I was at my local gun shop today looking for another Contender frame. He had one with a 16" ported 45-70 barrel on it. The price was right, so I bought it. I have never shot a 45-70 before. The largest I have shot was a .44 magnum. I was planning on selling the barrel and just keeping the frame. Then I thought that I should at least try it first ... anyone have any words of wisdom or anything else they want to share about this chambering out of the Contender. I will pick it up Monday, and am looking for any information about it. I'm sure there are several people on this site with expirience on this subject.

Thanks ahead of time.

Greg

I have a friend that wanted and I quote "The biggest and meanest contender there is" so I bought a 14" 45-70 hunter barrel and put it on one of my old stainless frames and sold it to him. I had to sight in a scope on it for him. I couldn’t believe how manageable the recoil was with factory ammo. I expected it to give me broke wrist on the first shot but I shot 10 rounds in 30minutes before it started to get uncomfortable. For me the 45-70 with a muzzle break was about the same as a 35remington without a muzzle break. Try it you might like it.

I would recommend you stay with the Trapdoor loads for a while. It can certainly be revved up some, but there is really not need to for whitetails and black bears. My barrel is not ported and I like it that way.

I love mine. It's a 12" ported barrell. I don't reload all I shoot is Remington 300gr factory loads.

the advice from MSHitman is good, stay with trapdoor load data if you hand load or any mainline factory ammo until you get used to it and then start working up if you think you want more power. I had a factory non ported barrel and an ssk ported and the porting made even my hot loads nice to shoot but the factory barrel with big 440gr's scooting along was miserable to shoot.

According to the techs at TC, Trapdoor loads are the only loads you should use in a Contender. The best thing about the .45-70 is how much power you get with low pressures resulting in fairly mild recoil. H4198 gives high velocities and low pressures with Trapdoor loads. IMR4198 runs at higher pressures so don't match H4198 data with IMR4198. My favorite load will match Winchesters factory load rifle velocities using a 14" (12"+2" brake) barrel. I hope you enjoy the new gun!

Here is some handgun data from Hodgdons site showing how well H4198 stacks up against other powders for velocity and pressure. These loads are for a 300 gr Sierra .458" JHP.

Varget 57.0 1512fps 16,300 CUP 63.0C 1821fps 23,800 CUP

H335 57.0 1645fps 17,500 CUP 63.5 1926fps 27,400 CUP

H4895 58.0 1654fps 16,500 CUP 62.0C 1874fps 21,000 CUP

H322 54.0 1699fps 18,100 CUP 60.0 1940fps 28,000 CUP

H4198 45.0 1774fps 16,700 CUP 55.0 2076fps 27,600 CUP

This load is safe in my barrel but may not be in others. Start low and work up. This is a 5 shot group.

I ran mine up to modern lever gun loads but I didn't shoot it alot so I don't know if it would have eventually taken a toll or not. I know they were hard on the wrists, especially on the non ported barrel but I liked my BFR better, it would handle heavier loads (Ruger #1) and was more accurate as well as holds more rounds but I didn't like the bulk and weight of the gun

Try it, you might like it. I've had a 12" ported barrel for 17 years, and shoot 400's in it for 1360 fps using IMR 3031, but it's not much fun with loads that heavy. Trapdoor strength loads are much more comfortable until you need the heavy loads for truly big game.
I was also given a 6 1/2" (not a typo) barrel several years ago, and WHOA,MOMMA it is truly, uh...invigorating!

I think I will venture out to Gander Mnt. today and pick up a box of shells. Probably something in the 300grn. range just to try. If I think it is something I might want to use for hunting, I will reload for it. I have read some horror stories about shooting this caliber out of a handgun ... I have a 30-06 encore and used to have a .44 mag. barrel for my contender, but that is the biggest pistol round that I have fired. I have never had any problems with recoil before, but I do enjoy shooting, and would like to keep it that way! If I don't mind the recoil and can shoot 3 inch groups at 50 yards with open sights, I might keep it around for an extra deer barrel. If I don't like it, I will most likeley post it for sale on this site.

if your shooting the 06 encore with no problems you should be fine, I've shot both and the 45-70 is only worse with a non ported barrel and heavy loads with heavy bullets.

500WE, The 45-70 cartridge is almost as long as that 6 1/2" barrel. That truely must be some experience to shoot....

I picked it up tonight and put 12 rounds through it. Not bad. I put a 3 inch bullseye target on a stack of 4 thick phonebooks. Made it almost through three of them. I shot at 25 yards. I prepared myself for the worst, so to my surprise, it wasn't bad at all. I did do some minor adjustments to the sights, but all in all it was a good expirience. I am already thinking about putting a spare 2X luepold on it soon. I checked Remingtons ballistics for it. here is what they listed.

Short-Range Trajectory
Cartridge Type Bullet 50 100 150 200 250 300
Remington® Express® 300 JHP zero -1.3 -6.6 -16.5 -32.0 -54.1
Remington® Express® 405 SP zero -4.0 -14.5 -32.0 -57.5 -90.6


Long-Range Trajectory
Cartridge Type Bullet 100 150 200 250 300 400 500
Remington® Express® 300 JHP zero -4.6 -13.8 -28.6 -50.1 -115.7 - 219.1
Remington® Express® 405 SP zero -8.5 -24.0 -47.4 -78.6 -169.4 - 301.3

Also, as you might expect, energy is over 1000 ft lbs at 150 yards. I might have to keep this around for an extra deer barrel. Maybe I might even get an opportunity to use it on pigs someday!

Hunlee has nice new 45-70 barrel from Tc!!!!!!First barrel that hunlee have didnot shoot worth crap!!!!!!!Hunlee package said barrel up an returned back to TC but this time when receved new barrel from them TC 45-70 show better grouping on paper!!!!!!Hunlee is thinking 45-70 will strike like thunder!!!!!!

hunlee

I just posted a couple of pictures on the bragging board of my gun and also a comparison of the 45-70 and the .17 HMR. I think if I put my 2X Luepold on the 45-70 barrel that it should be a great gun at about 100 yards to maybe 125 max. before you start getting into quite a bit of drop ... I was also checking my TC reloading manual. They only list Hornady and seirra bullets ... This barrel might be the HUGE hammer in my arsenal!

The ballistics and velocities on Remingtons site are from a 24" barrel. If you handload, you can get quite a bit more out of it than what the standard factory loads will do. Glad to hear you like it, its a great round!

leasongs.....I have an extra set of dies in my cabinet. Let me know if you are interested.

Shoot, I ordered a set from Cabelas on Monday ... Thanks for the offer though!

I talked to guy at the gun shop tonight and he told me that he liked the 45-70 because you can shoot 410, 460, 454, and 45 long colt all out of the 45-70 barrel ... has anyone ever tried this? I guess the diameter would work, but isn't case length an issue?

besides the case length issue the 45-70 is .458 and the rest of those are .452

right. 0.006 inches smaller ... just checking, because I have never heard it from anyone else before. I didn't think it was something that was commonly done ... is it even safe?

I personally wouldn't do it, I doubt the gun would fail but you'll have a ton of free space between the bullet and throat that will carbon up and accuracy I would imagine will be laughable.

Thanks. That's pretty much what I was thinking.

I don't think this guy knows what he is talking about. Compare the measurments of .45 Colt, .454 Casull and .460 S&W brass vs .45-70 brass. Even if the Contender could handle .454 and .460 rounds (it won't), the cases would be blown out or split and useless.

I didn't catch that the guy was still talking about contenders so Pab is exactly right the 454 and 460 operate a twice the pressure a contender is designed to so you would have major problems. If that's what this guy told you then he shouldn't be selling guns. I figured when you brought up those two rounds he must be talking about a bfr or encore.

it wasn't the guy who owns the place, just someone who was there.

ah, one of them. Well next time you see him he may be minus a finger or two with that line of thinking. I have heard some scary stuff come out of the mouths of guys behind gun counters so it wouldn't have surprised me had he worked there.

I sighted in for 50 yards yesterday just before dark. I thought I did pretty well. it only took 3 shots to get in the black. I only ended up firing 7 rounds before I lost light. Maybe I can get out for a little bit today yet. I have two stacks of phone books I want to expiriment on. I want to shoot one at 50 yards and one at 100 and see what the penitration and expansion difference is. If I have time I will post pics.

well, I will put some pictures on the bragging board. I can't figure out how to put them on this thread. I think I must be a little wiggly today. My 50 yard shot was high and my 100 yard shot was left ... I guess that how it goes some days. The expansion on the rounds recovered from the phone books was excesive. The 50 yard skug pretty much came apart. the 100 yard slug almost did. I guess dry phone books are too dense for this test.

Gun shop Rambo's like this are scarry!!! Always question free advise that sounds too good to be true.

"The guy at the gun shop" is an idiot. Given his statement, you should probably listen to NOTHING he says.