[Jeff Higgins]

Many .44 caliber lever guns needlessly stick to tradition and utilize the rifling twist rate of the original Model 1873 Winchester in .44-40 caliber. The .44-40 uses a very light for caliber bullet, a stubby little 200 grain semi round nose. Since it is so short, Winchester was able to get away with a very slow twist, like 1:38". Unfortunately, Winchester and Marlin (and I suspect Henry, but I'm not sure) have carried on with this twist rate for their modern .44 mag lever guns. As a result, many will not even stabilize factory 240 grain bullets. Forget the 300 grain and heavier bullets, these rifles are pretty hopeless with them.

Winchester finally corrected this problem with their latest issue Miroku made Model 92 in .44 mag. It has a far more useful 1:22" twist, so it will stabilize those long 300 grain bullets.

The .38 Special / .357 mag versions of the Marlin 1894 and Winchester Model 92 have always had a proper fast twist, since there never was a .38 caliber lever gun back in the 19th century through which future production would be influenced. Oh, there was the .38-40 WCF, but don't let that fool you - they use .410" diameter bullets.

Modern .45 Colt examples suffer this same slow twist problem, which I find odd. You see, there was never a .45 Colt lever gun back in the day either. The original rim was simply too small to allow it to function in a lever gun. It was not until Colt increased its rim size so that the star extractor in their double action New Service revolver would work with them that the .45 Colt became viable as a lever gun round. Even then, it took until the 1980's or so for Marlin to start chambering it. They had no reason to go with the slow twist by then, but they did. Mine is thereby limited to bullets no heavier than 250 grains or so.

And yes, .45-70 lever guns can kick. Factory loads meant for the old Trapdoor Springfield, 400 grain bullets at 1,300 fps or so, are relative pussycats to shoot. The Marlin 1895, new production Winchester 1886's, Ruger #1's, and that Henry single shot (which is no more than the old H&R Handi Rifle), can take substantially heavier loads. These are the only loads wherein I found myself to be the "limit", and not the pressures the rifle would accept. Just to see, just to understand where the "maximum" load really lays, I worked up to it in my Marlin 1895 and Winchester 1886.

I stopped after having eclipsed 2,000 fps with a 410-ish grain hard cast, gas checked bullet from the RCBS .45-400 GC mold. Holy Mother of God - the slim stocks, relatively "light" weight, and comb profiles of those rifles made them extremely punishing with those loads. And I'm a guy who shoots 500 grain bullets from my long throated .458 Winchester Magnum chambered Ruger #1 at almost 2,200 fps. It's different stock profile, along with two pounds more weight make it far more "comfortable" than those .45-70's. So I backed way off to just about 1,750 fps and am much, much happier. Still pretty snappy, but not nearly as punishing anymore.

So, yeah, the .45-70 has multiple personalities, depending on what you are after. With its heavier loads, I would say its effectiveness on game rivals that of my beloved .375 H&H Magnums. It doesn't have the range, but out to 120, 150 yards or so, it's a wash. Load it down to standard factory velocities, and it really is a pussycat, and a pretty fun plinker with those big old bullets. And still very, very effective on medium game. It's a great cartridge, that can do a lot of things.