Buffalo Rifle

[airedale]

So many years ago I got it in my head to own and shoot a 458 Winchester Mag, I acquired a Ruger 77, bought a bunch of bullets and cases and had a ball with that rifle, the most fun was letting my friends touch it off. Well back in those days I did a lot of wheeling and dealing and the 458 went down the road for some other shooting implement that caught my fancy. Forward to today and I still have hundreds of 458 bullets on my shelf languishing. I have a model 95 Marlin 45-70 but having a tube magazine the round and pointed nosed bullets would not be safe to fire in a tube because of stout recoil. 

I decided to get a single shot 45-70 to play around with to fire those bullets and had settled on the new Henry but the darn things are almost impossible to find. After 2 years I got sick of fooling around and went ahead and bought a stainless barrel for my Thompson Center Encore Pro hunter and be done with it. So the barrel came in and I cleaned it up, mounted a TC scope base and used low Burris Zee rings and put a compact Leupold 2 1/2 X inside those. The Leupold for me is perfect for this rifle, the power matches the cartridge, it can handle recoil and the eye relief is very long so I will not be getting nailed by the scope. I have one of these little Leupolds mounted on a Marlin 94 44mag and it is great in the woods.

Now I just got a get my hands on some new brass which should be coming in next week sometime. Got some old early Barnes copper jacket pointed jobs in 400 and 350 grain, some 400 Speer flat nose and 500 and 350 grain Hornady round nose. The old shoulder is going to be sore I think, I am hoping that TC flex stock will make things tolerable.

Al

Edited December 30, 2018 by airedale

[ny hunter]

I tend to be recoil shy more and more.Not sure why My 7mm mag is as big as I well go .Enjoy the shooting...

[helmut in the bush]

49 minutes ago, airedale said:

So many years ago I got it in my head to own and shoot a 458 Winchester Mag, I acquired a Ruger 77, bought a bunch of bullets and cases and had a ball with that rifle, the most fun was letting my friends touch it off. Well back in those days I did a lot of wheeling and dealing and the 458 went down the road for some other shooting implement that caught my fancy. Forward to today and I still have hundreds of 458 bullets on my shelf languishing. I have a model 95 Marlin 45-70 but having a tube magazine the round and pointed nosed bullets would not be safe to fire in a tube because of stout recoil. 

I decided to get a single shot 45-70 to play around with to fire those bullets and had settled on the new Henry but the darn things are almost impossible to find. After 2 years I got sick of fooling around and went ahead and bought a stainless barrel for my Thompson Center Encore Pro hunter and be done with it. So the barrel came in and I cleaned it up, mounted a TC scope base and used low Burris DZ rings and put a compact Leupold 2 1/2 X inside those. The Leupold for me is perfect for this rifle, the power matches the cartridge, it can handle recoil and the eye relief is very long so I will not be getting nailed by the scope. I have one of these little Leupolds mounted on a Marlin 94 44mag and it is great in the woods.

Now I just got a get my hands on some new brass which should be coming in next week sometime. Got some old early Barnes copper jacket pointed jobs in 400 and 350 grain, some 400 Speer flat nose and 500 and 350 grain Hornady round nose. The old shoulder is going to be sore I think, I am hoping that TC flex stock will make things tolerable.

Al

Nice looking rifle 

[Dinsdale]

Those 350 gr bullets and a milder load would be just the ticket for fun shooting.

The 458 win mag I have is not a plinker with 500 gr bullets for most.

[G-Man]

Why are you afraid of a 45-70 recoil is minimal. It was based on 45 cal bullet fired by 70 grains of blackpower. 45-90 and 45 -120 were popular buffalo chamberings. Most guys I know think nothing of dropping 100 or 150 grains of powder down their 50 cal rifle and shoot .45 or  44 cal bullet in a sabot yet they dont want to shoot a 45-70... smh.. smooth shooting multiple shot muzzleloader is how I look at it..

Edited December 30, 2018 by G-Man

[Culvercreek hunt club]

2 hours ago, ny hunter said:

I tend to be recoil shy more and more.Not sure why My 7mm mag is as big as I well go .Enjoy the shooting...

I'd bet that unless you got into the +P loads you wouldn't  notice a bit of difference. 

[airedale]

1 hour ago, G-Man said:

Why are you afraid of a 45-70 recoil is minimal. It was based on 45 cal bullet fired by 70 grains of blackpower. 45-90 and 45 -120 were popular buffalo chamberings.

I know the history of the 45-70 very well. First of all I do not believe I ever said anything about being afraid of firing a 45-70, secondly I have shot my Marlin model 95 lever action extensively so I am well aware what kind of recoil a 45-70 has. The handloads that I will be putting through the Pro Hunter will be a large step up from what can be fired safely through the Marlin Lever action and quite a bit different recoil wise. I can be attaining velocities only 300 fps less than the 458 Winchester mag which I have also shot extensively and when pushing 500 grain bullets at 1800 fps your shoulder will know it especially out of a 7 pound rifle.

Al

Edited December 30, 2018 by airedale

[Dinsdale]

Back mid 2000's; there were a fair amount of guys heading for Cape Buffalo and larger using 45-70's loaded with stout bullets and max loads. Many wanting to push the envelope of a old school cartridge with American roots to show it could be done and trying to meet the legalities of the game department standards for energy. 

There was much discussion on bullets and loads in many circles (web,magazines, etc) at the time.

Most achieved the results they were looking for......others?,  not so much.

Can be a formidable load with modern components, powders, and rifles that can handle them. 

[G-Man]

15 minutes ago, airedale said:

I know the history of the 45-70 very well. First of all I do not believe I ever said anything about being afraid of firing a 45-70, secondly I have shot my Marlin model 95 lever action extensively so I am well aware what kind of recoil a 45-70 has. The handloads that I will be putting through the Pro Hunter will be a large step up from what can be fired safely through the Marlin Lever action and quite a bit different recoil wise. I can be attaining velocities only 300 fps less than the 458 Winchester mag which I have also shot extensively and when pushing 500 grain bullets at 1800 fps your shoulder will know it especially out of a 7 pound rifle.

Al

When I contacted marlin about my.45 -70  I was told the reciever could handle pressure same as a ruger model no 1. I have shot compressed load with .454 catsull bullets and hat a lot of fun.. the new remlin  my friend bought cant handle the hand loads I did and had to be sent back for repair.. main reason I'd always look for an mxxxx serial number or an rmxxx one now.

[Rattler]

18 hours ago, airedale said:

I have a model 95 Marlin 45-70 but having a tube magazine the round and pointed nosed bullets would not be safe to fire in a tube because of stout recoil. 

You could have used it as a two shot rifle by putting one in the chamber and only one in the tube.  I do this with my Marlin .35 Rem when shooting 150 grain soft points.  They are loads that shoot really fast and flat with less recoil.  Great for deer and coyote out to 200 yards.

[airedale]

1 hour ago, Rattler said:

You could have used it as a two shot rifle by putting one in the chamber and only one in the tube.  I do this with my Marlin .35 Rem when shooting 150 grain soft points.  They are loads that shoot really fast and flat with less recoil.  Great for deer and coyote out to 200 yards.

I have actually done that with milder reloads, I love the Model 95 and am astounded on how accurate it is.  The Marlin 95 has a strong action but I do not feel comfortable firing the ammo that I am going to be loading out of it. All the loading manuals I own are explicit and have a strong warning to not use such ammo in any firearm other than bolt actions, the Ruger 1 and the TC Encores. Also the old Barnes bullets have no cannelure and can not be crimped, I already know from previous experience with the 458 mag they will creep forward from heavy recoil out of the case screwing up the cartridge's overall length so they have to be shot singly. Lastly I am always looking for an excuse to buy and try something new LOL!

Al

Edited December 31, 2018 by airedale

[cas]

Fer ma buffalo rifle.  The load on the right... 120 grains of powder and a 700gr bullet. 

Edited January 1, 2019 by cas

[ny hunter]

yeah way too much for me......

[Rattler]

22 minutes ago, cas said:

Fer ma buffalo rifle.  The load on the right... 120 grains of powder and a 700gr bullet. 

What are those rounds?  The one on the left a .38-55 or .45-70?  The rest would be much bigger.

[airedale]

Looks to be a Sharps 50-120, The mega blaster of the old buffalo cartridges.

Al

Edited January 1, 2019 by airedale

[cas]

.40-65 on the left.

From a rifle I no longer own, but really miss in a lot of ways. I miss because of the coolness factor, and now I sort of regret selling it because my eyes are starting to turn on me and I'd be able to shoot it a lot better than some of the ones I kept that I can't shoot.

 

The other three are .50-90's loaded with 90, 110 & 120 grains of powder. 

 

[airedale]

I have let a lot of good ones go that I should not have. That rolling block looks nice.

Been a long time fan of single shots and always wanted a Remington Rolling Block along with a Sharps. I look at them at gun shows just about every year but as a hunting rifle and weighing in at around 13 pounds and being an old geezer I just would not want to carry one around. I have been eyeing the scaled down Italian imports and may pick one of those up before I croak.

Al

Edited January 1, 2019 by airedale

[cas]

Sold the other two rollers I had to buy my Sharps. An original in .43 Reformado and a Pedersoli that I rechambered to .45-90.  ( I later sold that roller too. ^ )

The Sharps is a work of art, but now that time has passed and "the lust all died" as they say, I'd rather I still owned the .40-65 and the Pedersoli. 

 

 

Not to hijack the thread too bad and get back to the op.... overkill is my middle name at times.

I'm all for hunting with things that are in theory, way too big. I spent a lot of time working up loads and practicing to hunt with my Ruger #1 in 450-400 this season. But every time the hunting style matched the gun, the weather was crappy. So after all that I never even took it out of the case. 

If a 12ga slug isn't too big for deer, how can a 45 to 50 caliber bullet be?

Edited January 1, 2019 by cas

[airedale]

Was at one time hot to trot for one of those Martinis in a 22LR, never could find one that suited me.

1 hour ago, cas said:

If a 12ga slug isn't too big for deer, how can a 45-50 caliber bullet be?

I practiced in the summers on Woodchucks with all my big game rifles, (some were pretty big)I could have cared less what anyone thought.

Al

Edited January 1, 2019 by airedale

[cas]

More things I can't see the sights on anymore and will probably go down the road eventually. 

[helmut in the bush]

17 minutes ago, cas said:

Sold the other two rollers I had to buy my Sharps. An original in .43 Reformado and a Pedersoli that I rechambered to .45-90.  ( I later sold that roller too. ^ )

The Sharps is a work of art, but now that time has passed and "the lust all died" as they say, I'd rather I still owned the .40-65 and the Pedersoli. 

 

 

Not to hijack the thread too bad and get back to the op.... overkill is my middle name at times.

I'm all for hunting with things that are in theory, way too big. I spent a lot of time working up loads and practicing to hunt with my Ruger #1 in 450-400 this season. But every time the hunting style matched the gun, the weather was crappy. So after all that I never even took it out of the case. 

If a 12ga slug isn't too big for deer, how can a 45 to 50 caliber bullet be?

Don't know anything about them, but they're cool

[turkeyfeathers]

Quigley down under on now. Look what he has   Maguni PI is toting a Sharps 

[airedale]

Lyman has some very nice scaled down versions of the Sharps made by Pedersoli out of Italy, they only weigh about seven pounds about half of what the Quigley model weighs. The Lyman in 22 Hornet would be fun, they have one out now in 30-30 and it would make a good Deer rifle.

There is also a Chiappa mini Sharps in 22 LR that would be fun on Squirrels and just plain cheap plinking.

Ahhh so many good one out there, too bad I don't have the coins to match my appetite.

Edited January 1, 2019 by airedale

[cas]

34 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

Quigley down under on now. Look what he has   Maguni PI is toting a Sharps 

 

Yeah but Quigley cheated.

He had a proper one for shooting. One with an aluminum barrel for carrying around. And some resin/fiberglass ones for dropping, throwing and hitting people with.  

 

 

I sold about 11-12 guns to buy my Shiloh. Naturally to raise the funds was a big part of it, but a lot had to do with justification psychologically, so I could rationalize it to myself. lol

 

Edited January 1, 2019 by cas