I read that too. Writers make mistakes too. 

                                                                                 Joe.

I suppose it varies a lot depending on the range.  At closer ranges the 45-70 loads of that era would do the jo fine, and did.
However during the latter days of the buffalo extermination campaign when the huge herds had been thinned way down and the buffalo had become much more wary; I imagine that the longer range more powerful cartridges with better SD ratios were more effective.  If my reading is correct, and remembered correctly, that was only after 80% m/l of the herd was done.
  As I recall more of them were killed off with CW surplus arms and the early trapdoors than any other arms.   The so-called "buffalo cartridges" and "buffalo guns" were a relatively late development

And don't forget that Buffalo Bill shot many hundreds of Buffalo with "Lucretia Borgia", a .50/70 trapdoor. A much weaker cartridge than the .45/70.

Everone has an opinion and entittled to it, but after using a 45-70 this year for a 750lb feral boar, I would never consider the 45-70 inadequate in my book ever again.

Steve

In terms of buffalo hunting you also have to consider that the hunters had a different mindset than we have today.  Us "Modern" hunters have developed a sense of ethics and sportmanship that was not relevant in those days--infact most of our enthical hunters would have been run out of town or starved back then.

The gvmt simply and purely wanted the buffalo dead dead dead. Exterminating the buffalo was a national strategic policy. If they could have poisoned them off they'd have done it.  they wanted the economic props kicked out from under the Indians and the land freed from Indians and roaming buffalo herds for settlers.

The hunting styles of both the indians and the buffalo hunters was to get in close to the herds, shoot'em, follow them until they dropped and then skin and butcher them wherever that was. Quick kills and short tracking was nice but not all that critical.  There were crews to do the follow up and processing,  families for the NA, and either hired men or assigned soldiers for the commercial/military meat hunters.  Long range accuracy was a matter of pride of course as it is with any rifleman, but it was not a critical factor until later when the herds had been almost exterminated.

For the later commercial hide hunters it was more advantageous to have them in as close a bunch as possible for the skinners to work more efficiently

Not surprising,  anything like that has become overlaid with myth like a pearl.  I was being a bit too broadbrushed in my comment.  I was thinking more of the War Dept and "Indian Dept" policies. The federal gvmnt was pretty well paralized with reconstruction and post reconstruction politics, and pretty much let the army and the "indian dept" people run things between the Mississippi and the Rockies-at lest in the norther area.   For them buffalo migrations, particularly the northen herd were a powerful disincentive to the reservation way of life 

can you PM me any of Flores titles, they'd be a good area of expansion in my library.

I have heard that the 45-70 was always one of the most popular calibers in the west, partly because it was the govt cartridge and partly because, the govt gave the ammo away to assist in killing off the buffalo. dont know if that is true or not but I do not believe the 45-70 to be inadequate in any way as a hunting cartridge. Joe S