.458 BT in .450/.45-70

lefty315

Handloader
Sep 29, 2004
912
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Anyone used the .458 round nose 300 grain BT out of a .450Marlin/45-70 on anything bigger than a deer? I've got a ton of the Remington 405 grainers, enough that I will probably never shoot them in my lifetime, but wouldn't mind experimenting with a lighter bullet, but I want a tough one. Should've stocked up on the 300 grain Partitions when I had the chance.
 
lefty315":g03nw2z8 said:
Anyone used the .458 round nose 300 grain BT out of a .450Marlin/45-70 on anything bigger than a deer? I've got a ton of the Remington 405 grainers, enough that I will probably never shoot them in my lifetime, but wouldn't mind experimenting with a lighter bullet, but I want a tough one. Should've stocked up on the 300 grain Partitions when I had the chance.
From what I understand, a Speer 300 gr HP is a bonded bullet, and will get you the velocity along with penetration, without core separation.
When I get some bullets to reload for my .45-70, I think I'm trying those first, then I'll try the Hornady 350gr RNFP next.
Who knows, I might like the Speer 300gr enough to just stick with them.

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Yeah, I know the Speer 300 is a pretty tough bullet. I was just looking at the price of the Noslers at SPS.
 
The 300 BT's are meant strictly for deer sized game. I wouldn't use them for anything larger, unfortunately, in my opinion.

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Funny, a buddy just stopped in on his way to the range. He's stuck on the 300 Speer in his .45-70.
 
lefty315":38z2rhwj said:
Funny, a buddy just stopped in on his way to the range. He's stuck on the 300 Speer in his .45-70.
The 300 gr Speer is listed in Speer inventory as a plonker, but they are a perfect hunting bullet.
There are people on here that have used them on as small of game as a coyote, all the way up to the biggest moose and grizzly bear. They're that good!
I'll try them first when I get bullets for my 45-70.

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lefty315":2lx8vikw said:
Anyone used the .458 round nose 300 grain BT out of a .450Marlin/45-70 on anything bigger than a deer? I've got a ton of the Remington 405 grainers, enough that I will probably never shoot them in my lifetime, but wouldn't mind experimenting with a lighter bullet, but I want a tough one. Should've stocked up on the 300 grain Partitions when I had the chance.

I am surprised JD hasn't commented on this. I know he and his family of WT deer slayers have used it a bunch in the 45-70 and muzzleloaders and Jim reported excellent results.

We ran them a little in our 45-70's pretty fast as well. Sometimes they would get torn up pretty badly in water jugs but IF you recovered one in a deer it had WIDE expansion and penetrated really well. I was sorta down on it at first but Jim and a few others have had excellent luck with them.
 
I recently watched a YouTube with a fellow shooting them into ballistic gel out of a .458
SOCOM in slow-mo. Indeed, a little slower than 45/70, but not a lot. The results from 300 BT and 325 FTX Hornaday were nearly identical. The Lehigh was the impressive one for penetration, that thing is probably still flying.
 
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