Buffalo Bore 45-70 Magnum 430gr Hard Cast – Epic Dangerous Game Load

Description

The Buffalo Bore 45-70 Magnum 430gr Hard Cast is what happens when a cartridge designed in 1873 is loaded to what modern steel will actually take. A 430 grain hard cast flat nose leaves a 22 inch Marlin at 1925 fps carrying about 3537 ft-lbs, and Buffalo Bore expects five to six feet of straight line penetration from it. Read the rifle list before you order.

• Buffalo Bore 45-70 Magnum 430gr Hard Cast Overview
• 45-70 Magnum Lever Gun Ammo Ballistics
• Why The 430 Grain LBT Lead Flat Nose Bullet Never Stops
• Specifications
• Rifles Approved For This Dangerous Game Rifle Load

Buffalo Bore 45-70 Magnum 430gr Hard Cast Overview

Buffalo Bore item 8A is the top of their 45-70 Magnum line. The 430 grain L.B.T. style hard cast lead flat nose runs 1925 fps for roughly 3537 ft-lbs. Twenty rounds per box.

Buffalo Bore chronographed it at 1920 fps from a 22 inch Marlin 1895 and 1879 fps from an 18.5 inch Marlin 1895 Guide Gun. Those are factory rifles off the rack, not laboratory pressure barrels.

This load runs well above SAAMI 45-70 pressure. It will chamber in any 45-70 because the case dimensions have not changed since 1873, and that is precisely why the firearm restriction matters so much.

The 45-70 Government has had three distinct lives. It started as a black powder army cartridge, spent a century as a mild deer round, and then found a third career when strong modern actions let handloaders and a few ammunition makers show what the enormous case could really do. This is the far end of that third life.

Buffalo Bore is unusually specific about which rifles may fire each 45-70 load, and the specificity is the safety feature. A dangerous game rifle load that chambers in a 150 year old action needs a clear warning attached, and this one has it.

45-70 Magnum Lever Gun Ammo Ballistics

At 1925 fps a 430 grain bullet produces about 3537 ft-lbs, from grains times velocity squared divided by 450437. For comparison, a standard SAAMI 45-70 factory load runs a 405 grain bullet near 1300 fps for roughly 1520 ft-lbs. This load more than doubles it.

Momentum is the figure that matters for a non-expanding bullet, and here it is 827,750 grain-feet per second. Nothing in a lever gun cartridge comes close, and very little in a bolt rifle does either.

Recoil is genuinely heavy. In an 18.5 inch Guide Gun it is punishing and most shooters manage a handful of rounds at a sitting. In a heavier 22 inch rifle with a good pad it is unpleasant rather than brutal. This is not a load you sight in casually.

Trajectory is what you expect from a very heavy blunt bullet: usable to about 150 yards with a sensible zero, and dropping steeply after that. A dangerous game rifle load is not a long range proposition and does not need to be.

Sight regulation matters more than usual here. A 430 grain LBT lead flat nose bullet leaves the barrel slowly enough and heavily enough that it will print well above where a 300 grain load lands at the same distance, so zero the rifle with the ammunition you intend to carry.

Why The 430 Grain LBT Lead Flat Nose Bullet Never Stops

The L.B.T. profile was developed by Veral Smith to put the widest possible flat nose on a bullet while leaving enough bearing surface for accuracy. A wide meplat cuts a full diameter hole through everything it meets instead of parting tissue and letting it close behind.

Cast hard from a lead, tin and antimony alloy and gas checked, the bullet does not expand and does not deform meaningfully on bone. What enters is what exits, and at 430 grains there is a great deal of it.

Five to six feet of straight line penetration is the figure Buffalo Bore publishes. That is more than the length of a large bear from nose to tail, which is the point: on a charging animal the bullet has to reach the spine or the shoulders from whatever angle presents itself.

What you trade away is any wound channel wider than 0.458 inches. Against deer a softer expanding bullet does more visible damage. Against anything that can hurt you back, deep penetrating lever action ammunition is the right answer and expansion is a liability.

The gas check on the base is not optional at this velocity. Bare lead driven to 1925 fps would smear and foul a barrel within a few rounds; the copper cup seals the base and keeps the bore clean enough to shoot accurately all day.

It all comes down to the projectile. A 430 grain LBT lead flat nose bullet, cast hard and driven fast, is about as simple and as effective as terminal ballistics gets, and nothing about it has needed changing in forty years.

Specifications

Rifles Approved For This Dangerous Game Rifle Load

Buffalo Bore approves this load for modern strong actioned rifles: the Marlin 1895 in all its variants, the Browning 1885 and 1886, Henry lever actions, Ruger falling blocks and comparable modern steel rifles made from roughly 1915 onward.

Buffalo Bore states plainly that this ammunition must never be fired in any original or reproduction Trapdoor action. The Trapdoor design is far too weak for these pressures, and the cartridge will chamber in one perfectly. If you shoot a Trapdoor, buy black powder equivalent ammunition instead.

Feeding is worth checking by hand. A 430 grain flat nose is long, and while it cycles correctly through the Marlin 1895 it is sensible to run a magazine tube full through your own rifle before a hunt.

Guide Gun owners should think carefully. The short barrel loses only about 45 fps, so the ballistics barely suffer, but the recoil in a 7 pound rifle is severe enough that practice becomes difficult, and practice is what makes 45-70 Magnum lever gun ammo useful.

If your rifle is modern but you are unsure of its provenance, a gunsmith can identify the action in a minute. That is a sensible hour spent before running 45-70 Magnum lever gun ammo through anything you did not buy new.

Deep Penetrating Lever Action Ammunition Availability

This Buffalo Bore 45-70 Magnum 430gr Hard Cast is in stock and ships from our Collegeville, Pennsylvania shop. MAG5 Firearms is a family owned FFL dealer, and orders of this deep penetrating lever action ammunition normally leave within one business day.

For a jacketed bullet at the same pressure, see the Buffalo Bore 45-70 405gr JFN. For a lead free expanding option try the Buffalo Bore 45-70 300gr Barnes TSX, and for the handgun equivalent of this bullet the Buffalo Bore 44 Mag +P+ 340gr Hard Cast. The approved rifle list is published by Buffalo Bore Ammunition.