Scopes?

Ya'll ort to see what kind of results with iron sights for people that shoot these babies.

Got my 1895 GBL outfitted with a XS sight rail topped with a Leupold FX-11 2.5x28mm, Pachmayr big bore decelerator butt pad. Love the gun, got it for putting the hammer down on pigs in East Texas and always wanted a 45-70.

mine is the shorter barreled version of what's pictured above. but that's it. I love it.

Vernier sights are great TurkeyHunter. But old eyes do better with glass.

Here's my Big`un.

I use mine to shoot turtles, quality entertainment. You have to shoot right under them and see whose turtle goes the highest.

This is from a lever 450 Marlin running at 2100 fps (45-70 speeds). 300 grain Rem HP shot from about 15 yards. This spike was walking right behind the deer stand walking away, and my brother shot him right behind the shoulder, and bullet exited front chest. That is loose skin hanging over the wound, and you could have put an NFL football in the chest cavity there. 45-70 and 450 Marlin are very effective on deer and pigs!

^^^ it killed that poor deer and all but I would consider that mutilation more so than effective.

I would agree! We got everything but the right side shoulder. The 300 grain Rem HP have massive fragmentation.

A lot of the destruction to the meat depends on the load used. A cowboy action load with a lead bullet or the Remington 405gr load at BP velocity will punch through without the huge holes and kill critters dead. Push a light bullet at "high" velocity for it and create hamburger.

At 15yds I would expect that kind of damage from just about any large caliber no matter what the weight!

yeah, I don't want to rip em quite that bad. the slower...cowboy style loads I'm thinking is what I want. caliber size entry...and caliber or slightly larger size exit sounds good to me. I don't shoot too far....especially not with iron sight. slow heavy bullets are my favorite.

I say 15 yards, but the deer was standing right outside the back of the blind, so it could have be 7-10 yards! It was close!

I have the original 1895 guide gun that came from the factory ported. They don't port them anymore because Marlin got sued from some people that lost their hearing or something. Definitely buy the LimbSaver recoil pad for it and install. It takes out much of the recoil.

I have a leupold 1-4x scope on mine with quick release rings so I can snap it off and go iron sights if I need to in a pinch. My uncle has the the XS lever rail on his so he has a forward mounted scout scope on it and I like his setup.

My two main hand loads are a 300 gr Hornady HP at around 1950 fps muzzle velocity and a 438 gr gas checked hard cast bullet at 1920 fps muzzle velocity. Both loads have virtually the same point of impact at 100 yds. The 438 gr kicks like a son of a buck! Both loads will lay down anything on this continent although I recommend the hard cast load for anything over elk in size. With the 4x scope I can get pretty consistent 1.5" groups at 100 yards.

The 438 gr load is a knock off of the 440 gr load Garret Cartridge Co makes, as my uncle and I found the same bullet mold they use with the wide flat point. Happy hunting!!!

I like XS Ghost Rings on the Big Bores. 45/70 Marlin is very versatile.

I've taken a lot of game with my single shot 45-70 H&R.
I reload and most of my loads are trap door loads that shoot around 1400-1600 fps.
That's plenty to kill a deer sized animal and I don't like to be killed on the other end when I shoot my rifle.
I also like to reload using Trail Boss powder which you can load to sub sonic levels and shoot big 400 grain lead boolits and have a ball plinking or taking small game.
I hunt with 400 jacketed soft points and it does little damage to the deer with complete pass thrus.
There's a saying, "eating all the way to the hole" and it's true. There is very little wasted meat. No need to kill your shoulder, and shoot 2000+ fps. with light weight bullets when using a 45-70 within 150 to 200 yards. All you need is trapdoor level loads and they'll get the job done.
Most factory ammo is loaded at that level. Leverevolution ammo is just a little on the high side of trapdoor.