I agree with Nomercy.....a .45-70 can and would kill a cape buffalo, provided the right modern day load is used.

Iknow they make a 500grain bullet for that gun now. That's awesome. As far as the bear story about the bullet bouncing off the head, heck that is totally possible.

I've personally seen 00buck shot bounce off of the glass of a pay phone both, .223 and .308 bullets bounce (deflect) off of car windshield glass, only to cause a small crack.

There are countless and countless documented incidents of every type of handgun bullet bouncing off a skull of a human being. Remember, it only takes on average 16 lbs of blunt force trauma to crack an adult human skull. A .45 ACP for example produces around 300 ft/lbs @ 50 yards with a 230grain bullet. Many many people have been hit in the head with a .45, only to have the bullet either ricochett off, or hit the scalp and travel under the skin only to encircle half of the skull and exit from the otherside. All the while, the human lived to talk about it!

So, like I said, anything is possible. I just feel a .45-70 can do anything.

When the new .450 Marlin rifle round was created about 2 years ago, it was designed to beat factory .45-70 loads. The .45-70 for the reloader has the potential to be every bit better than a .450 Marlin. The only reason ammo makers don't produce modern factory .45-70 loads is due to fear that someone may use that ammo in the old Springfield "trap door" model .45-70's. Therefore, the gun/ammo companies came up with the .450 Marlin. Only the handloader can make the .45-70 a modern, better "killing" load which far surpasses the .450 Marlin.