45/70 - the original long range caliber
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seattleman1969
Well-Known Member
@SumTingWong came out to Montana to hunt archery season with me and brought his Marlin Alaska Guide 45-70, I was surprised as how well and softly it shot the 325Gr Hornady Leverevolution rounds. I realize those are not "hot" loads but it was a gentle push rather than a sharp rap like some of the bottleneck cartridges. It shot so nicely I am considering one myself!
Overkill338
Well-Known Member
Mark and Sam After work tested a 45-70 at 1000 yards.
And at 1 mile
And at 1 mile
thwatson2
Well-Known Member
Have a pedersoli long range sharps in 45-70, Shiloh sharps in 45-110 and one in 45-70. All shoot 535 grain bullets that are cast with 20:1 lead. Both shilohs get black powder with greasers and paper patch. Pedersoli gets 4198 smokeless down the barrel. I used Pedersoli in the Quigley and went smokeless but next year I'll use the Shiloh. Nothing like hearing the gong at 805 yards or 1000 looking thru a little hole. It is very time consuming but worth it. Shooting 950 yards past week...took 4 seconds from shot till I heard gong, very cool. All those rifles have 34 in barrels, very heavy. Kick has never been an issue and we shoot 100 to 200 rounds every session. Good luck
bpcrshooter
Well-Known Member
last yr at the Quigley my transfer bar finally had enough and wore out, 6500 rounds not too bad I think. Ended up having to borrow dads shiloh to finish the weekend. Was a great shoot!!!
I went on a bison hunt with a browning 1885 Highwall in .45-70. The guide was dismayed when he found out that I was shooting a 405 grain hard cast lead bullet over Goex Ffg black powder. He was highly skeptical, and voiced his opinion several times. After an extensive stalk on hands and knees, we got within 120 yards of a bull. I took the shot with iron sights. The bullet thwacked the hide and sent a cloud of dust flying. The bull stood motionless for a couple of seconds, then wobbled, and fell over dead. The guide was stupefied. The rifle shot MOA or better with iron sights out to 200 yards, as long as I replaced the commercial lube on the cast bullets with SPG lube. The commercial lube did not react well at all with black powder, and would not shoot worth a darn.
thwatson2
Well-Known Member
thwatson2
Well-Known Member
Smokeless lube has petroleum base products they form a asphalt like product in your barrel when using bp, big mess. Your better off with no lube! Spg with a good water soluble cutting oil swipe keeps barrel like new. Bet that guide was excited by the big puff of smoke.
XTR
Active Member
First, if you want to shoot it I'd suggest that you don't get a Quigley copy of any variety whether it be from Montana or Italy. The metal buttplate and no pistol grip is not the best setup for volume shooting with heavy bullets or controlling the torque these babies make. Better to have a shotgun style but with a pad and a pistol grip. My highwall lacks the pistol grip but has the recoil pad, my C. Sharps '74 is a straight grip with an ebony bolt on grip with a metal military buttplate.
Back powder is easy to cleanup if you use the right lubes. If you use petroleum based lubes it gets harder, but if you use a lube of parafin/beeswax/tallow/vegetable oil in some combination that is designed for black powder it cleans up with water in no time, you just have to do it.
The trick to long range shooting with the big bore straight cartridges is ranging. When you figure that a 535gr bullet needs 175 to 225 MOA of elevation from a 100 yard zero depending on nose design you find that a 25 yard difference in range makes a huge difference in POI. Even my hunting loads launched from a modern highwall with smokeless need about 18" of elevation from 100 to 200 yds.
The vernier peep sights are not ideal for hunting, if you want to hunt and keep it period correct get a scope from MVA. You'll appreciate it.
This could go on forever. If one is really interested go over to the Shiloh site and http://castboolits.gunloads.com/
Back powder is easy to cleanup if you use the right lubes. If you use petroleum based lubes it gets harder, but if you use a lube of parafin/beeswax/tallow/vegetable oil in some combination that is designed for black powder it cleans up with water in no time, you just have to do it.
The trick to long range shooting with the big bore straight cartridges is ranging. When you figure that a 535gr bullet needs 175 to 225 MOA of elevation from a 100 yard zero depending on nose design you find that a 25 yard difference in range makes a huge difference in POI. Even my hunting loads launched from a modern highwall with smokeless need about 18" of elevation from 100 to 200 yds.
The vernier peep sights are not ideal for hunting, if you want to hunt and keep it period correct get a scope from MVA. You'll appreciate it.
This could go on forever. If one is really interested go over to the Shiloh site and http://castboolits.gunloads.com/
Yeah, that puff definitely made an impression - he wrinkled his nose and said "Mmm, that stuff stinks!"
imyourhuckleberry
Well-Known Member
I have a pedersoli sharps 45/70 that so far I only had a chance to shoot for a short time before eye surgery on both eyes and almost a year of recovery. I was using Remington 405 grainers at 200 yards. Never shot with Vernier sights so my first shot was high and missed completely, reset again and got on target. By the time I had tweaked it my shoulder was cussing me out. Does not kick that bad at all since I have a 34" barrel but I have had both shoulders dislocated. All in all this caliber is very impressive when it comes to accuracy.
thwatson2
Well-Known Member
Push some 535 to 545 grain bullets with some 4198 at 1250 fps That gun was made for that and your shoulder will love it or push some bp, just little time consuming
