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I would want something more powerful than just a 45/70, you are talking 1870 technology.

Not in the slightest. The modern Marlin 45/70 is America's most lethal gun, more capable of killing large animals quickly than anything else on the planet including any of the large magnums.

Try this for instance.

This is not news to me and my old Marlin Cowboy. I've never shot anything that had that type of punch. I've never shot anything with it that didn't drop like a sack of taters. Well at least parts of it that I could still pick up.

It is the old argument of mass vs. velocity. Roy Weatherby always felt that velocity was much more important due to the large amount of hydraulic shock created by a super high velocity.

If you can get some type of .300 Mag take it and a 45/70 and shoot a watermelon at about 100 yards or so and see which one does the most damage. This is why the 5.56 will do more damage to some targets than a slow load in a 30-06 under 100 yards. Where I grew up, we had a lot of problems with wild dogs killing cattle. I have shot them through the head with a .308 and it just blew a hole through the head. I have also shot them in the head with a .222 rem and it literally blew their heads off. ie. the jaw bone being 20 feet in front of the head, one eyeball stuck up on the side of the barn about 8 feet up and the only thing left of the head from neck up was a sliver of skin with one eye attached. (Grossed me out when I saw it). That was a 53 grain HP at 3150 fps. My .300 Weatherby will crank a 110 grain bullet out in excess of 4000 fps. I would still hesitate to use the .300 on a Grizzly bear and would prefer something similar to the .340 Weatherby or larger.

Anytime you are under 2000 fps you will not get the desire hydraulic shock.

Albeit I love my 45-70's and would have no problems taking on dangerosu game with the garrett hammerheads I'll disagree about Americas most lethal gun.......

This little plinker is the king of commercially available dangerous game ammunition. Granted there are "speciality" ammo companies that make 500 Nitro etc but the .460 Wthy mag gets my vote for that title.....of most lethal.

Just my opinion of course......

It's the custom ammo, not the Marlin.

And I'd make sure I had the Ballard custom barrel and not the lesser lever-actions . . . that 540 gr Hammerhead will blow up anything but that - and it says so on the label.

Probably custom loads are available for the .375 H&H that will do the same thing. Overall it's a better and more accurate cartridge, and it certainly has a wider range of loads available.

(Talk about not widely available - I have a .348 Winchester Model 71, actually, it's my dad's, and it's a great North American bear rifle, but completely obsolete and all ammo has to be hand loaded. Finding bullets is getting difficult, too.)