airedale Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 (edited) I picked up a new Thompson Center Encore frame to use with a 45-70 barrel I have, I had to do a little fiddling around stoning the bolt so the hammer would cock, got that done and took her out to test some handloads. Started out a 50 yards and although the 2.5 Leupold scope when mounted was bore sighted I could not hit the paper, brought out my other bore sighter and did another bore sighting, took another shot and still missed the target, that was a first for me. Anyhow moved to the 25 yard target and found I was shooting low. Got the elevation in the ball park and proceeded to sight in with Barnes 350 gr spitzers loaded hot. The left target was at 25 yards, two in the same hole. Moved things back out to 50 yards again, first shot a little high made an adjustment and had two touching about 1.5 inches high and that it where she is staying. I have to say this rifle shoots great but it's light weight (6 1/4 lbs) makes it very unpleasant to shoot recoil wise. Al Edited August 13, 2020 by airedale 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helmut in the bush Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Nice thumper 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ny hunter Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Awesome......Good luck with the new toy ... Enjoy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engraver99 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Good luck with it! As soon as you mentioned 45-70, i flinched. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airedale Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 2 hours ago, Engraver99 said: Good luck with it! As soon as you mentioned 45-70, i flinched. I have been doing a lot of rimfire bench shooting and when I touched off this 45-70 I was not thinking recoil and benched and held it like a rimfire rifle and she came back rattled my brain pretty good and I think loosened my teeth fillings LOL. I have a Marlin 95 45-70 that is not at all bad to shoot but I am firing factory 300 gr that are not loaded hot like my handloads out of it. I once had a Ruger 77 458 Win Mag and that was over 10 pounds in weight which made it just a bit more pleasant and tolerable. While it will not be a favorite on the bench plinking for hunting it will be no problem. Approximate ballistics to 200 yards Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pygmy Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 Interesting, but OUCH !!! Very cool vintage cartridge, Al, but my interest in it would run toward something like the 1873 Springfield, or other single shots of that era, or perhaps even a Ruger # 1 or # 3 with loads equivalent to the old BP loads...At my age, getting my teeth loosened no longer interests me...I don't have many of my own left, and those are mostly amalgum, or whatever they use for filling teeth these days..Hehehe... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlybrowning Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 Sweet rifle! I had one on a G2 Contender in rifle format and in pistol format. The rifle kicked hard, I think I had a 21” barrel, but the aftermarket walnut stock and thick recoil pad I had on it made it ok. The pistol was a lot of fun! You didn’t want to shoot it too many times though! The .45/70 is so versatile being able to be loaded from modest to quite crazy. Those TC’s are addicting! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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