I fired my 45-70 Handi for the first time today. Not bad at all. I had a bar of brass .710" on diameter and 10.75" long. I used hose clamps to secure to barrel temporarily (forward of the forearm) and filled the stock bolt hole with #8 shot. Altogether, the gun weighs right at 9 pounds. Fired 3 rounds (all I had at present) of Winchester 300 grain HP loading. I figure the load was traveling 1800 fps but I didn't chronograph it, fired the gun from standing. Not bad at all. Felt about like a ported 20 guage over/under. I still wouldn't want to shoot it from a bench much with heavy loadings, but some of the fast pistol powder loadings moving at 1000-1200 fps ought to be pretty sweet. I could easily tolerate 50 rounds from standing of this load with the added weight. I am going to make a permanent clamp for the weight, I just have to allow for the fact that the barrel tapers in the wrong direction for the recoil, simple tension will always loosen. Going to make something like a scope mount, but am at present thinking of welding it to the barrel. Would not take much weld to secure it. Otherwise I will have to drill and tap the barrel to provide a keeper screw so that the clamp could not loosen under recoil (the bar slid forward after the the recoil from the 3rd shot against the tension of 3 hose clamps) but then I would have a shear condition to deal with as the barrel weight is the better part of 2 pounds. Any thoughts????

Am also seriously considering making a folding express type leaf sight for the gun, one leaf sighted "0" at 75 yards, the other "0" at 175 yards. Again, thoughts?????

JPH
I was wondering how you were going to put the weight on the front. Now I see what you did. I wonder if there is a way to hide a lot of weight in the forend?

I think the leaf sight idea is a good one. Many BC owners would probably go for it. It would be like the old days when the rifle was sighted for a particular bullet weight and velocity. Or "Loading to the Sights".

Hey, JPH, Its Loner (Formerly RBRO @ H&R), I put some #8 lead shot in the buttstock of my BC - left just a wee bit of wiggle room, then drilled out the fore-end and filled it too. Held it in place with Devcon 15 min. epoxy. Gun now weighs 10 lbs. and shoots real sweet. Got a small Pachmeyer recoil-pad on it too. I made a "filler" pad to account for the curve in the original butt plate. This seems to have done as much as anything to tame this little boomer.

Loner (Formerly RBRO over at H&R)

Light 45-70's are nothing but punishing to most. When the Army cut the Trapdoor down and made a carbine version of for the cavalry, the complaints about the recoil were so many and so loud that the army issued a 45-70 loading using just 55 grains of powder. Guessing, but I imagine that this probably brought the standard 405 bullet down form 1350 to about 1100 or so. I shot some 340 grainers today at that velocity (without the weight on the barrel)and it still recoils pretty good. I imagine a 405 would still not be comfortable to shoot. Guess I need to buck up and toughen up. Good Shooting, JP