In May I'm headed to Alberta for a black bear hunt.

Shooting range is said to be approx. 50 yds. I'm taking my 1895G Marlin .45-70 as my primary weapon. I am going to reload some 404 grain Reminton FNSP bullets for it, but my reloading manuals don't list this particular bullet. I've got a lot of diff. powders to choose from, but not sure where to start.

Anyone having any suggestions and/or personal experience with this particular bullet/weapon, I'd appreciate some suggestions as to powder type/grains for accuracy as well as knock-down power.

I've shot 5 Montana black bears with my Rem 760C using 165, 185 and 220 grain reloads, so am painfully aware of the ole saying: "placement, placement, placement", which in my experience has not always been the case.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

I'm not sure it'll be easy to find that exact Remington bullet listed in a reloading manual. (The Lee or Lyman manuals might be your best bet.) You might find bullets that are close, e.g., Speer makes a FNSP in either 400 or 405 grains. I have loaded this bullet, and you can get some pretty good velocities out of it. I believe the highest velocity Speer publishes on it is using H-335 as the powder. (Even at the minimum charge, it kicked like a mule out of my Guide Gun.) I discussed this round with another 45-70 buddy of mine, and he didn't have good things to say about its effectiveness. He shot a bull elk with it, and the bullet jacket barely made it in the animal. The elk died from that one shot, but he felt he was lucky because of the amount of bullet fragmentation.

Have you considered a hard cast lead bullet? I've not used my 45-70 on black bear, but I'd imagine something like a 405 gas-checked lead bullet might work nicely.

Welcome!

Use the other published 400gr. data to start with.

I have no idea about that particular bullet in that particular application, but I'm it's a popular bullet and I'm sure more than one Mr. Bear is hanging on a wall due to it being applied correctly :D

At 50 yards, even the most horribly-performing load will be plenty of accuracy for a bear, unless you just want to shoot fleas off of their ears.

As a general caution, short range is not the correct application of high velocity. You don't need it, and it makes bullets come apart prematurely. A 'mild' .45-70 handload with a 400gr. bullet could still exit the muzzle between 1500-1700fps, depending on powder selection & barrel length.

I'd concur that the cast bullet is an excellent choice. See the testimonials & critter pictures on the Beartooth Bullets web site.

The 400gr. Speer will hold together on a pig at an impact velocity of around 2,000fps, although just barely. That's out of a .458 Win Mag, by the way - don't try it in your guide gun! At moderate .45-70 velocities, I'd expect it to perform fine.

I have only shot one small deer with this bullet, and I was a bit surprised at the amout of damage it did at close range. I am not surprised at the reported problems with the elk shot.
However, if you are shooting at 50 yards, you may not want to load this bullet up to the maximum possible for your rifle (and shoulder). I suspect this bullet would hang together quite well with a muzzle velocity in the 1600 fps or less range, and at 50 yards it should perform well.

The 405gr. Rem. bullet question came up in the past, and I voted against it...but am changing my vote.

At hand is a Rem. 405 that I got out of a wild hog in the late 1970's (but I suspect the bullet is about 5 or 6 years older and had hung around the dealer's shelf). Poor penetration but LOTS of expasnion (that bullet is a about 1" X .8" as recovered).

Was taken to task for those comments..and as I respect the poster's honesty in toher posts, bought a box of new bullets and tested.

Look a lot like the old bullets, but must be using a harder core. Jacket material seems the same thickness...may be a differentjacket hardness...but the lead core does seems to be harder.

Whatever the reason, current production Rem. 405gr. bullets do not seem to over expand. guess they got use to the idea of people shooting the .45/70 at faster than BP speeds\ and made some changes.

Old ammo, I'd still say "pass", but the current stuff seems much better suited to really big game.

I have absolutely no experience shooting bears. I do, however have experience shooting bison and deer, hogs, (and one elk). Most of the bison were shot with the 405gr. Rem. JSP. I used a load that is probably overdoing it for some. I hunt in Central and Western Kansas with average shots going over 120 yards easily. Many times I feel I must push the bullet to get the trajectory I need. When I go pig hunting, I do not have that need for extreme range, although I still use the same load.

My load is as follows.

Starline brass, WLR primers, and 48gr. of H4198 for the Rem. JSP. I get 1980fps. My bison shots were always from the side and never had anything but pass throughs. These animals probably averaged 1350# with some at 1650. The difference on the bison at the ranges I shot them, (between cast and Rem. JSP), was that there was more "impact" significance with the Remington bullet. I am sure with higher velocity, that the penetration could not equal my cast. I prefer my cast because of cost and penetration. I cannot argue against the 405gr. Rem, however, because everything I shot with it is dead. It just rocked their world. Ribbonstone is probably more correct than he wants to admit. They are softer, and the jacket can and will separate. SO WHAT? That lead core continues on and kills very effectively. I know that means bullet failure to some, but not to me. The bullet was reliable, and did everything I asked it too. The metplat damage done by a non-expanding bullet like my cast was something to behold. I killed my elk very quickly. The shock value on killing a black bear must be very important. For this reason, I think I would choose that Rem. over my cast any day and be prepared for jacket separation. Last year Brian Pearce wrote of using it in Africa, and found that used on game even larger than its original intent showed very impressive performance. I also think a run of the mill 350gr. Hornady would do well. Shot placement to me is way more important. Nothing is going to survive a hugh lump of metal shot at them from 50 yards. I think the Rem. JSP will stop them a bit faster and not allow them to run off. Just my 2 cents...

I now use H322 with my cast, and would probably switch to this powder as well in the Rem. bullet. I think most over on Marlinowners would agree. Somewhere around 54gr. would give me that same 1980fps that I like. Brian Pearce loaded his up to 1800fps and had remarkable results with that speed. Mine is out of a 22 in. barrel. Look up Hodgden levergun loadings and use data for the Speer 400gr. Reloader 7 will give nearly the same speed at about 49gr.

I have not used that bullet, but I have killed a lot of bears with cast bullets. Almost all in 44 magnum at between 1300 and 1500 fps. I use a Kieth style 255 grain gas checked cast in linotype.

At from 25 to 125 yards they work exceptionally well. My initial experience with jacketed bullet caused me to almost stop hunting with a big bore and go back to the 30 cal magnum rifles.

Try some of Marshall's cast bullets I think you would be pleased.

The 405 grain Remington JSP loaded from 1100 to 2000 fps is just fine for black bear.

My load is adapted from Hodgdon #27 and Mic McPherson:
Marlin 1895 45-70 22" barrel
405 grain Remington JSP seated to 2.54" and crimped with a Lee Factory Crimp Die
Winchester brass, 2.1" trim
CCI 200 primer
48 grains H322 START
55 grains H322 compressed MAXIMUM
MAXIMUM yields 1950 fps from my 22" barrel which should yield about 1880 fps in a Marlin 1895G. Work up carefully from START towards MAXIMUM watching for signs of excessive pressure or velocity.

The Lee manual has 9 loads listed for a 405 gr jacketed bullet in the lever under their model 95 lever action section for 45-70 govt, 8 of which list IMR powders. They are listed as having a muzzle velocity of between 1300 and 1700 fps for the starting loads although that may be out of a 20+ inch barrel. Still, should be enough to kill most anything at 50 yards.

I like starline brass, Rem 405gr JSP, H322 with WLR primers. I also use the lee factory crimp die and have found my favorite load to be at 54gr. Super accurate and plenty of smack for moose on down, for the big bears I like the kodiak bonded bullets in 405