Guns and Stuff Reviews

Joe W Gorman

Hornady has been making .45-70 ammunition for many years. Their .45-70 Leverevolution 325gr and .45-70 250gr ammunition have both been used by the author to take whitetail deer out to 205 yards. Their latest offering, a 410gr Sub X Subsonic loading, is available for those desiring decreased recoil and noise, particularly with use of a suppressor. 

410gr Sub X Ammunition

Hornady’s 410gr Subsonic ammunition is easy on the shoulder and very accurate!

Appearing in gun shops near you, Hornady’s .45-70 410gr Sub X Subsonic round is a welcome addition to Hornady’s .45-70 Government ammo lineup. Loaded with a polymer tipped XTP bullet, the Sub X round leaves a 24” test barrel at 1075 fps (slower through my ’86 Winchester Short Rifle and ’86 Winchester Saddle Ring Carbine). Moving this slowly, the Sub X round will be quiet from a suppressed rifle. Even from a non-suppressed rifle, this round has a softer report than its supersonic siblings.  This round will also produce a much milder recoil than most .45-70 factory ammo. Both are good things when trying to fill multiple tags at one time at moderate distances. 

The Hornady 410gr Subsonic ammunition was accurate in every rifle I fired it out of! Winchester’s ’86 Saddle Ring Carbine loved this round and so did my shoulder!

Shooting the Sub X ammunition from both my ’86 Winchesters and my ’95 Marlin SBL, I was impressed with the accuracy. I shot a 1.5” 3-shot group when shooting the Sub X from my scoped ’95 Marlin. Likewise, my Winchesters could shoot the Sub X round accurately and they were a pleasure to shoot. Not going to lie, when you know you are about to touch off a 400 grain .45-70 round at 1700 fps from the bench, your shoulder may begin to plead with your brain to reconsider the shot. You get no such hesitation when firing off these rounds from a bench rest position. 

325gr FTX Ammunition

Tried and true, I’ve used Hornady’s Leverevolution 325gr FTX ammunition to bring down more deer than any other round. In the first place, the 325gr FTX round is incredibly accurate from every .45-70 rifle I’ve fired it from. Bench rested from 100 yards, I have scored multiple one-inch, three-shot groups from my scoped 1895 Marlin SBL and numerous 1.5” groups through iron sights from my Winchester 1886s. What’s more I’ve scored a few sub-2.5” groups at 200 yards with this round when shot through my 1895 SBL. 

Using iron sights, from a bench, the 325gr FTX rounds managed a sub 1” group at 100 yards.

I hit a big doe at 205 yards last season broadside and the 325gr FTX round passed clean through (Dirty Harry voice). For accuracy and for surety of kill on big white tails out to 200 yards, it’s hard to beat a 325gr .45-70 FTX round.

From my Ruger-made Marlin 1895 SBL the 325gr FTX ammunition was shooting sub-MOA out to 200 yards. Deer simply are not safe from this combo.

 From my ’95 Marlin, I measured these rounds doing 1890 fps at the muzzle. With a 100 yard zero, that puts the bullet roughly a foot low at 200 yards: easy enough for me to account for. At 200 yards this round is still packing 1330ft lbs of energy and it stays supersonic past 300 yards! It does kick a bit. 

250gr Monoflex

Hornady’s Leverevolution .45-70 250gr Monoflex round is struck from solid copper to form a 250gr killing machine. I shot several of these rounds into gallon water jugs and recovered the slugs. Oh my! They uniformly expanded to over an inch and each point was sharp as a pirate’s knife! As deadly as these things are they are also very accurate. I was able to keep 3 of the 250gr Monoflex rounds in a 1.4” group at 100 yards through the ’95 Marlin. 

Hornady’s 250gr Monoflex ammunition is crazy accurate too! This 2” group is at 200 yards. If you can dope the wind and account for the distance, this ammo will get the job done out to at least 200 yards. 

From the Marlin, these leave the muzzle at approximately 2010 fps, meaning when zeroed at 100 yards, the bullet is roughly a foot low at 200 yards too. The recoil is a bit less than the 325gr FTX load because, physics. Due to it being solid copper, this round is California compliant if that concerns you.

Hornady’s 250gr Monoflex ammunition reliably expands into these deadly flowers of death. Every single round I shot into water jugs ended up looking like the example in the pictures. 

If you need a proven round for your trip to the woods or the fields to harvest big game, you can count on these Hornady .45-70 loadings. 

Author’s Marlin 1895 SBL in .45-70 with 6 rounds of 325gr FTX Hornady ammunition in a Galco Butt Cuff, wearing a Galco Tapered Rilfle Sling and 20 rounds ready to go in a Galco SC Field Grade Culling Cartridge belt. White tail deer are tactical geniuses and while the odds are low that after your first shot, the remaining deer will form a harassing raid followed by a flanking attack on your position, they are never zero!