.54 -vs-45-70gov?

[paulvallandigham]

Fred": good to always hear from you. Yes, there were all kinds of projectiles used in the .45-70 over the years. They had wooden bullets used for target practice indoors. They loaded 3 or 4 ball loads, using the .457 diameter round balls. There were the 500 grain bullets, used in the rifles, even long after the gun had been retired, and was relegated to the new national guard units formed after Congress passed that law in 1906. The civilians were loading even heavier bullets, first for taking buffalo in the last days of the great herds, and then for 1,000 yard shooting. There are .520 and .530 grain bullets now used by the long range silhouette BP cartridge shooting boys at those long range targets, both paper, and metal. They are brutal to shoot out of the old Springfields with that steel curved buttplate.

 

[Mad Professor]

Yes. And there is no such thing as "knock down power". If you're lucky you shock the animal's nervous system so that it collapses.

Have you seen the latest add showing an outline of a deer pressed into the dirt and leaves as if it was run down with a steam roller? Nuh uh. Can't happen. Hit it that hard and the ball/bullet passes through and may impart a lot of energy to tissue but the animal still falls down. It is not knocked off it's feet. It hits the animal with the same force the firearm hits your shoulder - just concentrated in a smaller area.

Stumpy, I've seen a deer hit dead center with an F-250 (ca. 35 million grains, minus the driver and load of wood) going 60 mph (88 fps), that was knockdown power!!! :haha: