I was pleased to find out that the throat on my new Gibbs 45-70 Bolt action was long enough to have a local commercial reloader load 500 gr Hornaday's at the crimp line for a total length of about 2.9" (could have been even pushed a little further). If anyone is not familure with it, it is based on a Enfield #4 mark I, with a new 22" barrel by Navy Arms which is much thicker than the one on my 45-70 Marlin 1895SS.I tend to go with lever action guns and rationalized this because it looks so much like the various Remington-Lee bolt action 45-70s made in the 1880s and 1890s (as high lighted in the current issue of "American Rifleman").

How does it shoot, and does the magazine work well?

I think all SMLE's should be changed to 45-70 or better
yet 45-90.Way to getincreased numbers of big bore nuts.Ed.

Swampfox:
I have not shot it yet. The magazine works very well with the 45-70 500 gr Hornaday bullet @ the crimp mark (oal about 2.93"). Gibbs does not advertize the longer throat, but it not surprizing that magazine works fine with the longer rounds because the rifle/magazine was converted from a rimmed British .303 Enfield #4 mark I action that had an oal of 3.05". The Gibbs 45-70 bolt action rifle had a write-up saying how well the action and magzine fuctioned in the September 2003 edition of the "American Rifleman" (though I'm sure Gibbs would make sure the Rifle shipped for testing was perfect). Today I found out that extremely flat 550 gr hardcast bullets could only by loaded to an oal of 2.8" (including backing slightly off from the max possible with the 550 gr bullet).