New bullet designs and construction have given new life and new versatility to the venerable .45-70 Government.

While big bore lever-actions have long been a favorite of deep woods whitetail hunters, 21st Century reloading components and ammunition have made the .45-70 much more versatile and easily capable of taking moose and elk out to 250 yards.

As a young man growing up in British Columbia in the 1960s, I had little exposure to lever guns or the cartridges associated with them. If I did see someone with a lever-action it was either an old Savage Model 99 in .308 Winchester or the then-racy Winchester Model 88 in .284 Winchester. Bolt-actions were the norm and young big-game hunters usually started out with a budget-priced “sporterized” Lee Enfield in .303 British and aspired to eventually move up to a new Parker Hale bolt-action chambered for .30-06.

The old .45-70 Government was something I had read about, but had never actually seen, and it wasn’t until the mid-1970s that I finally saw one in use for the first time. As was the general consensus of pretty much anything you read on the cartridge in those days, I believed the .45-70 to be a cartridge for close-range work, shooting a big, heavy bullet with the trajectory of a brick.

I was elk hunting in the Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia and had located a small meadow with lots of elk sign. Wanting to get a better handle on when the elk were coming and going, I found a comfortable spot to glass and settled in for the evening vigil. About fifteen minutes before the end of legal shooting light a few cows and calves began to filter out of the spruce trees on the far side of the meadow and were soon followed by a raghorn bull.

As it turned out, I was not the only one who had noticed the elk sign. While watching the young bull through my binocular, I saw him stagger from the impact of a bullet as it slammed into his right shoulder, and simultaneously heard a loud report. The bull stumbled forward a few yards, fighting to stay on his feet, and piled up. Moments later I spotted the lone hunter as he exited the forest edge, walking slowly towards the downed elk.

My elk hunt was definitely over, so I stood up, whistled to get the hunter’s attention, and then walked over to meet him at the elk. As I approached the hunter and the downed elk, my focus shifted from the bull to his rifle, as it was not the type of firearm you usually saw being carried by an elk hunter in the Canadian Rockies. Turned out the lucky hunter was carrying a Sharps reproduction chambered in .45-70 Government and he had made a 250-yard shot with open sights, using a heavy cast bullet. Needless to say, I was impressed by both his shooting and the real-world performance of the rifle and cartridge on a big-game animal that has a bit of a reputation for being rather tenacious.

Designed for use in the Model 1873 “Trapdoor” Springfield, the .45-70 was originally called the .45-70-405, which stood for the cartridge being .45-caliber, using 70 grains of black powder behind a 405-grain cast lead bullet. This load produced a velocity of about 1,300 fps in the long-barrel version of the Springfield that was carried by the infantry. A reduced load with 55 grains of black powder, with a muzzle velocity of 1,100 fps, was used in the shorter-barrel carbines carried by the cavalry.

As is usually the case with cartridges designed for military use, many thousands of veterans developed an appreciation for the .45-70 and it quickly gained popularity with sportsmen in the United States. In order to meet the new demand for rifles in this cartridge, manufacturers quickly began producing rifles chambered for the .45-70, rifles which helped define an era, such as the Sharps 1874, Winchester’s Model 1885 High Wall and Model 1886 lever-action, and the Remington Rolling Block. These were followed a few years later by Marlin releasing the lever-action model M1895.

Even when using the simple, paper-patched cast bullets available at the time, the .45-70 was an extremely potent round and gained a reputation for being very effective on large, tough game such as the plains bison and grizzly bear. Through the 1880s and 1890s, the .45-70 was arguably the most popular big-game cartridge in the USA. Initially the commercial designation for the cartridge was .45 Government, but it was later changed to .45-70 U.S Government and eventually shortened to .45-70 Government or .45-70 Govt.

With the development of smokeless powder, “high velocity” sporting cartridges arrived in the 1890s. In the early stages of their development the smaller caliber smokeless cartridges encountered many problems with bullet design—increased velocity caused some to fall apart on impact and failed to give adequate penetration. Others, beefed up in an attempt to counteract that problem, penciled through game without creating a large enough wound channel.

Eventually, however, bullet designs improved and many of the performance issues were overcome. The twentieth century’s newer generation of hunters embraced the high-velocity smokeless cartridges and the practical implications of a flatter trajectory. The writing was on the wall, so to speak, and the popularity of the old big-bore blackpowder cartridges began a steady downhill slide. Marlin discontinued the M1895 in 1917 and Winchester discontinued production of the 1886 rifle in .45-70 in 1935.

For about four decades the .45-70 teetered on the edge of extinction, kept alive mostly by a few handloaders and blackpowder enthusiasts. Too good to die, the .45-70 finally got a new lease on life during the 1970s. Marlin began manufacturing the new model 1895; Ruger offered the chambering in their classy No. 1 single-shot rifles, and Shiloh Products Inc. of New York began producing Sharps rifle reproductions.

The reintroduction of Marlin’s new model 1895 in .45-70 drew a lot of attention from bear hunters and guides, who immediately recognized the benefits of this fast handling powerhouse. Not too long after my encounter with the Sharps-packing elk hunter I had my second encounter with the .45-70.

I was guiding fall coastal grizzly hunts in British Columbia. We hunted the big bears by slowly wading up shallow tributaries of coastal rivers, where the bears had gathered in large numbers to feast on the fall salmon runs. The floatplane arrived with supplies, our two bear hunters, and their gear. Once the hunters were settled in at camp, we put up a target to check their rifles and I found out that the hunter I would be guiding was packing a new Marlin M1895 in .45-70. This generated a lot of discussion, as most clients at that time were carrying shiny new Weatherby Mark Vs or Remington Model 700s chambered in one of the popular fast-stepping magnums.

As it turned out, the .45-70 proved to be very much up to the task at hand. The hunter killed a big boar, dropping him in his tracks at forty yards and then quickly worked the lever and put in an insurance round. It was over rapidly and it gave me a new appreciation for both lever guns and the centenarian cartridge.

With .45-70 ammunition, the strengths and weaknesses of the various rifle actions are used to split reloading data for the .45-70 into three categories. The weakest are the Trapdoor Springfields and early lever-actions and single-shots. The next category is the higher-pressure loads for the modern lever action rifles like the post-1972 Marlin M1895. The third category and highest-pressure loads are those for the Ruger No.1 single-shot rifle or custom bolt-action rifles built on modern actions.

All .45-70 ammunition produced by the major U.S manufacturers is loaded to very safe pressures for use in antique arms. To some extent, this precaution has limited the popularity of the .45-70, but as many older firearms are still in circulation and in use, low-pressure factory ammunition is an unfortunate necessity so manufacturers can protect themselves against litigation.

Maximum pressures in factory loads are typically limited to 28,000 CUP or 28,000 PSI so that they will work safely in all categories, and in truth, most factory loads do not come anywhere close to that pressure. Reloading guides usually suggest maximum working pressures of 40,000 CUP for the second category of higher-pressure loads for the Marlin M1895 lever-action, and 50,000 CUP for ammunition used in the Ruger No. 1 and custom bolt-actions.

Remington, Winchester, and Federal all produce loads for 300-grain jacketed bullets with velocities between 1,600 and 1,800 fps in 22- to 24-inch barrels. In the new Marlin M1895 category, 300-grain bullets can be safely driven at 2,200 to 2,300 fps and in the Ruger No.1 category at 2,400 to 2,500 fps. Needless to say, there is a marked difference in the trajectory with the significant difference in velocities.

Many question whether there is a significant enough difference in the pressures that can be handled by the robust Marlin action and the Ruger No. 1 to warrant three distinct load categories, believing that the number of pressure-related categories for reloading could be simplified to just two: low and high velocity. With that in mind, I have noticed that several publications have, in fact, started to do just that.

With traditional cup-and-core style bullets, the weights that have usually been offered in factory ammunition are 300, 350, 400, and 405 grains. More recently Hornady introduced the 325-grain FTX. The lighter bullets were intended for deer-size game and the heavier bullets for larger game, such as elk, moose, and bears.

As mentioned earlier, factory loads have always been rather anemic due to potential liability issues. An example of this is Remington’s load with its 405-grain soft point. The advertised velocity was just over 1,300 fps, but in reality, usually chronographed at about 1,200 fps. Even the newer and highly touted Hornady LeveRevolution ammunition with its 325-grain FTX rubber-tipped bullet chronographed at just over 1,900 fps in my Marlin 1895 Classic.

Getting the true potential out of the .45-70 has traditionally only been possible for handloaders, but there are a couple of smaller ammunition manufacturers that are producing ammunition that increases the old cartridge’s performance to a whole new level. One of these companies is Buffalo Bore Ammunition of Salmon, Idaho. They offer a load with a 405-grain jacketed bullet at 2,000 fps and a 300-grain load at 2,350 fps.

The many new mono-metal bullets being offered by the bullet manufacturers has also created additional options and improved downrange performance for the .45-70. Mono-metal bullets are long for their weight when compared to conventional bullets, with increased sectional density and in some cases higher ballistic coefficient. The expected performance of mono-metal bullets in the field is much different than that of conventional jacketed bullets. They typically provide a wider wound channel than conventional heavy-for-caliber .45-70 bullets as well as superior penetration.

Barnes offers handloaders its TSX bullets in 250, 300, and 350 grains. Buffalo Bore offers its ammunition in two different loads with Barnes TSX bullets, the 300-grain TSX-FN at 2,350 fps, and the 350-grain TSX-FN at 2,150 fps.
Recently Hornady introduced a 250-grain mono-metal bullet with a flexible rubber tip called the MonoFlex and are offering it in their LeveRevolution ammunition.

Another company that is now offering a line-up of exciting mono-metal bullets designed with the .45-70 in mind is Cutting Edge Bullets of Drifting, Pennsylvania. Their solid brass, precision machined, .458 caliber Lever+Raptor bullets come in 250, 295, and 370 grains. These bullets are designed to create a massive wound channel and provide maximum penetration.
Those who prefer to use heavy-jacketed bullets in the .45-70 also have many options these days from a number of premium quality bullet manufacturers such as Hawk, North Fork, and Swift. Commercial cast lead bullets are also available from several companies in a variety of weights and bullet shapes, and, of course, Lee, RCBS, and Lyman offer all the equipment necessary for those who would prefer to roll their own.

Garret Cartridges of Texas is a custom ammunition manufacturer that offers .45-70 loads with specially designed hard cast bullets. Their Hammerhead bullets have a wide meplat and are available in their ammunition in weights from 420 to 540 grains. These bullets provide hunters using their .45-70s on large, heavy game with outstanding penetration.

The .45-70 has been typecast for many years as a cartridge that shoots big, heavy bullets at very modest velocities and is therefore a cartridge only suitable for close-range hunting in heavy cover, despite the fact that it was originally designed and intended to be used by the U.S. military at ranges up to 1,000 yards. Despite untold improvements in reloading components over the years that have breathed new life into many old cartridges, the .45-70’s inherent potential has been deliberately suppressed by manufacturers of commercial ammunition due to liability issues.

New bullet designs and construction offer significant improvements in the .45-70’s downrange performance. While it has only been possible for handloaders to tap into these improvements in the past, custom ammunition companies are now offering ammunition that capitalizes on the newly available components and the .45-70’s inherent accuracy, extending its useful range by at least 50 yards.

In the not-too-distant past the .45-70 was considered to be at its best inside 150 yards, with 175 to 200 yards being about as far as a prudent hunter should consider shooting. With a bit of practice and the right ammunition, there is no reason why the .45-70 cannot now be used effectively out to 250 yards. And that makes this grand old cartridge viable for the majority of hunters, as most big-game animals are taken inside of 200 yards year in and year out.

The .45-70 Government is much more versatile than many realize, and with the right bullets it is capable of cleanly taking the biggest game animals in North America, including the big bears, moose, and bison. It has been used many times by hunters for plains game in Africa and has successfully taken all of the Big Five. Few cartridges have survived and maintained their usefulness as long as the .45-70.

This past fall I had the pleasure of hosting a hunter from southern California on a black bear hunt. Aaron’s rifle of choice was a Shiloh Sharps in .45-70, shooting a heavy 512-grain hard cast bullet with a .3-inch meplat that he had cast himself with a Lyman custom mold.

It was definitely a case of déjà vu. Forty years had gone by since I had watched that young bull elk get hammered by a heavy cast bullet from a Sharps replica in .45-70.

Just two days into his bear hunt, at last light, Aaron squeezed the trigger on his Sharps and sent that heavy cast bullet on its way. The bullet smashed a shoulder and traversed the chest cavity of the big bruin, which then ran a few yards and collapsed. Some things just work.

In recent years bullet and ammunition manufacturers have introduced premium bullets and ammunition that bring new life to the .45-70. New lighter mono-metal bullets and increased ballistic coefficients offer superior downrange performance.

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Collecting great hunting books is an enjoyable way to further your appreciation of the hunting tradition.

Like many hunters, I was fascinated with sporting literature from a very young age. Great works of hunting literature such as Ruark’s Horn of the Hunter and Capstick’s Death in the Long Grass provided hours of enjoyment and offered an opportunity to share in experiences that I was sure I would never get to experience first-hand. For many of us, books like these inspired dreams of adventure in far-off lands.

I still have my copies of those books as well as many others, and I still venture back to those exotic places through their pages. Over the course of the last century, some of the greatest hunters and literary figures have chronicled their lives in the field, and today we are fortunate that many of these texts still exist. From Theodore Roosevelt’s African Game Trails to Jim Corbett’s Man-Eaters of Kumaon and J. A. Hunter’s Hunter, these works serve as a unique historical collection of sporting literature and a glimpse into the lives of famous hunters from a bygone era.

Today, there is a robust market for classic works of sporting literature, and some of the earliest editions of these classic titles are worth a great deal of money. The works of authors like Hunter and Corbett, along with Russell Annabel, Archibald Rutledge, Jack O’Connor, and a host of other famous names in sporting literature, command a high price among collectors. Finding these works of classic literature can be difficult, but like the search for Hemingway’s kudu in The Green Hills of Africa, the pursuit is part of the experience.

Great hunting books provide hours of enjoyment during the times you can’t be out in the field.

According to Ludo Wurfbain, owner of Safari Press and publisher of Sports Afield, it is still possible to find these books in secondhand bookstores around the country. But, as with the hunting landscape, times have changed, and the competition from large online markets has resulted in a reduction in the number of such bookstores. The odds are getting slimmer that you’ll stumble upon one of the great works of the world’s most famous sporting authors collecting dust on store shelves. The rise in online bookstores, however, has made these classic books more accessible, and if you’re simply looking for a copy of a long-lost classic to read for your own enjoyment, online bookstores provide a simple and affordable option.

“If you’re looking for a reading copy, Ebay, Amazon, Good Reads, and other online marketplaces will likely have the books you seek,” said Wurfbain. But, he warns, these outlets aren’t always the best place to purchase collectible books. That’s because sometimes the high value of collectible first editions prompts sellers to overstate the condition of the book, and the authenticity of the work may be questionable.

“Collectible books may sometimes be sold with fake pages, they may have pages removed, or they may not be in good condition,” Wurfbain says. “But reprints and reading copies are usually fine.” If you’re purchasing a book simply for entertainment, these online stores make the master works of sporting literature accessible and easy-to-find, and often you’ll have a copy of the book you want in a few days. The search for collectible books is more complex. There are only a few copies of the most desirable first editions, and these works command a high price among collectors.

“Condition is everything,” says Wurfbain. The most valuable works will be first editions that are in prime condition and have a jacket, and they are worth a premium. Some of the classic editions have watermarks that verify their authenticity, and this adds to the value. Signed copies from the most notable authors will cost even more, and these books will be rare treasures that are hard to locate. But for the collector, that’s all part of the process, and adding a vintage classic to the bookshelf in your trophy room is a special event.

Most hunters can only name a handful of titles that have been published on hunting, but in a 2004 journal article Wurfbain noted that there have been approximately 4,800 English-language titles published on hunting over the last two centuries. The bulk of those titles, as one might expect, were written on the topic of North American hunting (about 1,600). Europe was the second-most-popular destination for English-language sporting authors, and until 2004 there had been approximately 1,300 titles written on the subject.

Asian hunting has been the topic of about 1,000 works, but there have been very few titles published since 1970 that were devoted to hunting in Asia, primarily a result of the closing of much of the continent’s most famous hunting grounds. Corbett and Kenneth Anderson wrote eloquent and popular works on their time hunting man-eaters in India, but that country has since closed to hunting and although there is still plenty of opportunity for hunting across the continent of Asia, very little modern writing focuses on that topic.

Africa, despite its popularity as a hunting destination and the famous titles devoted to the pursuit of game on that continent, ranks fourth, with 850 titles published on the topic. There have been books written on hunting in other locations such as the South Pacific and Central and South America, but those works are far fewer in number than the titles that have been devoted to the four destinations listed above.

With so many texts on so many different subjects, it would require a lifetime commitment to collect even a sizable portion of world’s sporting literature. The topics and destinations are diverse, as is the writing style and quality, but there are plenty of great works on hunting to keep even the most ardent reader busy when they’re not in the field. Deciding which works you’ll seek out and add to your collection is largely a matter of personal taste, and often the best resource is other hunters who appreciate sporting literature.

“You will often hear other hunters recommend books,” Wurbain says. “Someone will ask, ‘Have you ever read Horn of the Hunter by Ruark?’ Authors will often mention other books in their own writings, and members of your hunting or shooting club may offer suggestions on the books they’ve read.”

Wurfbain has his own personal collection of favorites, a list of some of the greatest works ever written on the subject of hunting. Among his personal picks are Hunting and Fishing in Alaska by Russell Annabel, Gene Hill’s Sunlight and Shadows, and the works of Archibald Rutledge and Jack O’Connor. In African hunting literature, he suggests Capstick’s Death in the Long Grass, Ruark’s Horn of the Hunter, Karamojo Safari by W.D.M. Bell, and J.A. Hunter’s timeless autobiography Hunter. Of the classic books on Asian hunting, he suggests Corbett’s Man-Eaters of Kumaon and The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag.

For those who are seeking out reading copies of these books, most of them are widely available at reasonable prices. If you’re a serious collector, though, getting your hands on the title you want in good condition can be a difficult and sometimes costly task. With some first editions fetching upwards of twenty thousand dollars, the rarified market for highly collectible works is limited. But it’s a very special experience to hold a signed original copy of one of the master works in your hand. In addition, books are an easily hidden investment.

“A robber might come in your house and steal your flat screen television and your coffee maker off the kitchen counter, but they’ll walk right by your signed first edition of Hunter that is worth five thousand dollars,” said Wurfbain. “There aren’t ten criminals in the world that know what that book is worth.”

Classic hunting books are a sound investment, and they should be treated as such if you’re a serious collector. By and large, books don’t require special care, and as long as they are placed flat or standing upright and aren’t exposed to direct sunlight and insects, they’ll generally maintain their condition. There are, however, some important considerations with regard to collectible books. They should never be written on or in, and pages obviously should not be torn or dog-eared. One of the greatest risks to the pages of classic books is acidification, which results when acids from other objects such as newspaper clippings or photographs bleed onto the pages of a book, so never store anything in a collectible book. And be careful who you allow to handle your collection.

“You don’t want your grandkids thumbing through the book with dirty hands or kicking your mint-condition originals around the trophy room like soccer balls,” said Wurfbain.

Wurfbain suggests that book collections be protected on a rider on your homeowner’s insurance if the investment is very large. Usually, he says, riders on existing policies are relatively inexpensive and offer peace of mind against loss or damage.

Whether you’re collecting reading-copy hunting books for entertainment or amassing a valuable library of the world’s finest hunting literature, there are thousands of titles available to occupy your time. Those of us who appreciate the thrill of the hunt and great writing are fortunate that hunters past have taken the time to record their experiences for us to share. Many of us will never have the opportunity to hunt in the places that they describe, and in some instances the hunts described are a thing of the past, but owning a collection of sporting literature ensures that, on any given afternoon, we can escape into the wild and relive some of the greatest hunting stories ever told.

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How the most famous man-eaters in the history of Africa ended up in the city of Chicago.

The man-eaters of Tsavo, as they can be seen today on display in the Field Museum in Chicago. Photo courtesy of the Field Museum.

If you’ve read John Henry Patterson’s famous 1907 book, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, or seen the 1996 movie starring Val Kilmer called The Ghost and the Darkness, then you’re familiar with the story of the Tsavo lions.

If you don’t know the story, here are the basics: In March 1898, the British were building a railway bridge over Kenya’s Tsavo River. The project was led by Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson. Over nine months of construction, two maneless male lions terrorized the camp, dragging workers from their tents and eating them. Patterson made repeated attempts to trap and kill the lions, but they outwitted him endlessly. Patterson finally succeeded in December of that year, killing first one and then, twenty days later, the other. No one knows exactly how many people succumbed to the lions in the meantime; there may have been as many as 135 victims.

What happened to the lions afterward, however, is not as well known. Patterson, who left Kenya some time later, had both lions made into rugs, with the skulls still inside the skins, and they spent twenty-five years on the floor of his London flat. In 1923, Patterson arrived in Chicago on a lecture tour. The then-president of the Field Museum in Chicago, who attended his talk, approached Patterson afterward and asked if he still had the skins. Patterson said yes, and a deal was struck: The museum bought both of them for the princely sum of $5,000 (the equivalent of $68,950 in 2014 dollars).

The skins had to be shipped from London, and when they arrived the taxidermist in charge of the project, Julius Friesser, must have been dismayed as they were in very poor condition. Still, he was able to remove the skulls from the skins. Then Friesser used the hides to create full-body mounts. Because of the terrible condition of the hides, he had to be creative. A large amount of the skin had been trimmed off to create the rugs, and that is probably why Friesser mounted one of the lions in a crouching position, since he didn’t have enough skin to cover the belly. The other lion appears to have been much larger in the original photograph than in its mounted form, which indicates the taxidermist also had missing or damaged skin to contend with on this animal.

Otherwise, the mounted lions appear remarkably similar to the photos shown in Patterson’s book. Both were completely maneless—they had only tiny tufts of hair where manes would have normally been.

In the 1920s, having the Tsavo lions on display was no doubt quite a coup for the museum, since nearly everyone at that time was familiar with the story of Patterson’s intrepid feat. Over the years, however, the tale of the Tsavo lions faded from the collective memory, and museum workers, who no doubt saw little value in the nearly hairless, unremarkable-looking old mounts, relegated the Tsavo lions to a far corner of the museum where they languished, forgotten, for more than fifty years.

Enter Bill Stanley, the current Director of Collections and Collection Manager of Mammals for the Field Museum. Stanley grew up in Kenya, where, he says, everyone knows the story of the Tsavo lions. No one, however, had any idea where the mounts were, or even that they still existed. When Stanley arrived at his new job at the Chicago museum in 1989, he was amazed to discover the mounts in a dusty glass case in a dark corner of the museum. He realized exactly what they were when he read the yellowed, typewritten label stuck to the case. Stanley tried to get others at the museum excited about what they had, but like their predecessors, most had never heard the story and were uninterested in the moth-eaten old mounts.

It was Stanley’s chance encounter with representatives from Paramount Pictures, who happened to be visiting the museum, that brought the Tsavo lions to the public’s attention once again. The studio representatives, looking at other lion displays, mentioned a movie they were working on. When Stanley realized the movie—The Ghost and the Darkness—was about the Tsavo lions, he showed them the old mounts, at last finding an interested party. At the end of the movie, director Stephen Hopkins included a mention that the lions were in the Field Museum.

As soon as the movie came out, museum patrons began clamoring to see the mounts. In no time, the Tsavo lions were cleaned up, placed in a diorama, and moved out of their dusty corner and into a prominent place in the museum.

Since their rediscovery, the Tsavo lions have been the subject of intensive study and DNA research. Some scientists have attempted to analyze tissue samples to determine how many humans the lions actually ate, and others have worked to develop theories regarding what may have caused the lions’ unusual predatory behavior.

“There is still a debate about why they were attacking,” said Stanley. “It’s possible that rinderpest [a cattle disease] killed all the buffalo in their area and they had to resort to a different prey. It’s also possible that because the railway line was built on an old slave trail where many people had died over the years, lions in that region had developed a taste for humans.”

The actual reasons may never be known, but the Tsavo lions and the many other preserved mammals in the Field Museum are helping scientists work toward a better understanding of wildlife and wildlife behavior. While museums don’t tend to use as much traditional taxidermy in their displays as they used to, Stanley says mounted animals, particularly older ones, are still crucial to the research process.

“I can’t even describe how valuable [having these older mounts] is for DNA research,” he said. “In reality, less than 1 percent of what is in the museum building is actually on public view. But it is all available for scientists to study, and what goes into our public displays and dioramas comes out of what we learn from those old skeletons and skins.”

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