45/70 Hornady 300 gr.Did it do it's job?

[slugger]

After a year of rolling around in limbo My boy found the killing bullet out of my elk last year. Just a reminder, I shot it WAY out over 400 yards. I was a bit concerned that the Hornady 300 gr HP didn't do the job. My boy and I gave the elk to a guy In a local town who took it to a different town and had his dad cut it up,I never gave it another thought. Well this guy's dad found What we think is the killing bullet . It went in the front shoulder through it and the heart and in to the other side shoulder and stopped lodge in the bone.I shot it 3 more times, coming at me not a side shot, before it fell but this one would have killed him if I had, had time to let him run. It started out at 300 gr and I put it on the scale and is is still 279 gr only a loss of 21 gr. I don't know the speed when it hit but it left the gun at just short of 2500 fps. Maybe the bullet did a better job then I thought.

www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/100_8050a.jpg[/img]








PS we didn't go calling the wind was called to blow 50+mph. HUMMM ?

We're going to go Wednesday.

[cfvickers]

Sounds like far better performance than I would have expected from a 300 grain .458 bullet. I push mine to about that velocity from my Encore and even at 400 yards I would have expected it to stop short in the first shoulder. I say even because these bullets were not meant for 2000 fps impact velocity. A quick check of the ballistics chart puts that bullet somewhere around 1100 fps at 400 yards (about ideal for its design) and 850+/- a few ft/lbs energy, again, about ideal for this bullet. So Yes I completely agree it did it's job. However if I were going to hunt elk with a 300gr 45/70 bullet going that fast I would make absolutely certain I stuck to rib cage shots under 150 yards because they have a tendency to get a little explosive beyond 1800 fps, which is outstanding for shooting them in the lungs, bad if you are trying to penetrate heavy bone. Awesome shot no matter how you look at it! Good stuff, this was of a great deal of interest to me, as I have wondered how a 300 grain bullet would perform at over 300 yards with my 45/70.

[esshup]

Look into the FTX bullet (flex tip). It holds onto velocity and energy better than the flat nose bullet. I'm shooting the 325g .458 FTX out of the Savage at a hair over 2400 fps. and the chart showed that it had 900 fpe @ 550 yds.

[olegburn]

Nov 14, 2011 17:37:10 GMT -5 cfvickers said:

Sounds like far better performance than I would have expected from a 300 grain .458 bullet. I push mine to about that velocity from my Encore and even at 400 yards I would have expected it to stop short in the first shoulder. I say even because these bullets were not meant for 2000 fps impact velocity. A quick check of the ballistics chart puts that bullet somewhere around 1100 fps at 400 yards (about ideal for its design) and 850+/- a few ft/lbs energy, again, about ideal for this bullet. So Yes I completely agree it did it's job. However if I were going to hunt elk with a 300gr 45/70 bullet going that fast I would make absolutely certain I stuck to rib cage shots under 150 yards because they have a tendency to get a little explosive beyond 1800 fps, which is outstanding for shooting them in the lungs, bad if you are trying to penetrate heavy bone. Awesome shot no matter how you look at it! Good stuff, this was of a great deal of interest to me, as I have wondered how a 300 grain bullet would perform at over 300 yards with my 45/70.

You got that right,cfvickers.
I thought being a rifle bullet it would be tough.Not neccessary so.
Small deer shot close range. Around 2200 fps. Bone fragments and shrapnel made it inside boiler room but that's it. No exit.
It got all expended.
I thought: rifle bullets are overrated,but I didn't think of 45/70 as 100 year old caliber.
Deer ran some,but most of its shoulder gone.
Never seen such carnage with the small arms round.
However go past 150 yards and perfect mushrooms with occasional pass thru's
This is an entrance wound.

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