Thats the thing about a 45-70. You can buy factory remington stuff that shoots little ahrder than a 30-30, or you can crank up handloads to beat you like a 338winmag. You can go lengthways thru a deer with a 20Kpsi 1600fps 405gr load.
Yes if you have a hot load it will thump you pretty good, but if you are shooting at game you don't notice it. Also it doesn't seem to tear the meat up as bad as some of the higher velocity rounds do.