think of it this way the 45-70 has been around for over 100 years... you can walk into any backwoods cross roads store and find 45-70... good luck if they've ever heard of a 450 whatever... load little 300 gr bullets for plinking, 400-425's for serious hunting, and 500's for extreme madness... I have a load that shoots a 410 gr hardcast, gas check bullet at 2100fps in the Encore... will kill near anything that walks the face of this earth... 45-70 all the way...