45/70,45/90 or 45/120

[brinky]

I know everyone and their brother can,will and has loaded the 45/70 to its peak potential. This includes me and I love it. I wish all cartridges could be used on game from mice to mastodon (it's been around nearly that long). My question is are the 45/90 and 45/120 longer cases and if so can they be loaded to max potential in new firearms like the 45/70 has? Are there any case design limitations? I always thought that the 45/90 and 45/120 were just longer "basic" cases and held that much more powder. Is this correct and is anyone working with these bigger brothers of the 45/70?

 

[Dean Williams]

The longer 45/XXX cases are just longer variations of the 45/70, but there are no high pressure actions made for them as far as I know.
The actions made for the 45/90, 45/120, are mainly made for black powder cartridge shooters. You can't even get the longer cased cartridges up to the hot 45/70 velocities. Trying would surely end in tears.

 

[moooose102]

i agree with DW. IF you could get a rifle MADE to handle the bigger cases at high (smokeless) pressure rounds, how bad do you want your shoulder to hurt? i can not imagine shooting a 400g bullet at around 2700fps! but, i guess, if you had the gun maker make the rifle weigh, say 20 pounds, but who would want to carry such a beast? just go out and buy a barret 50 bmg!

 

[Jimfern]

458 Winchester Magnum

I believe this would be the next step up from 45-70, assuming you've already approached 450 Marlin velocities with your 45-70.

 

[rcmodel]

+1
If you want more then you can get with a 45-70, you need a .458 WinMag or .458 Lott.

The 45-70 case has plenty of case capacity for reaching it's full potential with smokeless powder already.

The longer 45-90 and 45-120 only made sense when you ran out of room for black-powder in the 45-70 case.

There is absolutely no need for that much case capacity with smokeless powder, because you can't use it all anyway.

rc

 

[GooseGestapo]

And if the .458Lott isn't enough, try the .460WeatherbyMag.

nuff said......

My buddies .45-90 with a 480gr bullet and compressed case of BP, is enough, thankyou. Not bad, but enough............!

 

[ReloaderFred]

I load and shoot both the .45-70 and .45-120 Sharps cartridges. Both of my .45-70's are Marlin lever guns. One is an early 1895 and the other is a new 1895 Cowboy Rifle.

My .45-120 is a Browning B-78 that was re-barreled to .45-120 Sharps, with an octagon 24" heavy barrel.

When loaded to full capacity, both rounds will bring tears to the eyes of an inexperienced shooter if they don't know how to mount and shoot a heavy recoiling rifle. I've only seen one person, other than myself, who would shoot more than a few rounds from the .45-120. A female Game Warden once put 21 rounds through it in one session. The most I've ever done in one session was 75 rounds of full power loads. I use a 420 grain cast bullet with gas check, at over 2200 fps in this caliber, and it hits with authority.

For the majority of my hunting .45-70 loads, I use a 405 grain Remington JFP bullet, loaded to 1850 fps. This is a full recoiling load in a light 1895 carbine, but does the job on large game. The biggest animal I've taken with it was a Canadian Moose, which only took one round to put down at approximately 125 yards.

For the 1895 Cowboy, with 24" barrel, I've settled on a lighter 330 grain bullet loaded to a leisurely 1300 fps. It's a comfortable load to shoot and is very accurate up to 200 yards.

If I were going to purchase only one rifle in this catagory, it would be chambered for .45-70, and have a strong action, such as the Marlin. This round will take any North American game animal, with the proper load.

Hope this helps.

Fred