Beartooth Bullets has introduced a heavier-weight .45 caliber rifle bullet, sporting a huge 0.374” meplat. This bullet, conceived for the Marlin 1895 series of rifles, feeds flawlessly through all actions tested. The bullet is 1.035” in length, having a nose-to-crimp length of 0.450”. This bullet provides the widest practical meplat possible and still function through the Marlin action, and yet still maintains an efficient coefficient of form.When loaded in .45-70 brass, cartridge-overall-length is 2.554”, and compromises less case capacity than other comparable weight bullets of this diameter. The nose ogive is expressly configured to minimize or eliminate chambering difficulties with today’s short-throated .45-70 rifles.
This bullet, with its huge frontal meplat, delivers on-target performance, something like a flying brick! While not a long-range performer, when called upon within the trajectory limitations of this bullet, it delivers a tremendous blow. Accuracy with the .45-70’s has been outstanding, even in the Micro-groove barreled Marlin 1895’s, but best performance is attained with .460” sizing across a wide range of makes and models. MOA accuracy at 100 yards is attainable with reasonable load development; however it doesn’t appear to have either the inherent tack driving accuracy potential of the .460”-405g LFNGC bullet, or its long-range performance.
Loading this bullet in the .458 Winchester Magnum yields a cartridge-overall-length of 2.912” when crimped in the crimp groove. It too feeds flawlessly in the bolt-action rifles tested. With the 425 grain weight, this bullet may be launched at over 2,400 fps with judicious handload development in the .458 Win. Mag.
Results in the .458 Winchester are a mixed bag. Those guns with typically long throats seem to shoot their best with a peak velocity of around 1800 fps, while guns with relatively short throats, where the bullet has very little jump into the rifling deliver 2” groups regularly with full-snort magnum loadings.
All things considered, this may well be THE premier short to medium range bullet for the .45-70! Due to its weight forward design, maximum velocity levels may be attained within acceptable pressure parameters, and it seems to be an ideal balance of weight to velocity for this cartridge.
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