405 gr Remington soft points in 45/70?

J

Jayhawkhuntclub

New member
Anybody use these as a deer load? If so what was your experience. Obviously they'll blow a hole in a whitetail, but how do they expand? I'm sure they'd take out a leg or shoulder bone with ease. I wonder how they will do with a good broadside shot through both lungs. I've hunted with roundballs before and did not find broadside shots to be as effective due to lack of expansion which led to less bleeding. I worry that this 405 gr would give me the same effect. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
 
Rem 405gr SP, had very little meat damage with a broadside shot, just a big hole in and out. Figure large caliber at 1600fps maybe a little more, not much expansion needed for a shot like that. But bang flop.
 
I hunted with 300 grain Winchester this past year. Big hole in, big hole out. Not a lot of meat damage. Doe ran about 75 yards on a double lung shot. Shell might have expanded a bit but certainly didn't blow apart.

I've got a box of 405 grain but I thought it might be a bit of over kill for a deer.
 
The 405 grain is actually loaded lighter than the 300gr 45/70 loads. In addition, the 300grainers are designed to expand, the 405 grain soft points probably won't at the velocity they're loaded to in the Remington ammo.

That's not to say that one is necessarily better than the other...the 405gr loading has accounted for a lot of game. Especially when you consider it replicates the old BP 45/70 loads.
 
Yeah the 405gr is needless overkill on a deer.

However the 300gr is loaded even higher. While the 405gr is loaded to trapdoor pressure, the 300 is a modern hunting bullet. A 300gr over a full charge of BP would only net you 1500 at most. The remington 300 zooms close to 1900.
 
Out of my 22 inch barrel the chronagraph says the 330 grain Remingtons are actually doing about 1600, but then it's to be remembered that a lot of 45-70 loads are clocked out of a 29 inch barrel as was on the old Trapdoor.

My on-game experence with the 300 grain hollowpoints is that they expand well and will pass ALMOST all the way through a 220 pound hog at less than 20 yards. Both bullets hit ribs on the way in and stopped just under the off side skin. Hog did not go far.

Shot a couple of other hogs that were smaller and those bullets went through.

But, and this is a big but, I like to have a exit wound so that there is more blood trail to follow. We hunt mostly thick woods and swamps for hogs and even one that goes 50 to 75 yards can be very hard to find if the trail is meager.

Next season I'll be tossing heavier bullets that I am sure will go through.
 
Overkill? Well a 45/70 is overkill, so that's not the issue. I handload so factory speed is not it either. What I'm trying to get at is, "will this slug do enough damage to consistently drop a deer quickly with a double lung shot. I've shot a number of deer with round balls and maxi-balls and often had trouble finding them due to lack of bleeding and they didn't drop quickly. Obviously, a 405 will kill any deer on the planet. I killed a 300 lber with a 300 gr JHP (yes overkill). Obviously if the bullet his a rib bone (on the way in) and shatters it, it's going down farely quickly. So I guess the issue is expansion and hardness of lead in the 405. My guess is it's going to be a lot like a maxiball and not expand. BTW, the reason I care is that 405s shoot the best in my rifle.
 
Personally I think you're on the right track. Even if it does not expand much it's got a large frontal area and will do the job. And as I said, I like the fact that you will have two holes.
 
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