1895 45/70

[Jon in TN]

I've been wanting a big bore for a while and today I found an 1895 in 45/70. I'm going back Monday (or maybe this afternoon) to look it over one more time and lay the money down. It is used, but appears to be in good hunting shape. Is there anything with these guns that I should pay particular attention to as far as wear and tear? Or anything else?
 
Thanks in advance.
 
Jon

[bulletstuffer]

I don't know what to check for beyond the obvious.  I bought my first one this year.  I do know it is one of my favorite rifles that I have ever owned    Casting your own bullets is definitely the way to go.  It is a huge chunk of lead coming out of that pipe    I did not scope mine as it is an awesome point and shoot gun!  Just a fun gun to shoot


Good luck,


Bulletstuffer   
 

[Jon in TN]

I don't know what to check for beyond the obvious.  I bought my first one this year.  I do know it is one of my favorite rifles that I have ever owned    Casting your own bullets is definitely the way to go.  It is a huge chunk of lead coming out of that pipe    I did not scope mine as it is an awesome point and shoot gun!  Just a fun gun to shoot


Good luck,


Bulletstuffer   

I don't think I'll scope this one either. I can't wait to shoot it! 

[bilmac]

They are pretty much the same as the M336 and it's hard to find anything to criticize. I slimmed mine down quite a bit, taking quite a bit of wood off the forearm and butstock and shortened the barrel a bit because I drug it around every day I was out in the woods in Alaska.

[GH1]

Check the rifleing to see if it's standard or Micro-Groove. MG is OK, but if you load cast bullets plan on using ones on the large side, .459" or .460".
GH1

[timothy]

You might check to see if the rear sight is canted to one side. Good luck

[Jon in TN]

It checked out and I bought. Now to find some shooting time and ammo! Any input on factory loads that these like or dislike is greatly appreciated. I'll be looking for some low powered rounds for whitetail inside of 100 yards specifically....


Thanks again,


Jon 

[tacklebury]

Don't use factory personally, but have heard good things on Rem 405's and some like the 325gr Leverevolution ammo.  I did try 2 boxes and found the latter too explosive in design for what I use.  I load my own though. 

[Jon in TN]

Don't use factory personally, but have heard good things on Rem 405's and some like the 325gr Leverevolution ammo.  I did try 2 boxes and found the latter too explosive in design for what I use.  I load my own though. 

I've been looking at the factory ammo prices and the reloading gear. This gun will have me loading my own! Do any of you use the Lee loaders or the simple hand press?

[Swampman]

Here's a great video on the Lee Loader.  If you want to reload don't buy the Hornady ammo.  The brass is too short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3duhNVjAu6E
 

[bulletstuffer]

Check out the rcbs rock chucker press.  It is solid.  Rcbs has a rebate going on until Dec 31st.


http://www.rcbs.com/pdf/RC201_WebRebateCoupon.pdf


At about $40 a box for factory ammo it doesn't take very long to pay for your reloading equipment    You will enjoy the trigger time on that 1895 so load, load, load    


Good luck,


Bulletstuffer

[qwikrick]

X 2 on the Rockchucker,  its the only press I ever needed.
 
the starter kit is a pretty good deal.
 

[tacklebury]

Don't use factory personally, but have heard good things on Rem 405's and some like the 325gr Leverevolution ammo.  I did try 2 boxes and found the latter too explosive in design for what I use.  I load my own though. 

I've been looking at the factory ammo prices and the reloading gear. This gun will have me loading my own! Do any of you use the Lee loaders or the simple hand press?

I reload all my own.  Started with the Lee Loader and quickly realized that where I live at least the noise of the rap-n-tap style combined with the occasional primer going off on me weren't working well.  It makes decent ammo, but not nearly as consistent as I wanted.  I stepped up to the Lee Handpress and have had terrific success with accuracy, consistency and zero primer failures.  I bought the press kit for $35 at Lee Factory Sales and all the Dies to load my calibers.  I started with .45LC, .45 ACP and .45-70 and have expanded to 10 calibers.  For pistol calibers I buy only deluxe sets with their correct factory crimp if one is available.  On my bottle necks, I always buy the Deluxe Rifle, so I can neck or Full length size and have each corresponding factory crimp.  I keep my rap-n-tappers for starting bullets in the ones I own though, like .45-70, .45 colt and .45 acp.  I intend to pick up one of the .223 also for starting bullets more easily and concentrically.    I load for all 10 calibers using (3) powders and BP.  Unique for pistol and low powered rifle rounds.  Reloader7 for 45-70 and other rifle loads and H110 for heavy duty handgun loads in my Blackhawk and 30 M1 Carbine.  Hope this helps you get going.  Oh and I buy and use the length trimmer every time.  I've found with some heavy duty loads brass can grow up to .03" in a single firing. 

[Rangr44]

I found a local store (not a funshop) that had some NOS Remington 300gr jacketed slugs marked @ $18.95, so I bought every one they had in stock (25 boxes).
 
The 300gr slugs work just fine on Whitetail, w/o the pronounced arcing trajectory of the 405's - which is a bit better for field & powerline stands.
.

[FTG-05]

I use 300 grain JHP almost exclusively in my 45-70 Guide gun, both factory and reloading.  I now reload for it via my Dillon RL-550b.  I use RCBS dies with a Lee Crimp die.  For deer and hogs, the 300 grain is more than enough, even loaded in Trapdoor gun levels.

I used to IMR-4198 but recently switched to Reloader 7 since it apparently was designed for the 45-70.  My load is 45 grains of R-7 but I haven't had a chance to fire them yet.  I'm hoping it will be an accurate load without a lot of recoil.

Good luck.

[GH1]

 I load for .380acp, .38/.357, .45 colt, .454-70, and occasionally .30/30 on RCBS gear that I bought used. Don't be afraid to buy used gear, it never  wears out. The only thing that will really hurt it is rust.
 As far as my .45/70 goes, I use a 405 gr cast bullet sized at .459" on top of 25 gr of AA5744. According to the folks at Accurate I'm getting about 1300 FPS. If you want a little less oomph, Trail Boss is superb in the .45-70. 14 gr should get you around 1,000 FPS I think.
 As Swampman stated, the brass from Hornady LeverEvolution is shorter than spec, about .070". You can reload it, but the only dies that will work for it are Hornady's. I unknowingly bought some at a gun show for what seemed like a great price, I then had to buy a Lee Factory crimp die and shorten it by 1/8" to get it to work. I'm still not sure if it's crimping properly but since I shoot a Handi it's no big deal. On a levergun though, proper crimp is very important.
 The greater concern with the shorter brass is load data. Reduced volume means greater pressure and while it's not a big deal in mild loads, if you like to load to the max you have to be a little more careful in your load development.
 Anyway, congratulations on your purchase and I hope you decide to take up relaoding. I find it to be a relaxing and rewarding hobby, hopefully you will too.
GH1  
 
 

[eastbank]

i own and shoot four 45-70,s and use imr 4198 or RL-7 with cast bullets. a sharps pedersoli 74 target,a winchester high wall carbine,a ruger #3 and this marlin 95. i bought the 95 marlin some time ago because unpon reading the serial number and finding it B001920(my fathers birth year) i had to have it. it was made in the first year of the new 1895 marlins. eastbank.

[bilmac]

Now there's a new reason to buy a gun, I'll have to remember to start paying more attention to those serial numbers.

[1895gunner]

It checked out and I bought. Now to find some shooting time and ammo! Any input on factory loads that these like or dislike is greatly appreciated. I'll be looking for some low powered rounds for whitetail inside of 100 yards specifically....


Thanks again,


Jon 

Jon, which model did you buy, what is the length of the barrel? Just curious.
 
1895gunner

[Greg B.]

I started with a Lee loader and it works just fine although the above posts are true. If I was starting again I would look at one of those Lee package deals with a single stage press and get a set of Lyman 45-70 dies with the neck expanding "M" die. The  45-70 "M" die has never shaved cast boolits in my reloads. If Lee includes a set of dies for free I would of course try them first.
 
Greg B.
 
 

[schuetzen]

You might check to see if the rear sight is canted to one side. Good luck

I have an 1894 that has a canted rear sight.  I haven't been able to figure out if the sight is bent to one side or if the dovetail is possibly not straight.  What is usually the cause of this?

[quasne.inc]

I just got an 1895 .45-70 from a trade.  Thinking about selling it to get a handgun, but man is it fun.  I didn't notice that the dovetail was canted until I put my skinner sight on there and it was very obvious that is was canted to the right.  It still shot to point of aim.