45/70 feedback needed

[olywa]

I'm moving more and more towards low-pressure cartridges because they are so pleasant to shoot. I generally grab my 30-30 or 7x57 when I need a rifle, and I've been playing around with sub-sonic heavy-for-caliber loads in my 357 and 44 Mag revolvers and Contender barrels. So now I'm farting around with the idea of getting a 23" bull barrel in 45-70 for my G2 Contender. I want to load 400-500gr hardcast spitzers at 950-1050fps. Kind of a 45 Whisper I guess.

Are any of you guys doing this already? I'm curious as to how manageable the Contender is in 45-70 at low velocities but with pretty heavy bullets. Would I be better off using the Encore platform? Any personal experience would be greatly appreciated.

[woodchukhntr]

Although I don't have a .45-70 barrel for my Contender carbine, I'm loading Hornady 300 gr. bullets at an estimated 1500 fps in an older Handi rifle without a recoil pad and they are not too bad to shoot.  I have shot 405 grain cast bullets at lower velocities without problems also.  I would expect that the Contender would work just fine with the lower velocity loads that you want, and it would not be worth getting an Encore just for this purpose.

I am kind of on the same path as you are and am looking for a .30-30 barrel for my Contender carbine so I can play around with low to medium velocity cast bullet loads for much of my shooting.  Who needs a .375 whiz-bang super magnum?  I intend to set the scope base forward with a pistol scope in a "scout" configuration  like I have done with my .45-70 Handi.  It works really well and you never have to worry about getting whacked in the head with the scope.

[olywa]

Thanks for getting back to me Woodchukhntr. I think I'll start looking for a barrel so I can start working up some loads. I like your Scout scope idea but will probably use a fixed 2.5X to start with.