The one I had started out as a 40-82 and at some point was rechambered to 45-70. I never even had to mess with the sights. I have an older Lyman manual with three levels of 45-70 loadings, IIRC. The second level was for 1886 Winchesters and I utilized this. The recoil was never nearly as bad as with the Marlin 1895's of the day.
I shot a big cow with it one time. Poor old critter was bogged down in a pond and we'd tried everything to get her to go ahead and calve. My Uncle should have had me shoot her a couple of hours before we did, but it was his call. Critters like this are typically a whole lot harder to kill than some healthy cow. This one was DRT with the 1886 and my handload under some 400 grain bullet I cast in a Lyman mold.
500 grs with Holy Black is a blast all unto itself EE, wish y'all could have chained that cow out, birthed and saved the calf anyway.
