.45-70 results on Ohio deer

[bdbrown66]

So, I took my new Henry .45-70 up to Ohio to hunt with my dad this past Monday and Tuesday. The owner of the farm we were hunting requested that we shoot only does this year, as the population needed some trimming. We were happy to oblige.

Monday afternoon, shortly before dark, I connected on a decent sized doe at about 200 yards, quartering away. She ran about 100 yards, and I thought I had missed. Then she stopped and just keeled over. Postmortem examination showed that the Hornady 325gr. LeverEvolution had entered just behind the rib cage on the right and exited just in front of the rib cage on the left. Somehow, I had managed to miss both shoulders, the tenderloin/backstrap, and the guts...all of which was a good thing. It plowed thru the liver and created a lot of internal bleeding.

On Tuesday, in the same location, I took a shot at a nice-sized doe at 175-200 yards about 15 minutes before dark. She was quartering toward me, so I lined up on her front shoulder. At the shot, she dropped to the ground like I had hit her with a ton of bricks. She laid there for a minute, then started kicking. OK, that's fairly normal. She kicked for about 30 seconds and then stopped. At that point, I figured she was done. No sooner did we start to gather up our things, than she started kicking again. As we watched, she kicked her way out of the field and into the woods. I told my dad to gather up our things, I was going to go make sure she didn't crawl halfway down the hill. I walked down to where she had been, blood everywhere. I mean, lots of blood. I made a quick loop thru the woods, expecting to find her, but didn't. There were several large piles of brush in the area, and my first thought was that she had crawled up under one of them. So, we got out our flashlights (it's getting dark by this time) and spent the next 15-20 minutes looking into the brush piles. No luck. So I came back to where she had left the field and started working the blood trail. Lots of blood initially, but it just kept going. Apparently, she got back on her feet at some point. The further she went, the less blood we found. We trailed her for 200-300 yards thru the woods until we reached the property line. By that point, it had gone from profuse bleeding to just a drop here and there. At that point, we lost it altogether. I have no doubt that she laid down somewhere on the neighbor's property and bled out overnight, but I'll be darned if I've ever seen a deer shake off a hit that hard, and with that much blood loss, and walk away from it. I was kinda bummed about it all.

On the bright side, the Henry seemed to shoot very well at fairly long range. I will spend more time on the practice range with it to improve my comfort level with it, but I'm impressed so far.

Cheers,
Brian

[JEBar]

interesting report .... many of us have seen hard hit deer run a long ways and others that weren't hit anywhere near as hard drop in their tracks .... the deep penetration offered by 45-70 ammo isn't usually needed with whitetail deer .... for that reason our hunting load will us Nosler 45 Caliber 300 Grain
Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertip Bullet .... I believe its hollow point design will transfer force through controlled expansion

[bdbrown66]

interesting report .... many of us have seen hard hit deer run a long ways and others that weren't hit anywhere near as hard drop in their tracks .... the deep penetration offered by 45-70 ammo isn't usually needed with whitetail deer .... for that reason our hunting load will us Nosler 45 Caliber 300 Grain
Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertip Bullet .... I believe its hollow point design will transfer force through controlled expansion

Yeah, the Nosler BT/BST is definitely one that I'm going to work up some reloads for. I've heard good things about them.

[Deadwood Dutch]

Congratulations on the first one and you did all that you could to find the other one, especially when it gets dark. A long time ago I shot a spike buck with a Winchester .32 Winchester Special, about 10:00 in the morning with tracking snow on the ground. I think that I hit it high on the front leg and I tracked it all day with blood sign ranging from a few specks to larger amounts but by around 5:00 PM it was getting dark and it had gone into a swamp and I never did find it. I hate when that happens but sometimes it can't be avoided. You gave it your best. Glad you like your .45-70.

[Gregorsway]

Brian, Thanks for the honest report. I lost a buck bow hunting earlier in the year and I whacked him pretty hard (I thought). The great news is we caught him on a trail cam later in the season. What the heck? Deer are highly resilient creatures and can somehow magically clot up a wound in a creek or pond. It sounds like your deer did the same thing. As others indicted already- you gave it your best following up and that is what everyone should do.

I'm happy to learn your 45-70 was delivering the mail at those distances. Perhaps I missed it in your original post- but did you utilize a scope or use open sights? If it was open sights- was it the buck horn or another variety? Happy you put some venison in the freezer. Please keep us informed of your updates from the range. Cheers back!

[dmsbandit]

So, I took my new Henry .45-70 up to Ohio to hunt with my dad this past Monday and Tuesday. The owner of the farm we were hunting requested that we shoot only does this year, as the population needed some trimming. We were happy to oblige.

Monday afternoon, shortly before dark, I connected on a decent sized doe at about 200 yards, quartering away. She ran about 100 yards, and I thought I had missed. Then she stopped and just keeled over. Postmortem examination showed that the Hornady 325gr. LeverEvolution had entered just behind the rib cage on the right and exited just in front of the rib cage on the left. Somehow, I had managed to miss both shoulders, the tenderloin/backstrap, and the guts...all of which was a good thing. It plowed thru the liver and created a lot of internal bleeding.

On Tuesday, in the same location, I took a shot at a nice-sized doe at 175-200 yards about 15 minutes before dark. She was quartering toward me, so I lined up on her front shoulder. At the shot, she dropped to the ground like I had hit her with a ton of bricks. She laid there for a minute, then started kicking. OK, that's fairly normal. She kicked for about 30 seconds and then stopped. At that point, I figured she was done. No sooner did we start to gather up our things, than she started kicking again. As we watched, she kicked her way out of the field and into the woods. I told my dad to gather up our things, I was going to go make sure she didn't crawl halfway down the hill. I walked down to where she had been, blood everywhere. I mean, lots of blood. I made a quick loop thru the woods, expecting to find her, but didn't. There were several large piles of brush in the area, and my first thought was that she had crawled up under one of them. So, we got out our flashlights (it's getting dark by this time) and spent the next 15-20 minutes looking into the brush piles. No luck. So I came back to where she had left the field and started working the blood trail. Lots of blood initially, but it just kept going. Apparently, she got back on her feet at some point. The further she went, the less blood we found. We trailed her for 200-300 yards thru the woods until we reached the property line. By that point, it had gone from profuse bleeding to just a drop here and there. At that point, we lost it altogether. I have no doubt that she laid down somewhere on the neighbor's property and bled out overnight, but I'll be darned if I've ever seen a deer shake off a hit that hard, and with that much blood loss, and walk away from it. I was kinda bummed about it all.

On the bright side, the Henry seemed to shoot very well at fairly long range. I will spend more time on the practice range with it to improve my comfort level with it, but I'm impressed so far.

Cheers,
Brian

sounds like you need to use a better bullet. Sorry you lost the 2nd deer it sounds like the bullet shattered her shoulder and never got into the chest.

[bdbrown66]

Yeah, I'm looking at working up some reloads with both the Nosler 300gr BT and the Speer 300gr Plinker. Have heard good things about the performance of both of those bullets.

[JEBar]

Yeah, I'm looking at working up some reloads with both the Nosler 300gr BT and the Speer 300gr Plinker. Have heard good things about the performance of both of those bullets.

looking forward to your subsequent reports .... I can't find a video about Nosler's Combined Technology 45-70 but have found one that shows the basic concept ====> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7IV1JVxpx8 .... I've found that the controlled expansion of Nosler's Partition and AccuBond to be outstanding and am happy to see they have designed their Ballistic Silver Tip with expansion in mind

[dmsbandit]

Yeah, I'm looking at working up some reloads with both the Nosler 300gr BT and the Speer 300gr Plinker. Have heard good things about the performance of both of those bullets.

don't discount the 350gr Hornady bullets either. they have excellent reputations and you can get 1800fps without any trouble of heavy recoil. they come in RN or FN, so they might be an option too.

[bdbrown66]

I posted this over in the Reloading forum, but I'll put it here, as well. After doing some testing with the Nosler 300gr BT's and IMR 4198, I found a good load at 54.0gr. Average velocity 2125 fps, with extreme spread of 27 and SD of 14. I am quite happy with this load and will load some of them up to test out to 200 yards or so. The group I shot today was 1.5" with one flyer. Apparently I pulled the one shot just a little, because the other three measured .367". I can live with that. Oh...this was at 100 yards.

One important note: I examined all casings, looking for signs of pressure. I could not see any difference whatsoever between the primers on the 52.0 loads and the ones at 56.0. No flattening, cratering, backing out, etc. Nothing at all that would give me pause.

Cheers,
Brian

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[ditto1958]

I'm just wondering whether with a .45-70 you would be better served by 405 grain lead cast bullets. That's what the .45-70 is made for. Those lighter fancy bullets just don't seem to be doing the trick for you.

[bdbrown66]

I'm just wondering whether with a .45-70 you would be better served by 405 grain lead cast bullets. That's what the .45-70 is made for. Those lighter fancy bullets just don't seem to be doing the trick for you.

I agree that the Hornady bullets may not have performed as expected, more testing to be done on that score. But the Nosler BT's have an outstanding reputation, and the accuracy that I posted previously is quite good. Given that I'm using this gun to hunt over an open field, where shots can stretch out there a ways, why would I want to go with a heavier, slower bullet that will not shoot as flat? And in order to push it out there to those longer distances, I have to load it hotter, which increases the recoil. I'm well aware that there are 2 schools of thought on this, and that many prefer the heavy lead bullets in the .45-70. But I think, until proven otherwise, that I prefer the higher speed, flatter trajectory, and less recoil of the 300gr. loads. At least, given the open terrain where I'm hunting. I might have a different take if I was in the thick stuff where 75 yards is a long shot.

[Dennis H]

I've only recovered fragments from the elk I've shot with that round (325grain leverevolution 45-70)on broadside animals hitting only rib bone. I suspect as others said, you hit a stout bone and it came apart without penetrating to the vitals. When I run out I'm switching.

[JEBar]

thanks for the update .... impressive results .... I really look forward to hearing your hunting results