45-70 Government was a good load in its day. It can't compete with the new magnum calibers of today though. The casing design of modern cartriges is far superior to the straight hull of the 45-70. Not to mention the fact that you can play with the burn speed of new powders for new cartridges. The 45-70 is limited to the powders that you can load.

 

I just got back from deer hunting on opening weekend here in Wisconsin (Jackson County). I didn't see any deer on Saturday at all, but today was another story. It was all nice and frosty this morning so it was crunchy in the swampland areas we hunt so we could everything moving. About 1030 this morning I hear grunt, grunt , splash, splash and am like "Ok here we go" and I am looking for deer. I go nuts for about a minute looking around the area and then I see a doe coming in, along with 4 other deer. The forth deer is a nice buck. I wait for an opening and take my shot (50 yards), bang... right behind the shoulder. The deer hunches up and runs to the right about 20 yards and plows into a pine tree an disappears.

I go out and look for blood and hit the blood trail and follow it to the pine tree the hit and 10 feet away it is laying. Its a dandy 9 pointer with a 18 inch spread that weights 200 pounds. This was my first nice buck I have shot in 13 years of hunting and he is now at the taxidermist getting mounted. Woo hoo.

I cannot say anything bad about my rifle I am using because I just love it. When I graduated college my gift from my parents was a Thompson Center Encore in a .308 caliber, but my dad is buddies with a local gunsmith so he had it rechambered at .300 short mag. I am using a 180 nosler partition load and it just pounds the deer with it.

I also used this gun to shoot a nice 200 pound black bear (waited 6 years to draw a tag) this fall at 40 yards and the bear took 10 steps and tipped right over when I was shooting the same load.

I am more then impressed with the .300 short mag caliber and would recommend it to anyone. I used some different loads ranging 130-180 grain loads and the 180 seems the most consistent of the bunch and really does a number on anything it comes into contact with.

 

I have never shot an Encore. I would think they would be hard to control with the high powered loads. That much power through a handgun. Are they a handful?

 

I have the rifle version of the encore and its pretty easy to handle even in the .300 short mag caliber. The way the grip is designed on the stock you can pull it tight to your shoulder and it balances real nice.

My dad has a .30-.30 in a Thompson Contender (pistol) and he has used that for a number of years. He seems to do real well with it and likes it alot. I have never heard him complain about that gun either.

 

I hunt upstate ny and on long island and shelter island (litle island off of long islan.. GREAT hunting) i use a marlin 30/30, mossberg 12 guage, bow= buckmaster g2xl and i havent got anything to brag about, my uncles friend shot a 17pointer last week

 

I always the the Contender and Encore mixed up. The contender is what I was thinking about.

Anyone do muzzleloading? Our rifle season ended yesterday and muzzleloader starts saturday. That is usually when I fill my tag. I have a 50 caliber CVA stainless with scope, a .45 CVA with scope, 2 .50 CVA hawkens (one is flintlock), a .54 and a .58.

 

Hey AlkyburninX- I muzzleload hunt here in Missouri, and the season starts Friday. Just so ya know[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]. I looked it up on the Missouri Conservation Dept. website. I've already taken a buck so I will be after a doe with mine. I hunt in Crawford county mostly, but venture up to Macon county every year for archery. Goodluck

 

[quote]
[i]Originally For the whitetail I use 12 gauge while in MN and Iowa (no rifles allowed)




That is not entirely true. It is shotguns only in the southern part of Minnesota. Up here in the northern part you can use rifles.

I don't have a trophy worth bragging about yet. I use a Browning a-bolt .280

Ryan

 

anyone have a savage 30-06? 111f model? im gunna get one at the next gun show and just wanting to know somestuff about it.

 

the gun i go out with depends upon my type of hunting......

if im watching the fields, i use the .243 as its a great distance shooter.....

if im in the woods, i use the 45-70, that way, ill hit the deer if its behind the 4in tree or not.

the 45-70 is still a decent gun today, as in the lever action marlin we have is a nice, light, compact gun. much easier to lug around than my .243........