I'm really wanting something in 45-70, and maybe even converting it to 50-90 in the future. I've been looking at the full length Browning 1886 to use with black power loads. ( the smoke sounds fun). How accurate can these be ? Also I'll need some long range sights, has anybody used the adjustibal tang sights by Montana ?


Update: just ordered a like new Browning 1886 in 45-70 with the 26" octagon barrel for $950. It should be here sometime next week. I plan on taking it grizzly and black bear hunting this fall. Does anyone know if the standard sights are the same quality as Marbles brand ? Any suggestions on upgrades from folks that own a 1886 would be apriciated.

I don't shoot blackpowder anything anymore, but with black powder, large-capacity cartridge guns can be just ungodly accurate simply due to the large charges being so close to exactly identical; the large charges make it easier to be consistent. Put another way, a half-grain variance is a much smaller difference in a 150-grain loading than it is in a 70-grain loading.

I remember an article years ago with Mike Venturino and Hank Williams, Jr. shooting black powder guns on steel rams out to 900 yards iirc. While they were lobbing the rounds with quite an arc in at that range, they were lobbing pretty uniformly due to the consistency achievable with large-volume powder charges.

such an arc at that range, you can almost call it indirect fire.

.458" SOCOM on black powder?  

I have seen some impressive results on paper from Turnbull Custom 1886s.

I personally prefer the balance of the Marlin. My WWG take-down hovers in the 1-1 1/2 MOA realm. I particularly like the ability to stow it out of sight, easily fitting in the wheel well storage of my midsize SUV.  The idea of a .450 Alaskan or .510 Kodiak is appealing, but it would be merely for the grin factor.

PC

Fwiw, I got to trying to remember the details of that old article, and was actually able to find a re-hash of it that Venturino did a few years ago:
http://www.shootingtimes.com/ammo/ammunition_st_0301_blackpowder

From it:


A very impressive aspect was the consistency from round to round. The 50-90 had a variance of only 20fps, and ran roughly 1.5 MOA; not bad for a design from the century before the century before this one..

Got one

The 45/70 has always been quite accurate .
The big issue is at somewhat unknown ranges (while hunting) the steep trajectory works against you landing bullets on the target .

Don't get me wrong , I love the old slug tossers. It takes a bit of skill and work to get the data from your load down and if you are hunting at any range you either need some good skill or a rangefinder

The Browning is fairly strong but don't get crazy with your loads , let the bullet weight of the 45/70 do its work

http://eliminatorlaserscope.com/eliminatorIII.html

(Might not work so well for the 2nd shot....