1895 Marlin 45-70Govt Boomstick

[xavierdoc]

Today I finally got to shoot my "new" 45-70 1895 Cowboy at more than 20yds!



Still only 110yds but useful for setting a woodland hunting zero. I've fitted a 1-4 Vortex PST scope on a Williams Ace-in-the-hole combo-rail.
I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy with 405gr SP loads:
The calipers aren't pictured quite right but it's easily a sub 1 inch, 3 shot group at 110yds. This was shot with forend supported on a block, rear unsupported.

The butt cover from this thread worked well with respect to increased length of pull and comb height. Recoil was ok, probably helped by the 1inch of padding inside my butt cover.

Lovely gun to shoot.

 

[takbok]

Must be fun shooting that - enjoy.

 

[Southern]

These things shoot as good as they look.
How I wish I had a Cowboy II in .357 Magnum!
A really accurate and mild deer load in the Marlin .45-70 is a Hornady 300-gr HP at 1,800 fps from 41.0 gr IMR-4198.

 

[xavierdoc]

These things shoot as good as they look.
How I wish I had a Cowboy II in .357 Magnum!
A really accurate and mild deer load in the Marlin .45-70 is a Hornady 300-gr HP at 1,800 fps from 41.0 gr IMR-4198.

Thanks. I do have some 300gr JHPs to try.

 

[JasonH]

Great fun I helped my friend zero his Marlin 30.30 under lever very accurate had the bullets holes touching each other.

 

[Canadian1]

Nice rifle, and nice shooting!

People who say the .45-70 is "only" a >100 yard gun don't know how to shoot. I agree, open sights have there limitations, but with proper ladder sights I can shoot 2-3" groups at 200 yards no problem. Can also hit a 6" pie plate with consistency at 300 yards. I really don't shoot beyond that regardless of cartridge.

 

[Muir]

St. Nick brought my son one of those for Christmas about 8 years ago. Great shooter. The following Christmas he got a few hundred Lyman 457-122 Hollow Point cast bullets to run through it. Great gun. Posted this before, I think, but this was a typical weekend scene that winter. Makes me smile to think of it.~Muir

 

[Sinistral]

You also have the option of blackpowder at a pinch.

I've tried the .45/70 in a hammer-action SS Pedersoli repro using this stuff. Then a Marlin like your own later with full-strength factory nitro loads. I'm not bothered about recoil usually, but that one did hurt a bit.

 

[xavierdoc]

St. Nick brought my son one of those for Christmas about 8 years ago. Great shooter. The following Christmas he got a few hundred Lyman 457-122 Hollow Point cast bullets to run through it. Great gun. Posted this before, I think, but this was a typical weekend scene that winter. Makes me smile to think of it.~Muir

Lucky lad!

You also have the option of blackpowder at a pinch.

I've tried the .45/70 in a hammer-action SS Pedersoli repro using this stuff. Then a Marlin like your own later with full-strength factory nitro loads. I'm not bothered about recoil usually, but that one did hurt a bit.

Can't face the mess with BP!

 

[murrayb]

 

[mereside]

That is one stunning rifle and one I would love to have in my collection, muir thats a super picture, atb wayne

 

[The deer man]

Now you've got me thinking - it happens sometimes! Very nice rifle, I have two underlevers and now I think I want another!

 

[Harry mac]

One or two on here will remember my daliance with a 45-70. I loved it. The rifle I had was a Marlin 1895 with the standard 22" barrel and straight hand stock. Mounted with a 6x42 scope and shooting 405 grn bullets at about 1600fps it was really handy.

 

[Southern]

xavierdoc -
Here's that one with the sort of features as yours I was looking for in my photo stash, from Italy.

 

[xavierdoc]

That looks a lot more professional than my homegrown one! However, it doesn't lengthen the pull, which I wanted (mine allows a cheeky 1"-worth of recoil padding!)

 

[Southern]

I think this pad can be ordered with a soft leather buttpad with several thicknesses of recoil pad in it, but maybe not an inch, like a Decelerator would be.

After I shoot about 20 full-house loads through my .444 in a practice session, I sometimes think about replacing the hard plastic Marlin logo plate with a thin pad of Sorbothane or something, but then I forget about it.