Ruger No.1 45-70

J

Judge Blackhawk

New member
I have a ruger 45-70 and it is very accurate out to 100 yards. what is the maximum effective distance for the factory 45-70 cartridge.

Also, is it worth reloading the 45-70 to get higher velocity?

thanks
Judge Blackhawk
 
Most all 45-70 factory loadings that I know of are downloaded for liability reasons, except for Randy Garrett's ammo. Other smaller companies also may make hotter loadings. The major factories all download.
The 45-70 really shines when handloaded up hotter than factory.
 
It's definitely worth reloading as most factory ammo is loaded way down as there are so many old weak guns out there, like trapdoors.
Most reloading manuals give 3 sets of loads, for
Springfield 1873 Trapdoors, @ 25000c.u.p.,
for Marlin 1895 @ 40,000c.u.p. and
for Ruger, Browning @50,000c.u.p.
You can buy very powerful ready made ammo from
www.garrettcartridges.com
 
Judge Blackhawk. Yes it is worth while to load your #1 to higher power. You can come to within a couple of hundred feet per second of a .458 Win. Mag. ,if you want to.
Get a copy of ken Waters PET LOADS. IMHO, that is one of the best sources on information on loading the 45-70 around. It's also good if you load other rounds as well.
Paul B.
 
The 45-70 might have greater long range potential than people give it credit for. It has been used for 1000 yard target shooting.
I believe in the late 1870's the military tested the 45-70 (using 405 and 500 grain bullets) for potential lethality at extreme ranges in a barrage fire situation. Testing was done at ranges from 1500 to 3680 yards! At 2500 yards, there was still complete penetration of the 6" thick hardwood targets. Your Ruger #1 is one of the strongest actions available for this cartridge and can be used with hot loads that would tear older guns apart. Factories are starting to take advantage of this potential, but handloading is probably the way to go.
 
Thanks for the info.

I will have some dies and lead ordered ASAP.

Judge Blackhawk

Governments ability to control is directly related to its ability to disarm -- Judge Blackhawk
 
Judge: Those Ruger #1s are really fine shooters. My personal #1 will group proper hard-cast bullets into less that one inch at 100-yds. Regarding range, that depends mostly on the weight of the bullets used and the velocities achieved. Our 415-grain +P load achieves 1850-fps and when sighted 3-inches high at 100-yds, is right on at 150-yds, and is about 7-inches low at 200-yds. That makes for a very usuable 200-yd load that can handle hanything in North America.
A lot of guys loaded expanding bullets in the caliber, but that doesn't make much sense to me unless the game is deer. As the game gets bigger, the 45-70 with proper castings will allow you to take anything from any angle. It's nice to know that when a really big bull or boar is heading straight away from you that you can shoot him in the seat of the pants and penetrate him lengthwise. Expanding bullets are not capable of that level of performance, in any caliber.

Best regards and happy New Year!
Randy Garrett www.garrettcartridges.com
 
Judge Blackhawk,

I haven't had a chance to shoot any of Randy Garrett's ammo yet, but have had good results with Georgia Arms load. 300gr jhp at 1800 fps, works great on deer, but I think I would go with Randy's load for bigger game.

As a side note, everyone laughed at my #1 in 45-70, until they shot it. Now they all want one!

p1445
 
Judge: I also have a Ruger #1 in 45-70, but only have shot it about 10 times. Don't really have a use for it except to put down an occasional dying cow.

I got some free ammo (10 rounds) from Corbon when they had the offer on Glock Talk about 6 months ago, just got it in this month. They have a 350 grain JSP intended for use in a single-shot pistol like the Contender. Haven't shot any of this yet, but it's pretty expensive. Here is Corbon's ballistic table for this round at the bottom of: http://www.corbon.com/other_premium_loads.htm



------------------
Blackie
NRA, GOA, ISRA
 
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