Henry Rifle Forums

I deer hunted this year with my 45-70 all weather and I love it. Perfect for the woods I hunt. I did quite a bit of target shooting with it before deer season so I could get a good feel for how it shoots. I have mounted a nice Aimpoint red dot. Using Federal and Winchester 300 gr. cartridges I found they do not equal the standard ballistic trajectory for the cartridge. I was 1/2" to 1" high at 50 yards and 3" to 4" low at 100 yards. Groups at 50 yards were mostly within 4". My theory is and I may not be right but the shorter 18" barrel does not allow enough time to burn all of the gunpowder. I think if I find the right cartridge my grouping should tighten up. Right now accuracy is good enough but I'd like better. Thoughts anyone?

have you considered loading your own ammo .. .. doing so would allow you to fine tune your ammo .... other wise, you have to start buying boxes of other brands and hope you fine one that your rifle likes better

I also have the same gun and I reload. I have found that for factory ammo mine liked the Hornady Lever evolution ammo. I have also done some testing with reloads. Im not all the way finished testing with mine and only use iron sights. I currently have some of JEBars favorite 300gr Nosler BT bullets to load up. My other Henry 45-70 liked RL7. IM going to start with it and work my way up the load chart. I also have 3031 and 4198 along with 5744. 5744 has produced some good groups with the 300gr bullet in my AW also. When I have time and the right weather I will post more info.

I am not a reloader. Maybe I should be. I have a friend that reloads 45-70. I will have to speak to him. I want a flat nose bullet that will punch straight thru that branch you didn't see. The Hornady Lever Revolution cartridge is pointed and may deflect so it kind of goes against the punching straight thru idea in my theory anyways. I do need to try shooting some though.

BigAl52 wrote:I also have the same gun and I reload. I have found that for factory ammo mine liked the Hornady Lever evolution ammo. I have also done some testing with reloads. Im not all the way finished testing with mine and only use iron sights. I currently have some of JEBars favorite 300gr Nosler BT bullets to load up. My other Henry 45-70 liked RL7. IM going to start with it and work my way up the load chart. I also have 3031 and 4198 along with 5744. 5744 has produced some good groups with the 300gr bullet in my AW also. When I have time and the right weather I will post more info.

I'd love to hear what ends up working best for you

There was an old thread, some time back, about accuracy versus velocity. Simply put, my experience does not support the idea that more velocity in the 45-70 automatically means better accuracy. Case in point is my short 16" 45-70 barrel on my Contender carbine shooting the slow 1330 fps Remington 405 grain factory loads. Gets me inch to inch and a half groups at 50 yards all day long.

This is the challenge of shooting factory ammo in a cartridge with such an extreme spread of available factory loads. Bottom line with the 45-70 is to try different loads till you find one that shoots and not draw conclusions based on one basic kind of load.

After NCG posted he comments about the Remington loads I remembered I do have a box of that ammo and have not shot any as of yet. But I did load some 405 lead for the all weather with 3031 and had good luck with it. I don't remember the load off hand though. I did also have some good groups with a Berrys plated 350gr and 16 grains of Universal clays.

I’m planning on buying a Henry 45-70 before long and figure on sighting it in with hunting loads to be about 2” high at 100...that should give point blank range for deer out to 200 according to my reading...

Hello. It's been awhile since I checked in here. I thought I should share my findings. I have an H010 AW 45-70, 18.5" barrel with an Aimpoint red dot. Like others I was not happy with it's grouping. All over hell would be a good description. I do not reload so I had try various different ammo. I have not found any 300 gr. ammo it likes. The best I have found so far is Remington 405 gr. Core Loct, 1600 fps. 1" high at 50 yards and dead on at 100 yards. Actually shot a 3 hole 1" group at 100 yards. Me likey although after shooting a box full my shoulder is black and blue and still sore 3 day later lol. I have found the key to tight groups is to let the barrel cool for an extended period between shots.

good to hear you've found something it likes .... 1" groups at 100 yards ain't bad at all, nope ain't bad at all .... did you try any Cowboy Action ammo .. .. HSM puts out 405 gr'ers that are fun to fire

https://hsmammunition.com/cowboy-action/