Parabola: I stand corrected, the Hornady's I'm using are indeed 200-grain (not 250). The Gart Brothers were clearing out their Sportscastle here in Denver many years ago and I stocked-up because they were dirt cheap. As you also mentioned, resizing .45-70 brass down to .33 WCF is a two-stage process that requires annealing in-between (to avoid splitting the case upon the first use). A very pleasant rifle to shoot (recoil is almost nothing) and very consistent. The later M71 (which replaced the 1886) in .348 would belt you hard every time.
My Great-grandfather Preston (known locally as "Pedro") was evidently quite the horse-trader when it came to guns, but he never turned-loose of this one. He bought it new in Franklin, Pennsylvania (at the very end of 1886 production) and kept it until his passing in the early 1950s. With it's shotgun stock and ivory-tipped front sight (& the Lyman running sight he later added) it's a very fast mounting & shooting rifle that both he (& later my father) used very successfully on whitetails in the big hardwood forests of Venango County.
This one's been used on moose in Canada (lent to a family friend in the late 1940s), elk, and even a canned-hunt buffalo here in Colorado, but a fallow deer (in the UK even!) is quite unique. There can't be many still in regular use.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 12/06/22 01:41 PM.
