Back Yard Fun: video of outdoor target shooting

Who says you can't have fun with water filled jugs & a 45-70?

Welcome to my brother-in-law's backyard. This is where we "scientifically" evaluate new loads that we develop utilizing standard issue milk jugs (or anything else that holds about a gallon of H20). No animals or animate objects were harmed in the making of this or any other video (posted on this website)!

Today's exercise consisted of the following load data.
BRASS: Starline 45-70 nickel brass
PRIMER: Winchester Large Rifle primer
POWDER: Hodgdon H4198 x 49.1 grains
BULLET: Remington 300-grain JHP

That load gets this bullet traveling right at 2,000 FPS which makes hunting, or in this case milk jug hunting a lot of fun. Speed coupled with heavy weight bullets & big bore caliber isn't what you always hear about. Many shooters think you need a small caliber to travel fast - nope!

I've developed various loads using this bullet, brass, powder, primer combination however this is my favorite. Certainly capable of deer & hog hunting this could also be used for larger game however as you will see later, not for dangerous game. I've taken both deer & hogs with this round and it has served me very well.

All of my Marlin lever guns (with the exception of my 22 & 410 shotgun) have factory ported barrels which in the case of this video helps to show off a nice fireball even with H4198 powder in the daylight! These ported rifles were all made between 1998-2002.

As you can see from the pictures below the jacket separated from the lead core losing about 1/3 of it's starting weight (300-grain now weighs 211-grains). This again works great on smaller game such as deer & hog.

Although I load most of my 45-70 in brass cases I load most hunting rounds in nickel brass so I can put them in leather cartridge holders. Brass tends to tarnish while the nickel doesn't.

Next up I'll be testing either the Steinel Ammo 325-grain brass solid, Hornady 350-grain Interlock or my signature 535-grain hard cast. Stay tuned for those results and thanks for hanging out in the backyard with us!