Many people who are seriously fond of weapons, argue about the advantages and disadvantages of different cartridges and layouts, have not even heard about the .45-70 caliber. There is nothing strange here - today it is produced mainly in the USA and is used by lovers of unusual solutions. But still, expanding your horizons by reading about the features of this caliber will be interesting to many.
Decryption
To begin with, its full name is the caliber .45-70-405. This is not an empty set of numbers, but the exact source of valuable knowledge for any specialist. Having correctly deciphered the name, you can find out that the diameter of the bullet is 0.458 inches or 11.63 millimeters. A portion of gunpowder in such a cartridge is 70 grains (this is an obsolete unit of mass, approximately equal to the mass of one grain of barley, sometimes used by specialists) or 4.54 grams. Well, the lead bullet, which is equipped with a cartridge, has a weight of 405 grains, or 26.2 grams.
As you can see, quite detailed characteristics of the caliber and the corresponding cartridges are encrypted in the name itself.
A bit of history
Of course, the .45-70 caliber boasts a long and glorious history. It was first developed in the United States, shortly after the Civil War. In 1873, a new modification of the Springfield rifle was developed . It was for her that a new cartridge was created - initially it was equipped only with smoky gunpowder, but over time there also appeared ammunition for smokeless.
Interestingly, with the same weight of gunpowder and the external dimensions, the .45-70 Marlin cartridges, developed in 1894 for smokeless gunpowder, and the .45-70 Trapdor, used with smoky guns, differ greatly in the pressure created. This affects not only the combat range, but also the persistence of the bullet’s flight.
Nowadays .45-70 caliber cartridges are the oldest used to equip rifles with a Henry bracket, which gained considerable popularity thanks to westerns.
Caliber description
Since the .45-70 caliber was developed at the end of the nineteenth century, the corresponding requirements were imposed on it. One of the main ones was high accuracy at a distance of up to 100 yards (about 90 meters), as well as causing serious injuries to the enemy.
The cartridge fully met the requirements. Accuracy of firing at such a distance was quite high - the bullets went into a circle with a diameter of about 100 millimeters. And a heavy bullet (26.2 grams versus 3.7 for AK-74 and 9 for SVD), hitting the enemy, made huge holes, rarely leaving a chance of survival. By weight, it is consistent with a 16-gauge pool of smooth-bore hunting weapons.
At the same time, a rather powerful cartridge allowed to send a bullet at a great distance, 100 meters - this is not the limit for rifled weapons. She retained stopping power at a distance of 900 meters. Another conversation is that to conduct effective shooting at such a distance was problematic even for very good shooters - because of the complex flight path.
But neither generals nor ordinary soldiers were at all embarrassed. The optimal battle distance at that time was 250-300 meters. Although snipers proved their effectiveness in the American Civil War, they continued to focus on volley fire. Therefore, cartridges of this caliber stood in the arsenal of the army for more than two decades - until the end of the nineteenth century.
Followers
At the end of the nineteenth century, weapons were actively developed. More and more accurate and long-range models appeared that forever changed the course of battles. It would never have occurred to anyone to go in evenly beautiful formations to the trenches where the enemy soldiers are sitting, armed with machine guns or quick-firing rifles.
Volley fire was gradually abandoned, realizing that modern weapons made it possible to conduct much more accurate fire. Therefore, the caliber .45-70 was gradually replaced. At first, the .45-70-500 cartridge was created - much heavier, it had less flatness, which increased accuracy. Soon they developed the .30-40 caliber, which further pressed its predecessor. Well, with the advent of the well-known .30-06 Springfield (aka 7.62x63) .45-70 Government caliber left the army forever.
However, you should not think that, having left the army, he disappeared. Not at all - although the demand for it has significantly decreased (the army has always been the main consumer of cartridges in any country), it has not disappeared from the shelves of arms stores and conveyors of factories. Why? Let's figure it out.
Why is he still in service?
Despite the fact that a cartridge for a more suitable caliber was adopted for arming the US Army, the .45-70 remained in demand by hunters. The battle range for them was not as significant as for the military. But it was precisely the stopping effect provided by the heavy bullet that was an extremely important factor. If a bullet fired from a 7.62 mm caliber cartridge was enough for a person, then this is clearly not enough for a deer or even a bear - often such small wounds only make the predator angry, provoking a response attack.
Another thing is .45-70. A heavy bullet inflicted terrible wounds, causing severe bleeding and literally tearing up internal organs. Therefore, hunters for large prey did not have anything better to wish, especially since the range of a battle of 150-200 meters was more than enough for a good shooter.
However, the .45-70 cartridge was used not only in rifles. By the middle of the twentieth century, its popularity began to decline. But then a very new genre of films, Western, appeared right on time, which immediately gained immense popularity. During filming, revolvers using this cartridge were often used. High power provided an excellent stopping effect, and a half-baked bullet eliminated the risk of rebound. And the powder in the frame looked very nice. The marketing move was also strong - there was a legend that the cartridge was created specifically to stop Indian horses with one shot, making the riders dismount.
Today .45-70 is used mainly by connoisseurs of antiquity and original solutions. But still write off it clearly is not worth it.
Caliber in computer games
Many people learned from a computer game about the .45-70 caliber. Fallout 4, talking about a post-apocalyptic future, has become a real hit. And among the huge arsenal available to the protagonist, there is a weapon developed for this cartridge.
More precisely, in the Fallout game, the .45-70 caliber is used in two carbines with a lever bolt: Lucky Eddie and Old Friend. Both weapons are interesting in certain features. For example, the first increases the success rate for accurate shooting. And the second allows you to release two cartridges at once in one shot.
True, in the game “Fallout 4” .45-70 caliber can be difficult to find - it is sold only with a few traders. Also sometimes ammo can be found in the inventory of trappers using lever carbines.
Conclusion
Our article is drawing to a close. From it you learned what a .45-70 caliber cartridge is, its development history, advantages and disadvantages. I hope that it was interesting not only to fans of weapons, but also to fans of computer games, expanding the horizons of both the first and second.