PBR: You are thinking along the lines I am. It seems we both might let accuracy be the determining factor for a Baikal double. Again...Curl's suggestion comes to mind...

Duggaboy: Now we are getting somewhere. Your points about monometal bullets might well be considered by the buyer, if that is what he has in mind to shoot from the Baikal. Trouble, is, some {maybe all?} monometal bullet makers either approve of the use of or actually recommend their bullets for use in doubles. Meaning, if the shooter decides to call a bullet maker, he might well be told to go ahead and shoot them. Then he is faced with the need to decide between you and them. I'm not calling you a liar, or unknowledgeable, just stating what is fact.

This issue was discussed {argued} at length some time ago and I myself called Barnes for a full explanation from them about their mono bullets in doubles. Agree or disagree, their experience with many doubles and thousands of bullets left them still recommending them. I'd be interested to call them again as it has been a year or so {?} since I spoke to them. Yes, this issue is debated over and over. If you were in on that thread, you may remember that documentation/photos of OSR was stated to exist by a member but none was ever provided in spite of a "$200 Bounty" that was offered by another member for their provision.

It may be a moot point, however, since the bullets I've tested that equalled .375 H&H performance weren't mono's. Rather, in one case, it was the Lee HP cast bullet. Look, I don't sell the thing, I am just reporting what I've seen in my own test media and in game and range stock. I've shot through a thick pine bough to get to a bear, that bullet also shattering the front leg and exiting thru the top of the bear. That same bullet gave 24 inches of penetration through almost solid bone {head and neck vertebrae}, pulping the entire neck on a mean range cow that came for me. And I've seen 300 grain Winchester Silver-Tips refuse to shoot clean thru a wreck of an old broken-hipped cow and 300 Hornady's that stayed inside wildebeest and inside frontally shot deer and side shot elk. Yes, bullets matter, as on some of those shots the same charge pushing a 300 Swift A-Frame would no doubt do it, and...I bet the 402 Lee would also, along with causing a heck of a wreck inside the animal on its way.

Elmer Keith considered the 400/1800 recipe to approach the actual killing power of the .400 Jeffery and fully adequate for all game hunted in North America, big bear included. "Approaching" doesn't mean "equal", but it is close, and any sober way you look at it means more effective than a .30-06. I say about like the .375 H&H since my testing and the reports that are coming in more and more with it agree. Some would say it is superior to the .375 on close shots on heavy game. I say it is depending on bullets used. But then I'm trying to be conservative, here...

I don't think the originator of this thread was concerned with exclusively hunting heavy African game since he was also interested in the .30-06. If he is, I think everybody here would recommend some other calibers than the .45-70 or the .30-06. If he wants a close range gun for North America, either would do, but the .45-70, even choked down with loads in the 28,000 psi range, is the more powerful of the two.

Daryl's provision of load data is spot on the topic. The gist of the proofs he provides is that very powerful loads can be assembled with the .45-70 even at 28,000 psi, loads Elmer Keith considered "approached" the actual killing power of the .400 Jeffery.