Personally, I'd look for a pre '64 Winchester M94 ...... .30-30
Pedersoli 86/71. John Moses Browning design. Locks up like a bank vault closing. Smooth, strong, fine fit and finish. Very accurate and a very good trigger. Did I mention how smooth it is? Available in 444 Marlin and 45-70. If I had $2500 and six months to wait, it's the one I would of gotten.
Cabela's has em for $1300. Sounds to me like you need two 45-70 levers. You've got me pondering, and I need another gun right now like I need a whole in the head. Last one I ordered won't be here for a year yet...
That Pedersoli at Cabelas was the single smoothset, best fit and finish lever gun I looked at. They had a Winchester / Miroku in 38-55 on the rack right next to it that was nice, but not in the same ball park.
Very purty gun. I love the stainless/walnut look, why I don't have one yet is beyond me...
I think you're on to something there! Although if that were always the case I wouldn't have ordered a hand made Shiloh Sharps 1874 in 45-70 that I won't see for another year..
Mmmm-mmm! A Shilo! The lead time is up to a year now? I've heard that those shoot extremely well. Are you going to load that with black powder or smokeless? Paper patched? I do that with my 458 win mag. And we have to see pictures, of course, when it gets here.
It's actually 18-19 months from date of order! Craziness, but I can't wait. Black powder of course, I feel it would be an injustice to put smokeless in a gun like that. I'm going to start with grease grooves and maybe try some paper patched down the road after I've got a load or two figured out that shoot well. You paper patch for your 458? How tedious really is it?
It goes pretty quick, once you get all the details worked out. And there's a lot of them to fiddle with. The results are simply outstanding though. I'm shooting soft cast at +150 - 200 fps over jacketed velocities with lower chamber pressure . And the groups shrank by half or more from the factory target. Look for a book called "The Paper Jacket" to get started. It's cool to play with.
I'd heard of people getting some good results paper patching but that is outstanding, I'll have to look into it. I've done some reading on it, but may have to reevaluate my laziness and just bite the bullet. Would really be bringing it back to the olden days.
That Marlin has seen some love! I was having a hard time getting into a Marlin lever gun. I wasn't convinced that the mechanism locked up as strongly as it could / should. Then there's the way the lever is hung off the bottom of the action. That bothered me.
