This couldn’t stand, so the US quickly developed the 30-06 cartridge, which became much more popular with the military as well as civilian use. The 308 originated after the US’ dealings with the 7×57 Mauser round during the Spanish-American War, which triumphed over the 45-70 with relative ease, and bested the Army’s Springfield single-shot trapdoor models at nearly every turn. The latter is most easily recognized today as a “buffalo rifle” or the “Quigley gun”, due to its appearance in the famous Tom Selleck movie. In no time, the average hunter had a wide range of rifles to choose from, including the first Remington repeaters, the Winchester 1885, and the Sharps 1874. This led to an explosion in demand for rifles chambered for 45-70, resulting in most of the major rifle manufacturers marketing newer 45-70-chambered rifles directly to civilian sportsmen and hunters. The 45-70 quickly gained a reputation while in use with the military, and that eventually translated to the civilian and consumer sportsman markets. This made the 45-70 one of the most powerful rifle cartridges of its time and was used extensively in the late 19th century by the US Army, even into the early 20th century where it found a home in some of the earlier Gatling models. The round initially used 70 grains of black powder to send the lead at an average of 1325-1350 fps, for about 1500-1600 ft-lbs of kinetic energy. These “trapdoor” rifles were made to push the 405-grain projectile downrange when fired from the straight-side case by black powder. The 45-70 was created in 1873 and was initially designed for use in early single-shot rifles made by Springfield.
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