The .45/70 is a wonderful cartridge with an interesting history.
In 1868 Lt. Col. George Custer was serving a one-year “Time Out” at the request of the Military. But the Lakota Sioux didn’t like that one bit because, without Custer to play with, all the braves had to stay home with their Honey-do lists and the In-laws. So they complained about Custer’s absence to General Phil Sheridan and he, in turn, convinced President Grant to give Custer and early release from his “Time Out” so he could go save the Frontier.
When Custer was getting ready to go West his wife, Libby, noticed he was packing his beat-up old rifle from the Civil War. Always fashion-conscious, she called Grant and said she wouldn’t let the 7th Cavalry depart unless they had respectable new rifles.
Faced with this problem, Grant turned to his Secretary of War, a Manpower temp from S. Dakota named Mortimer Springfield (formerly Washeetsu Two-Mountains Blackfeather but he changed his name so it would fit on his business card) and asked him to figure out what the Army’s new rifle should be.
A fellow named Otis Rettig of the Singer Corporation made a full-court press to sell Springfield some weenie rifle called the 30/06, but Springfield couldn’t make up his mind. So he sent out a questionnaire asking if everyone thought the Army should have .30 caliber, bolt-action repeaters, or something more traditional.
And the response to the questionnaire is how the 45/70 got its’ name. 45% of the respondents said they didn’t know hardly anywhere the 30/06 ammo could be bought and 70% of the respondents said they would rather the Army be armed with a nice, traditional single-shot that fired a bullet the size of a trapdoor. What Secretary Springfield forgot to mention to Grant is that all the responding letters came from the same address: 666 Little Bighorn Circle., Montana, 59031.
Once the rifle type and caliber were decided, the Government’s blinding speed got the new weapon into the hands of the Army in less than four years and in 1873 Custer and the 7th. - newly armed with the fashionable 45/70 Trapdoor Springfields - went off to joust with the western indigent tribes who, poor souls, had to struggle through the game with lever-action Yellow-Boy repeaters etc. After a number of rather smoky preseason scrimmages, everyone converged upon the Greasy Grass in late June of 1876 for the Centennial Homecoming Game, in which Army lost to Sioux by something like 236 to 48. It should also be noted that the .45/70 Trapdoor Springfield is the Sioux nation’s All-Time Favorite Rifle and Caliber even today.
