I would tend to agree with you Briarhopper. The 300gn Remington loads were pleasant to shoot in my 15" factory encore. If it weren't for the cost, I could have shot a couple boxes a day. Recoil was more of a push and role, not as sharp as a 44 mag. I stuck in some of the Hornady 325gn leverlotion loads and they started ripping calluses off my fingers with rough edges around the trigger after 3 shots (still not as sharp of a recoil imho then 44 mag, but a lot of motion).
I installed a muzzle break and now I can sit down and shoot as much as I want again. After the break the difference between the light loads (now the hornady 325's ~1700fps) and heavy loads (300 grain Barnes BB +P loads at 2050 is barely noticeable).



Charlie, Another point I forgot about earlier is that apparently TC is well known for having NO throat in their 45-70 chambers. This works for fine the typical 300 gn loads, but according to JD at SSK you can not physically load one of the Hornady 500 grain bullets. If you seat it deep enough to stay out of the lands, the rear of the bullet gets into the area of increased case thickness and it will jam in the chamber. He offered to re-chamber the factory barrel with their custom reamer which cuts a 0.060" throat. I was going to do it, but things got mixed up and it wasn't done. It works fine for me the way it is with the 300 gn Barnes TAC-TX bullets which group ~ 1-2 inches at 100 yards for me with minimal load development. I never got the Hornday 300 gn hp (#4500) to group smaller then ~4" at 100 yards.

I don't know how the bullet weights between 300 and 500 work in factory chambers, perhaps others can add their experiences.