“I think for a 3-400 yard scout rifle a 45-70 beats a bolt action.”
Don’t get me wrong...I love hunting with a 45-70, but I only hunt food plots with it where the maximum shot will be less than 150 yards.
Once you get past about 150 yards with a 45-70, it’s dropping so fast you have to have a good rangefinder and ballistics chart to know what holdover you need. And the short fat not-so-aerodynamic bullets are bleeding velocity very quickly.
It’s not like shooting at the range where you know ahead of time how far your target will be.
A glance at the elevated iron sights on the Springfield “Trapdoor” should point the way.