some months back in which the shooter shot Creedmore style at ranges of about 1 mile with amazing accuracy.
You probably will not get this long distance accuracy out of a Marlin lever gun. Of course you need to be one heck of an extremely skilled marksman to achieve these shots even with those old fashioned long guns as used in Creedmore Matches; however, such marksmanship speaks to the effectiveness of this round. As you can see if you read the article, extreme winds have an effect on this round, as they would on any round at such distances - however it is a quite accurate round nonetheless, and the wind effect can be compensated for as with any other round. The thing is though that most shooters will not be shooting this at those vast ranges, but may decide to use it at ranges of up to 300 yards on big game animals.
As to the round's effectiveness in the Marlin 1895 GS, the accuracy is there. This rifle was tested by the 'Australian Shooter' in a test of lever action rifles. It received a quite favorable review. In fact during testing by 3 of Australia's top shooters, this rifle had the highest score among the rifles tested in various calibers to include: Marlin 336 in 30-30, Rossi 44 mag, Winchester 94 in 30-30, Browning BLR in 300WM. Not a lot of variety but enough to show this cartridge in this rifle is a good combination. To see this info go to the web pages of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia at: http://users.senet.com.au/~ssaa-sa/ or go directly to the page describing this test at:
http://www.ssaa.org.au/OFFICIALREVIEWS/largeleveraction/leveraction.htm#1895gs
I could probably do some more checking if you doubt the veracity of the articles. I am pretty sure that the NRA would be glad to supply information about the range of this round, its effectiveness as a hunting cartridge, or the reasons for its continued popularity throughout the many years of its long production. My guess would be that if it actually were such an ineffective round as someone would have us believe (saying it is no better than a shotgun using sabots) then it would not have remained as popular as it has for over 100 years. Of course, no matter what I write here, there probably will be an attempt to debunk it by, who in my opinion is, the all knowing Grand Poobah of firearmsdom. :bow01: So I bow facetiously to, what I believe to be, the phantasmagoric vastly superior knowledge on this subject that I am sure :dunce: is about to
uke: upon us all.
Before I close I would like to say darn good choice RIKA! Safe shooting and have fun with it. :fullauto: :deer:
Best regards,
Glenn B
After reading Andy's posts about the inadequacies of this round, I decided to do a little research on it. Here is what I came up with, and it surely does not agree with his review of this round:
The 45/70 Government Round is the oldest centerfire cartridge still being chambered for modern rifles and is in production by numerous ammunition manufacturers. Please go to http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/4570g.html for more info. Now if it has been around for as long as it has been, and since it is the oldest centerfire round being chambered for modern rifles - one might draw the conclusion that there must be a reason for its longevity!
It is commonly used in Creedmore Matches and other rifle matches ranging from 200, 300, 600, 800, 900 and 1,000 yards. These matches require that you fire the round using a rifle with metallic sights at the above mentioned ranges. A popular rifle to use in these matches would be a Sharp's Buffalo Rifle. A 500 grain bullet weight is often used to help offset wind effect. If anyone would like to read an article on a match in which this round was fired you can go to: http://www.rbgc.org/bulletins/oct_00.pdf which is where I found this information. I am certain that if I searched further I would be able to find that the 45-70 round has been used effectively by expert marksman at greater distances as I recall watching a show some months back in which the shooter shot Creedmore style at ranges of about 1 mile with amazing accuracy.
You probably will not get this long distance accuracy out of a Marlin lever gun. Of course you need to be one heck of an extremely skilled marksman to achieve these shots even with those old fashioned long guns as used in Creedmore Matches; however, such marksmanship speaks to the effectiveness of this round. As you can see if you read the article, extreme winds have an effect on this round, as they would on any round at such distances - however it is a quite accurate round nonetheless, and the wind effect can be compensated for as with any other round. The thing is though that most shooters will not be shooting this at those vast ranges, but may decide to use it at ranges of up to 300 yards on big game animals.
As to the round's effectiveness in the Marlin 1895 GS, the accuracy is there. This rifle was tested by the 'Australian Shooter' in a test of lever action rifles. It received a quite favorable review. In fact during testing by 3 of Australia's top shooters, this rifle had the highest score among the rifles tested in various calibers to include: Marlin 336 in 30-30, Rossi 44 mag, Winchester 94 in 30-30, Browning BLR in 300WM. Not a lot of variety but enough to show this cartridge in this rifle is a good combination. To see this info go to the web pages of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia at: http://users.senet.com.au/~ssaa-sa/ or go directly to the page describing this test at:
http://www.ssaa.org.au/OFFICIALREVIEWS/largeleveraction/leveraction.htm#1895gs
I could probably do some more checking if you doubt the veracity of the articles. I am pretty sure that the NRA would be glad to supply information about the range of this round, its effectiveness as a hunting cartridge, or the reasons for its continued popularity throughout the many years of its long production. My guess would be that if it actually were such an ineffective round as someone would have us believe (saying it is no better than a shotgun using sabots) then it would not have remained as popular as it has for over 100 years. Of course, no matter what I write here, there probably will be an attempt to debunk it by, who in my opinion is, the all knowing Grand Poobah of firearmsdom. :bow01: So I bow facetiously to, what I believe to be, the phantasmagoric vastly superior knowledge on this subject that I am sure :dunce: is about to
uke: upon us all.Before I close I would like to say darn good choice RIKA! Safe shooting and have fun with it. :fullauto: :deer:
Best regards,
Glenn B
