I had always been proud of my father until his passing at eighty years of age. When I was a kid, I saw my father as sort of a Super Hero. I was the youngest of three brothers and we had no girls in our family except mom, and she did an outstanding job in looking after an all-male family. Since I was the youngest and smallest (at the time), my dad took me under his wing wherever he went on business trips as a commercial fisherman in the Bay of Fundy area of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine. He was well respected by all who knew him and I admired him for that. He was all man with strong principles, as well as a strong mind and body.
< A strong resemblance to my dad, but it’s his youngest son at age 76.
His mother was American from just across the border in Eastport, Maine, which allowed him as a young man in his twenties to work in places like Boston, Mass and Providence, RI. While in Boston, he worked for a major tire company (not sure which one), and later in Providence, RL. In off hours he worked out in a boxing club. He would have been classed as a light-heavyweight at around 180 – 185 lbs. At only a little over 5′-8″ in feet bare, he was stockily built with broad shoulders and long arms, so his reach was more than his height at 6′. And he was much more powerful than his weight class. He returned to New Brunswick to marry his fiancé. From his savings he bought a 10-acre property on the shore-line of Campobello Island, with a house, barn, chicken coup and store. In addition, he bought his first fishing boat and took on his younger brother as co-captain. As his parents aged, he took them on with his two younger sisters as head of the family. In addition to all that, he became a leader in the community at church, school board chairman and general employer of those needing full time or part time work.
When my dad was home on Friday evenings, he and I listened to boxing matches from Madison Square Gardens, and on Saturday evenings we (just he and I – my two older brothers had other interests) listened to NHL hockey from Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto from the same radio. There was no TV available at the time just after the end of WW2. On Sunday mornings, we all went to church.
To this day, I have strong respect and honour for both my mother and father that God gave as my parents: “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” – the fifth of the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20:12.
BUT NOBODY MESSED WITH MY DAD! He could punch above his weight! And they all knew it since he could also lift an 800 lb âš“ off the deck of the local wharf !<The local wharf in 2017 when we visited there on our 60th anniversary. Those A-frames on the boats signal that they are salt water scallop draggers. The wharf is located in a cove at the mouth of the harbour that nearly cuts Campobello Island in half. Our house was about 150 yds to the left of this pic on a hill. The property was sold several years ago. My wife came from the spiff of land that appears just above the wharf – on the far side of the harbour. We graduated from high school and college together, then we were married in 1957.
My father was versatile in many ways, but he couldn’t sing or play a piano! Those were among my mother’s talents. She sang solos at church as well as being part of its choir. As well, she played the piano at home in the family room for personal entertainment and on Sunday evenings for those who wanted to join in sing-alongs. She was also a great cook and mother, and psychologist to keep everyone happy.
One day, as my next oldest brother and I were having a pushing – shoving – yelling match, she stepped between us and shaking a finger laid down the law! As she was performing her spiritual and psycologist roles, my brother (bigger and stronger) sneaked a punch around her that caught me unprepared and landed it knuckles first on my nose… and the blood gushed out all over mom! Now our mom was not one to have a temper tantrum herself, but she turned beet red in her face (not from the blood flying in her direction) raised her soprano voice to extra high “C”s, grabed us by the scuff of our respective necks and marched us off to bed with threats that would scare the devils into hell! But even she had to have a good laugh after those gory facts!
Such was life in the Mitchell clan. More recent events in our imediate part of the clan have involved the new birth of our latest great-grandson, an Italian! Yep, born in Rome to one of our granddaughters who has an Italian husband! Now we have a dozen or thirteen grandchildren and as many GREAT-grandchildren… Imagine that (if you can)! This past week my wife and I celibrated our 66th anniversary along with our daughter and son-in-law on their 41st!! My wife and I are ancient! And I’m still writing blogs about BIG BORES and toting them into forbidden places all alone for shooting black bears! There are no doubts that linger anywhere in the dark corners of my mind that some of my father’s genes found their way into what makes me tick!
So…
Rifles and their cartridges that punch above their weight class, particularly in Mediums and Big Bores, is a facination that finds expression in handloads and hunting.
That took both time and experience to discover. As I’ve written in many blogs and a couple of handloading manuals: starting out in big game hunting, I wanted the most power commonly available at affordable cost for ANY game that I might choose to hunt. Prior to achieving that goal, I used what was available and possible in borrowed rifles and ex-military hardware. Eventually, a much improved financial situation made it possible to purchase my first all-out bolt-action sporter for big game – a nice appearing used M70 Winchester in .30-06. Nearly new, it replaced an M98 military Mauser chambered to .30-06 which started me on my handloading journey. Of course, a .30-06 with decent handloads was fully capable for whatever my intentions were at the time: mostly whitetails. With some successes in that endeavour, and a heartbreaking failure, I moved on to sub-medium magnums: 7 Rem and .300 Win. – all with handloads.
As recently recalled, the .300 Win soon was traded for a .338 Win Mag in a lighter and much shorter Sako carbine. Eventually, that led to my first .375 H&H, but before that took place I’d purchased a few other rifles in both sub-medium and medium classes. My first 1895 Marlin in .45-70 came in early 1988 that took me on my first bear hunt in May of 1989: a precursor to my next, one year later with the same outfitter in North East Ontario close to the Quebec border.
So, the first rifle and cartridge that punched well above it’s presumed ballistics was my first 1895 Marlin in .45-70: not a medium, but a true Big Bore!
The load was taken directly from SPEER’s No.11, pg 316. 56 grains of H322 – which fell short of the book number, so I added 1gr more to 57 grains for ~1865 fps – a consistent average with very good accuracy. With that load I killed my first ever black bear in early May,1990. It was memorable, to say the least about it!
It happened this way: My wife and I had recently moved from pastoral work in a relatively young church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to a much larger and better established church in the Kawartha Lakes region where we are still living. That was in the fall of 1987. Sometime the following year (1988) I’d traded the M70 in .300 WM for the .338 Win in the Sako Carbine. Lots of handloads were undertaken for the .338 as well as for a new-in-grease Russian 7.62 x 54R carbine that I’d purchased in Nova Scotia for $99, but never had the chance to do handloads for it prior to moving back to Ontario. In 1988 came the new Marlin in .45-70 and more feverish handloading. Sometime later that year I learned of a possible bear hunt the following spring of 1989: and I signed on taking the .45-70 as my main and only rifle. Early May of that year was stiffling hot with millions of the notorious blackflies that I’d not previously experienced. Some Americans couldn’t take it and went home – they’d never before seen anything like it! Nonetheless, I stayed, had some new worthwhile experiences and never saw or shot a bear! Yet, I signed on for the next year. Same rifle and load.
In May, 1990, Norm, the outfitter, invited me to travel with him in visiting various bait sites for replenishing baits where needed. One of those sites had never previously been hunted for bear – it was new, and the platform stand was in a big Maple that over time had divided itself into two large trees joined near the bottom. Some moose hunters had built a platform between the two at about 12 – 15 feet above ground. That would become my stand with a new bait (that was being regularly hit by what Norm believed was a mature boar bear). We replenished the bait, and in leaving in his pickup we went past the tree with the platform part way up a ridge. I asked Norm about the ladder that appeared stuck in the crotch of the tree well below the stand itself: he said “no problem”, I’d be able to get it in place when I returned for the hunt later that day.
Without giving all the onerous details, that “no problem” turned into a nightmare before I had that ladder in place around 6 p.m. I’d been there since 3 p.m. and spent those three hours struggling with a bushman’s version of a ladder – mostly built from trees from the surrounding forest that weighed nearly 200 lbs! And that was in high heat, humidity and drizzle! Finally, I got settled in and had to re-attach the pole across the platform for aiming… and said in a loud wisper “I’m here and gonna stay here until there’s no more light! But I expect any bear in the neighborhood has gone to Quebec by now!” – inasmuch as the three-hour process of finally getting a timberman’s version of a ladder in place was not the quietest operation by a frustrated, somewhat impotent single man! In contrast to all that, it took five of us – all able-bodied men – to finally load the field dressed bear into Norm’s pickup!
No, they hadn’t all gone to Quebec, because within 10 minutes of settling on my seat, and pointing my Marlin at the bait 100 yds distant and downhill, a very black and dominant appearing creature emerged from the green background and started walking up a nearly unseen trail toward “my tree”. His head was swinging from side to side with mouth open tasting the atmosphere for any signals that the noise maker was still around. He never looked up at me in the tree. I was covered in green and barely breathing. He turned abruptly within about 40 yds, and stridded confidently in the direction from which he’d come. My 1895 Marlin was resting on the cross-pole with me watching through the scope. Already, I’d fired hundreds of rounds of that particular handload in development and practice: including at my bear silhouett drawn by a broad black marker on an oppened-up cardboard box pinned to the 50yd target berm, and later the 100yd berm, at our range. I’d practiced until I could consistently put three 400gr SPEERS into a 3″ circle at both 50 and 100 yds from offhand. So I had confidence in hitting this bear where needed. When he arrived at the bait he turned broadside on cue, as though he’d practiced it! I squeezed the trigger and the 400 Speer hit its target exactly where aimed right behind the right front shoulder… he went over backwards, landed on all fours and made a dead dash for 10 yards into some alders where he landed on his back with all four paws pointing skyward! I stood in the stand and, from offhand, gave him another between neck and shoulder – game over!
< My first .45-70 and my first bear.
Neither bullet made an exit, but the first one was a finisher. It made a 3-inch hole going in and the blood loss was massive, saturating his whole right side from shoulder to tail in the 2 seconds it took for him to make that 10 yard dash! That bullet was retrieved in skinning the next day, and came from the offside armpit weighing 362 grains or 90.5% of its original 400 grain weight… not bad for a “cheap”, non-premium bullet. I was 54 at the time.
I was so happy and excited that I forgot my camera in my van so no pics were taken until the following day. In any case, it got dark before Norm arrived with his crew to retrieve the downed bear. It was field dressed in darkness. Comments were: “That’s a good bear!”
Several years went by and I became occupied with other rifles and developing loads for them. That included a few for moose hunting in the “far north” of our Province of Ontario. My first 1895 Marlin had the Micro-Groove rifling, and while it was accurate enough for a few chosen loads, it was not with some other bullets that I wanted to try that were not as “soft” as the Speer 400gr. So that one got traded on something else. However, without a Marlin in .45-70 in my cabinet, I felt something was missing, so invested in another that was an “improved” version without the Micro-Groove rifling, better tolerances, fit and finish that was called a “Cassic 1895”. With that one I ventured with a lot of different loads and discovered it’s true capabilities.
One of my favorite bullets became the 405gr Remington with its harder lead core and dual diameter. I found it could be loaded longer and use more of a new powder: 60 – 61 grains of AA 2015 at 2.61″ COL. Results were ~2120 fps/4042 ft-lbs at the muzzle, and with a much improved BC of .281 (the 400 Speer was .214 BC). At 100 yards it was making about as much impact speed as the 400 Speer made from the muzzle when I’d shot that big bear a few years earlier! A few other bears had been shot in the interim using faster and more modern cartridges until this bear that was leaving a bait at 100 yds when he caught a 405gr Remington from my new 1895 Marlin in the left flank in front of the hip, and he was dead before hitting the ground right there. That bullet was making about 1845 fps on impact with exit behind the right front shoulder. No fragments anywhere with a clean exit about the size of a 25-cent piece!
Impact energy would have been about 3062 ft-lbs and 112 TE !
To tell you why I was so impressed is that rarely had I seen a bear, or anything else for that matter, drop so fast on the spot without a CNS hit! And I’ve hit some bears with impressive ordinance, but ONLY .45-70s have consistently done that sort of thing!
Let’s compare that with my 9.3 x 62 and a top load on bear at less than 100 yds:
The second bear I killed using my 9.3 x 62 was hit frontally with a 286gr Partition at about 2500 fps/3970 ft-lbs. It left the muzzle at ~2622 fps. That bear was dead but went a total of about 40 yards and was found without any further interest in life at the bottom of a ravine. TE was 95. “There are no flies” on that load from a 9.3 x 62. Yet the TE was 95 from 3970 ft-lbs at impact, and the .45-70 load was 112 TE from 3062 ft-lbs at impact!
And I’d been guilty of taking another bear of approximately the same size within 100 yds of the one just mentioned, two years earlier using a single-shot NEF in .45-70. Shooting a 465gr hardcast frontally into that bear at 70 yds from a treestand, it was dead right there! No running off for 40 yards! That was an accurate load using 57 grains of H335. TE at impact was ~1730 fps (from 1900 fps MV) = 138.6 !
Compared to my current .375 H&H bear load: 250gr at ~3016 fps = 5050 ft-lbs; at 35 yds (current bait from blind) = 2924 fps/4746 ft-lbs = 83 TE; and at 70 yds = 2835 fps/4459 ft-lbs = 80 TE !
80/138.6 has only 57.7% of the potential killing effect of that particular load in the NEF single-shot .45-70! In other words: A single shot from the NEF has nearly twice the terminal effect (TE) of my current .375 H&H load! Simply: that’s because the weight of the .458-cal cast bullet is 1.86 times that 250gr from the .375 H&H. Plus, the 250gr from the .375-cal would need 3218 fps at impact to match the 465gr from the NEF at 70 yds while it would only be making 2835 fps. That’s 383 fps shy of what it really needed to match the load from the NEF .45-70.
And, that’s not all! In addition, the 465gr/.458 has a .316 SD and the 250gr/.375 has only .254 SD!
Yeah… is there more? Unfortunately for the .375 its cross-sectional-area is “only” .110 sq-in while the .458-cal has .165 sq-in.! That’s 50% greater!
So, is there any way to make a .338, .358, .366 or .375 equivalent in effect at real hunting ranges to a modern .45-70 when each is loaded “best”?
You can try if you want, but within 250 yds a “best” loaded .45-70 is the winner!
Compare these two using my two TE formulae: a Ruger No.1 in .45-70 and a .378 Weatherby to 250 yards:
In the .378 Wby Mag’s corner: a 300gr Nosler AB (.485 BC and .305 SD) at 2950 fps/5797 ft-lbs/ 120.5 TE (from MV x BW x SD x Cal/840) PSI = 65,000; Rifle wt = 11 lbs with a 2 – 7 x 32 scope (no ammo).
Recoil calculated = 61 ft-lbs (no brake)
100 yds = 2761 fps/ 5077 ft-lbs/ +1.55″
200 yds = 2580 fps/ 4434 ft-lbs/ +0.02″
250 yds = 2492 fps/ 4137 ft-lbs/ -2.67″ (138.8 TE based on KEI x SD x CSA; 101.8 TE based on BW x IV x SD x Cal/840).
The Ruger No.1 in .45-70 (Note: this is the standard model, NOT my improved LT model with a longer throat that can add another ~ 200 fps) : a 475gr Lyman (#2 Alloy, SD 323, BC .477) at 1950 fps/4010 ft-lbs = 163 TE at the muzzle; (from MV x BW x SD x Cal/840) PSI = 40,000; Rifle wt = 8.4 lbs with a 2 – 7 x 32 scope (no ammo).
Recoil calculated = 47 ft-lbs.
100 yds = 1800 fps/ 3416 ft-lbs/ +4.65″
200 yds = 1658 fps/ 2900 ft-lbs/ +0.0″
250 yds = 1591 fps/ 2670 ft-lbs/ -7″ (142.3 TE based on KEI x SD x CSA; 133 TE based on IV x BW x SD x Cal/840).
TE = terminal effect
KEI = kinetic energy at impact
IV = impact velocity
SD = sectional density
Cal = caliber
BW = bullet weight
CSA = cross-sectional area
The advantages of .458-caliber over .375-caliber cannot be ignored by anyone wanting truth regarding their distinctiveness’s. For one significant example: a 300gr/.375-cal. has a .305 SD, whereas in .458-cal. – 450gr has the same .305 SD. That’s 1 and 1/2 times the weight of a 300gr/.375-cal. To have the same momentum as a 450gr at a reasonable 2400 fps from a .458 Win Mag, a .375-caliber rifle would need to fire the 300gr at 3600 fps!!. Impossible even for a .378 Wby Mag that can do 3000 fps from a 300gr, maximum! So even a .45-70, well loaded within safety limits, can beat a .378 Wby in momentum and TE !
And it does all that with less weight, powder and recoil!
Those are reasons enough for me to nominate:
A modern .45-70 as my number one pick of a rifle cartridge that can PUNCH well above its WEIGHT Class! And it’s one and 1/2 centuries old!
It is just too good to lay down and die!
As a matter of fact, all my nominations are at least worthy of honorable recognition based on their endurance records: Two have endured for well over a century, another should be receiving senior’s benefits, and a fourth is fast approaching retirement age! So two have been introduced – the .45-70 (the oldest), and the next oldest will be the 9.3 x 62 of 1912 – upcoming in our next presentation. Then that will be followed by a 1956 creation, and finally by a unique Remingtom introduction in 1965.
My former favorite rifle of two decades: a Ruger No.1 in .45-70 LT (long throat). It could shoot the 500gr Hornady at +2200 fps and the 450gr A-Frame at +2300 fps.
More coming in P2…. the 9.3 x 62
Shalom
BOB MITCHELL