Recoil with the 45-70
Hi guys, Just reading over a few posts and ran onto ths subject.As you can see by the name I'm fairly familar with this cart.I have quite a few 45-70's,from a new Win.86, back to original trap doors and pretty well everthing in between I use one of those "Past" shields for shooting prone in tgt. matchs,but standing,sitting etc. just use whats on the gun I'm only a small man,170 lb's and will be 60 in the spring.I learned to shoot like most of us ,half assed and forget how many times you miss the tin can.But once I joined the military they taught me a few tricks about hold etc.that helped a lot and once I got on the rifle team I really started to learn.One of the guys mentioned about sitting up straighter at the shooting bench which is a very good point,if you get a chance to look at any Pics. of the "Rigby"guys zeroing double rifles you will see that thier shooting bench is high enough so they are STANDING behind the gun!!I built one like that out at our range and now come hunting season every one is lined up to use it.As for normal shooting I.E.kneeling sitting and off hand ,remember to "get into the gun" as the S. Africians say, in other words pull the gun HARD into your shoulder and place your face HARD down on the stock ,use enough force so your muscles are shaking ,then back off just to the point where they stop.You shold practise this even when you are dry firing at home and with ever gun you shoot, after a short time it well become automatic to do this even with a 22 and you while be able to do it fast without thinking about it .You will find by using this method that few rifles below 458 Wins. will be be a problem and will NOT bruiseYour shoulder.If you think 38g's of 3031 is bad in a Ruger try Elmer Keith's standard load of 50 grains of 3031 this will get your attention!I find that it kicks more than a full house load in My Ruger 458 mostly because the little gun is light and can relly get up some recoil velocity unless you really get a hold of it.That little 95 Marlin can also hop around a touch if you don't hang on .Acouple of ponts on saftey etc. before I shut up and let some else talk .If you have both old and new guns and you are loading heavy for the new ones the easiest way I have found to keep the loads separate is to use nickle brass for your heavy loads and normal for the others.One more note on recoil ,don't try to out macho it, every one seems to have a different level of tolerance[In My expreince little guys seem to do as well or better than big guys]I think it has to do with the fact that bigger people tend to absorb more where a little guy just gets pushed back.Also remember that is has been pretty well proven at this point that very heavy recoil over a prolonged period of time can lead to neck problems {I have it and it is not fun],and also there is some evidence that it can lead to detached retina's.Which has happened to a couple of famous gun writers.The 45-70 is a great crg.that can shoot thogh a hell of a lot more tin than a couple of car doors when loaded with hard bullets,and can whistle though any elk or moose from end to end that ever walked.So hang on and enjoy your selfs.In closing ,if any one out there has a Winchester-Hostchkiss in shooting shape and would like to give it a good home I'm in the market thanks Larry
