The Best 45-70 lever action rifle??

Pedersoli Model 86/71 Lever Action Boarbuster comes in 45-70 or 444. This just might be the ticket for your needs.
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Mount Sweetness said:
It will be a black bear gun. In and out of the truck following hounds through the thick Bush, close range shots on treed bear.
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Ruger #1,, it's almost a lever,,, lol.
For a treed bear you only need one poke anyway and they are easy to find with the quality walnut you are looking for.
 
Yeah, it's looks like we are onto something now. The Winchester 1886 is the ticket..
Problem is, I'm not a fan of the curved crescent buttplate....hate them, they just hurt me! I don't shoulder a gun like that, I don't have that cookie cutter shoulder pocket..
 
vb_spike said:
Loved my Marlin 1895sbl. The wood was great, the feed was great and the recoil was minimal. I loved blasting that thing, except the cost to feed it lol. It didn't have the straight stock either. The pistol grip made it way better than any of the cowboy straight stock versions I handled. Better geometry.

Only issue I had with mine was a stiff as hell and sharp
loading gate. Shaved the top of my thumb with it twice. Stiff enough to shave the brass while I was loading. Sold it with that disclosure but if I'd kept it, I'd have needed to shave that spring or work it like a dog.
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Peter at Rusty Woods lessened the gate spring, took the trigger pull down so you needn't hang a moose on it to touch it off, and polished/syched the internals. Completely different rifle, unfortunately, i am now into it for more than i could ever recover by selling it. Not that i mind, its a keeper.
 
My Brother bought 2 Marlin 1895 CB in .45-70, one for each of us. (My brother is an awesome guy.) I did some deburring and polishing of the internals, had a brass magazine follower milled, wrapped the lever in leather and installed a Lyman No 2 Tang Sight on my rifle. I'm very happy with the gun now, however I must say that the fit and finish aren't what you saw on the JM Marlins. It's reliable and accurate now, I did have some issues with cartridges jamming as they came out of the magazine tube initially, but it seems to be dead reliable now. I've been shooting mostly 350 gr RNFP at about 1100fps for plinking and it puts them in the same hole at 50 yards when I do my part. Leverevolution 325 gr seems just as accurate, but man it kills the shoulder in that light rifle when shooting off the bench. I just love having 9+1 rounds of .45-70, more than I would likely ever need.
 
TaylorJW said:
Ruger #1,, it's almost a lever,,, lol.
For a treed bear you only need one poke anyway and they are easy to find with the quality walnut you are looking for.
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yes you only need one shot.....until you need a 2nd shot for that “shot dead” bear that hits the ground running with several dogs and people on the ground in its path.Fast handling lever will have a 2nd round chambered before that bear even hits the ground.
Classic tube fed levers are a PITA for run n gun type hunting where you might be in and out of truck several times/day.As much as i like the looks and style of the classics,a mag fed rifle is much more convenient for this,and if you insist on a lever,i don’t know if there’s many(any?) other options aside from BLR?
 
Sharps '74 said:
Amen! I have a Browning '86 rifle and a [JM] Marlin. The Marlin isn't in the same league. The '86 takes down rams at 200m with the barrel sights.
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I have two 86's that are the same way, an original 1889 offering & a new era jap in 45-90...but I have 5 Marlins, 4 from 1884 to 1896 manuf. to a newer CB version (this one will clover leaf at 100 yrds with the right ammo) that will also do that so what league do they go in ???
 
The best 45-70 lever rifle for me is my Pedersoli 86/71 w/bolt mounted peep sight. The bugger shoots cast boolit loads tighter than any of my previous 45's and the generous sized & well designed butt pad really makes for pleasant shooting. Fit & finish is great & the action is slick. Nice rifles fer the money. No added safety or legal garb on the barrel to boot.:cool:

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The Pedersoli 1886 Sporting is a work of art. :)
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I think about replacing this with a 16.5" trapper model now and then, but can't make myself get rid of a JM stamped marlin. It is pretty handy, but if a sleek 1886 carries like a long slender sword, the BL carries like a chopping maul...

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DMS1 said:
I think about replacing this with a 16.5" trapper model now and then, but can't make myself get rid of a JM stamped marlin. It is pretty handy, but if a sleek 1886 carries like a long slender sword, the BL carries like a chopping maul...

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^ Great analogy! The 16.5-inch gun would be a sweetheart, but there is no way I will sell the 18.5 incher I have just to get one, and I'm not buying yet another to add to the list.

I have two .45-70's left, and just can't bring myself to sell either. The "best" one, in terms of practicality, is a JM-marked 1895SBL. Bought it slightly used at an outstanding price, from a guy who had just learned that he was terrified of recoil. It was the ugliest levergun I had ever seen...still is, IMHO...and I intended to try it out and quickly flip it. Still have it; absolutely one of the best-handling, best-shooting, most accurate and all-around most useful levers I have ever owned. I usually use it with a scout scope, and simply can't say enough good things about this rifle. If only it weren't so butt-ugly, I would probably be able to sell...

...the other gun, which is a Winchester-marked model 1886 (recent Miroku gun). I had owned a similar gun, an older Browning-marked gun, which I loved dearly...but the crescent buttplate bugged me. When plinking or shooting targets, it's easy to remember that the crescent is designed to be held out on top of the shoulder joint, rather than in the "pocket" which is typically the hold used on shotgun-style buttplates. Held properly, it's easy to shoot...but I had several instances of quick shots taken while hunting, when I instinctively held the butt in my shoulder pocket and didn't like the results. When I sold a bunch of guns, I let this one go for that single reason. But recently, I found the Winchester-marked gun, and it's a treat. Somebody...not Bubba, but an actual talented worker...replaced the crescent with a straight rubber pad, and managed to keep the length of pull correct. It's got that nasty tang safety, but came with a tang sight which mounts over top of the safety and almost completely covers it, but allows you to barely reach it in case the time ever comes that you think you need to engage it. Sounds goofy, but looks and works pretty slick. The rifle is a takedown, using the original style mechanism that involves unscrewing the magazine tube to remove the barrel. I like it! I can't shoot it quite as well as I can the SBL, but if it had a scope...which it never will...I don't think the accuracy would be significantly poorer than the Marlin. I can use the irons well enough for any hunting I intend to use it for, and dis-assembly/re-assembly usually brings it back to within about 1 MOA of where it started, so I'm happy with it.
 
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