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I do all my big game hunting with either a .45-70 or .45-90 slung from Marlin 95's or Win 1886. I mostly use 405 gr hard cast or pure lead bullets. Have killed deer, moose, caribou, and black bear with them. Nothing ever goes far. I load them to around 1600fps and have killed out to 250 yds with no problems; the bullet always goes completely through unless it hits either the base of the neck or an upper leg bone. Very effective and minimal bloodshot meat. I have also done in a moose with a 400gr Barnes at 1880fps. That moose went down like he was hit by lightning and bounced when he hit. Impressive. I nearly cut a deer in half at 50yds with a 350?gr Hornady hollowpoint at 2100fps one time. Spine shot that took out 3" of spine... totally gone. Most impressive. A shoulder shot with that would have ruined a lot of meat. I'm a big bullet guy and mostly like lower velocities that don't ruin meat. I think the .45-70 is an ideal deer gun with the right load, that being not too hot. The bigger bullets are more accurate also.
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