New to me Buffalo Classic

[n5lyc]

Well, I joined the 45-70 club (again)
I owned a Siamese 45-70 bolt gun years ago, and briefly a refinished 1886 Winchester.
But neither really struck my fancy too much.


I found a buffalo classic on a Facebook trader page for sale/trade.

I offered a marlin model .22 rifle and 2 bricks of ammo.
He took it.

I also got 2 boxes of ammo with it.

I took it to the range today, shooting Remington 300gr hollow points.
Off of a rest at 100 yards factory sights, it took a little adjusting to bring it on target.



I can say with the metal butplate, it can wear you down some with a lot of shooting.

Offhand, it shoots close to where it needs to be.

100 yards offhand, is a little high, but I can use more practice.


These 3 shots were fired with the Hornady leverolution. 325gr with no sight adjustments.
I can tell you these rounds get meat on both ends!!

The factory sights are ok, I am not to sure if I like the fact there are no click adjustments.

You loosen a set screw, and move the sight, then tighten the set screw.

It is easy to accidentally go too far and have to go back the other way.

And at $1.50 a shot (until I reload these cases Monday) it can get expensive, and hard on the shoulder.

There is not too much elevation left on the factory sights, so if you intend to go much past 150yds, you will want a tang sight, (my two friends shooting with me today have H&R .38-55's with tang sights, mounted half on the receiver/inletted into the stock) they seem to shoot well.

All in all, I like it, the fact I only have about $100 in it makes me like it even better.

I think it is a keeper.

45 Bravo

[Geezerbiker]

I bought a new .45-70 Handi rifle early spring. I made it into a target model like they used to offer. It came with a plastic stock and I swapped it out for wood then replaced the rear sight with a Lyman TK peep sight.

Here's a pic of it next to a H&R 12gauge shotgun


I found that shotgun on sale a BiMart store and it had really nice wood on it. So I bought it and swapped stocks with the .45-70. Now I need to put a recoil pad on the .45-70.

Here's a target from my first outing with it at 50 yards.


These were from an experimental load with 230g cast bullets for the .45 ACP teflon patched and loaded over 10 grains of Unique. It's a little more than a gallery load but plenty of fun and good for getting used to a new rifle...

Anyway it looks like you're going to like yours as much and I do mine...

For what it's worth, I've found that the hammer spur extension slows lock time. I won't use them even on my 2 scoped Handi rifles...

Tony

[ThomasT]

Geezerbiker can you give more detail about "Teflon" patching? I have never heard of that before. Also your Lyman peep sight looks an awful lot like a Williams peep sight.

[n5lyc]

Nice, I intend to down load some in the future just for plinking.

I like the looks of the long barrel.
And am kind of on the fence on the shorter barrel.

I do know I want to keep the peep sight arrangements as it is what is on my target .22

[Geezerbiker]

Ratshooter, you're right about the peep. I get those mixed up. I'd say it's a senior thing but I've been doing crap like that as long as I can remember...

The patching with teflon tape came about while I was looking into paper patching. I never could get paper patching to work and I had this new rifle, brass primers and powder but no bullets.

I had plenty of .452 bullets that I cast for my M1911a1 and I first knurled up some and planned to fill the grooves with Alox but it didn't seem like a good idea. Then I started reading a forum on paper patching and saw a post about teflon tape. So I dug some up and tried it. They looked good and measured about .460 so I loaded up 50 just to see if it worked. I think knurling the bullets made rolling on the teflon tape easier and I would do this step again when I make more. This is really as easy as I make it out to be.

When I went shooting I had just installed the peep and I had not yet fired the rifle. I lined the peep up with the notch in the old rear site then removed it. I figured it wouldn't be very close but that target was the first 4 rounds I fired from a sitting position shooting off hand. I forgot to bring a screwdriver the right size so I couldn't loosen the lock screws to dial it in. It was close enough that I could compensate for it and I had a great time that day. I had this old ratty can of Coors that I found in my house when I bought the place last year and I was hoping it wouldn't corrode through before I could shoot it. I nailed it dead center the first shot. I have to say that in all the guns I've had over the years, I've never had one start out this close to point of aim and this one had lots of reasons not to...

I've since acquired a few molds for this rifle and bought some 405 cast bullets to shoot out of it. I'm very pleased with this rifle as a cast bullet shooter and I don't plan to ever put jacket bullets down the barrel on this one. I also don't plan to ever load it hotter than BP equivalent loads even though it's strong as any lever gun and pretty close to Ruger #1... It's dialed in now and I really need to find more time to take it out and shoot it. It's most certainly a keeper...

I originally bought a second hand .44 mag Handi rifle for this purpose but it never shot cast well so I traded it off. It shot full house jacketed bullet loads just fine but that's not what I wanted it for...

Tony

[ThomasT]

Thanks for the update Tony. I never heard of teflon TAPE for patching. What a great idea. Thats why I get up every morning because I learn something new everyday. I got interested in paper patching bullets after Ross Seyfried wrote several articles on doing it. I bought a paper cutter but that was as far as I got with it.

Marlin made the barrels for H&R and I bet your 44mag barrel had micro grooves and I know for sure it had the 1/38 twist and unless you use oversized, hardened lead bullets they normally will not shoot lead bullets well. I wish marlin would change the twist in the 44 mag like they did in the 444 marlin to a 1/20 twist with the ballard rifling. But I doubt it will ever happen.

[Jim Watson]

Keep your Hornady and Remington brass separate.
As blunt as the rubbernose bullets are, Hornady still had to use short brass to get them to run through the actions of repeaters. So it will not load just the same as regulation .45-70.

[n5lyc]

Yea I figured the case length difference out when I started de-priming them.

I may use the hornady brass for light loads only.

At this point in time, I only have 20 rounds of hornady that came with the gun, and 14 of those are still unfired.

I am buying saturday another 60 rounds of once fired remington brass, some projectiles and primers from a craigslist seller.
(60 rounds of once fired brass, 200 of the 300gr hollowpoints, 200 primers, and a set of 45-70 Lyman dies all for $30)
I just have to drive 50 miles to get it, but the wife's car gets 40+mpg.

[Geezerbiker]

I think the problem was mostly the 1 in 38 twist in the .44 mag. The .45-70 is 1 in 20 and while shallow, it's not quite micro groove.

Teflon tape patching wasn't my idea, I read about someone trying it but not posting results. I figured I didn't have much to loose and I love an experiment...

I ordered several rolls of 1" wide teflon tape for further patching. I've since found that tape for gas fittings is thicker and tape for compresses air is thicker yet. I've not tried any of the thicker tape but I might get round to it...

BTW, the odd effect is tiny snow like flakes of teflon raining down after each shot...

I posted all about it here.

Tony

[ThomasT]

Hello Tony. I read your link to Greybeard. Thats neat. I am racking my brain trying to think of something I can wrap with tape to try this out. I may have to buy a new gun just to do this.

The 44 mag info I mentioned was in response to the 44 mag handi you mentioned in post #5, not the 45/70.

I do have several 32 mad revolvers and a 32 mag rifle. I may try wrapping some .308 110gr bullets and see how those work. They don't shoot worth a darn in my 30-30. I think the twist is too fast.

[Geezerbiker]

I got it that you were talking about the .44 mag. It was a good shooter with jacketed bullets and hot loads but I wanted something more flexible than that...

I've been thinking about patching up .308 bullets for my 7.7mm Arisaka but I probably won't get around to it until winter...

Tony

[TomADC]

Had one in 38-55 lot of fun to shoot. I only shot reloads with cast bullets in mine but it was a good one.

[n5lyc]

Well, cruising Facebook (again) I found a lady selling some 45/70 stuff.

I bought a set of Lyman dies, 60 rounds of once fired winchester brass, 300 of the 325 gr jacketed hollowpoint projectiles, and 300 primers.

Apparently left by her ex when he moved out..
All for the asking price of $30

I guess I will see how it shoots with black powder and the hollow points.

Then load some smokeless..

[TomADC]

I load smokeless with 3031, Varget & Trail Boss.