Browning 1885 High Wall 45-70 BPCR

[IMAT]

Thinking of buying trade for a Browning 1885 High Wall 45-70 BPCR any info on these rifles would be a help suppose to be only 125 made what are they worth today would it be good to hunt with or is it just a target gun, comes with an old style repo scope

Thanks
IMAT

 

[gunlaker]

I have a couple. There were actually more than 125 made though, although there are some versions that were made in very limited quantities ( 34" barreled .45-90 and the .50-90 for instance ). For the 1885 purist they aren't quite right, but are an excellent and accurate black powder target rifle. The triggers are a bit on the heavy side for a target rifle, but you can get used to them. They are a bit heavy for a hunting rifle I suspect, as the 30" .45-70 is a little north of 11lbs.

They are great rifles and I'm happy with mine.

Chris.

 

[BigUglyMan]

Yeah, great rifles but not the best to hunt with but plenty accurate for LR shooting and BPCR thought not quite right historically.

 

[superted]

If this is the same gun I made the HUGE mistake of buying many years ago - AND you want to use it for long range BPCR shooting - make sure the gun has a metal upper tang onto which you can affix a vernier tang sight AND has a reliable trigger mechanism which isn't dependent on a tiny coiled spring which has a nasty habit of coming apart AND which is even a NASTIER little Booger to repair/replace. DO NOT think you are getting a repro of an original Browning/Winchester 1885 HiWall!!!!!

 

[gunlaker]

The BPCR models have a proper upper tang and are pre-drilled. Be wary of most reproductions of the old scopes unless made by MVA. Most are junk. The factory Soule and globe sights are not quite top notch, but are pretty good.

To give you an idea of the potential accuracy of these rifles I've attached my most recent target. Ten shots at 200m. Seven of the ten are in a 2.5" group which is well under 1.5moa. The three shots on the left were caused by poor recoil management. That's the trick to shooting black powder rifles IMO.

The target was shot using the factory aperture sights. The bullet was a Buffalo Arms 535gr "Money Bullet" cast in 20:1 loaded over 68gr of Goex FFFg Express.

Chris.