Henry Rifle Forums

Picked up a new side gate a couple of days ago, and have been waiting for the heat to moderate, but couldn’t stand it anymore, so off to the range in 95 degree warmth (that’s really hot for us northern Wyoming folks). Benched it for the first few rounds, and my shoulder is paying the price. Offhand was much more comfortable and fun, and a couple of gallon jugs made the ultimate sacrifice at about 60 yards; they virtually disintegrated when hit with 305 grain slugs at somewhere around 2000 fps.
I’m thinking this rifle will be my elk gun this fall, once I get used to it.

Ouch. I’ve always preferred shooting big boomers offhand.

Centaur wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 20, 2024 6:06 pm

once I get used to it.

I wish you the best of luck with that endeavor. I sold mine thinking the same thing

95 would be very hot for us north woods folk, too. Hope you get some cooler temps, soon.

I get it about the recoil on the 45-70 off the bench. Anything more than trap door loads when shooting my No. 3 from a rest takes all the fun out of the 45-70.

Enjoy that new 45-70 shooter! Reloading is the way to go to really enjoy shooting it with "lighter" loads.

Maybe a Mules Leg for you next time!

I do reload 45-70, and yes, trapdoor loads are very pleasant. But sometimes I want the power of the boomer loads. Gotta say, my 1885 Winchester is more fun with the heavy loads than the Henry.

I have some 45-70 subsonic heavy boomers coming in soon and will post up a review soon.

A PAST strap on recoil pad makes bench shooting a 45-70 a lot more pleasant.

here is a link to our mods to our Henry 45-70 and developing loads for it --- https://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic. ... cch#p42678

taken together, it can actually fun to fire