[koger]

Last week me and a buddy made it to the range, shooting 45/70's and doing more load development. I had cast some 350 gr HP;s and lubed some and sized them, and left some unsized and coated them with moly. I also had some old standbys 405 grs RNFP that I had cast and lubed some year ago, along with some 300gr JHPs. All told we shot nearly 100 rds out of a Marlin 1895 Guide Gun, ported, with a luepold 2x7 and a H&R Buffalo hunter with a 6x Weaver on it and a Browning Hi Wall with open sights.I got pretty good accuracy out of the cast HP;s they would keep all the holes touching at 100yds, shooting 5 shot groups, the moly coated unsized shot a little bit better with 3 shots cutiing into each other on a vertical string, and shots 4&5 on each side snuggled up to the group. The 405's shot even better, cutting all bullets together in a ragged hole about la inch and half long. The Browning hi wall shot nearly as good as the scoped guns at 100 yds due to the fine sights and good trigger. The last loads we shot were the 300 JHPs, Hornady's, with a stout load of 1mr-3031 behind it. The Marlin put 4 in a ragged hole about an inch long and the Buffalo hunter put 4 into just over an inch, pretty good shooting all the way around, when you consider the bullets are .458 diameter! I may try to hunt with the 300gr HP I cast, as it shoots plenty good enough for deer out to 150 yds, which will be the limit I will be shooting where I hunt with these rifles at. On a big ole brick of duxseal clay, the cast bullet HP made about the same size hole as the JHP, with a lot less recoil. Just thought I would share, part of my ongoing 30 year love affair with the 45/70, any of you fellers like playing with the big boys?

 

[TinMan]

I haven't shot mine for a while. Started with an older Marlin 1895 rifle, not a guide gun, but didn't like the recoil. For me, the stock had too much drop and the recoil was wicked sharp with lots of rotation up, and the rifle was too light . Traded it for Ruger 77 tang safety in 458 WM that I only load with cast bullets and 45-70 class loads. Fun, accurate and much more comfortable stock. Later found one of the Browning BPCR 1885s. Great rifle. Also like shooting 45 Colt with hard cast bullets in a Ruger Bisley and a 24" Marlin 1894 Cowboy with Lyman peeps. .

 

[Neil]

Well, since you asked, I was intending to be chambering a 50-70 Gmnt this weekend, but the )(&*@&^$ reamer rental place was slow to ship. Next weekend.
I had this extra Encore 50 cal muzzle loader barrel. What to do? Anyway, I removed the breach plug, bored out the breach end, and reamed it to 3/4". Then I tapped it 13/16 x 20 and parted it off 2-1/2" from the breach end. The barrel is now threaded to match, and needs only chambering and a couple of tapped holes to mount the forend.
When that is complete, I'll too be tossing some big lead slugs down range.
BTW, the OD runout on that barrel was near thirty thou. Inside?