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.
We put pullers on the calf, waded into the pond. She might have got back in on her own after she got out...it's been thirty years ago, but we did all we could. When I first saw the situation, I knew I'd be shooting her and should have right then. She was my Uncle's cow though, so it was his call. It just put her through a lot more pain than she needed to go through.
I never shot black in that gun. It certainly had the capability, but I didn't want to clean it. I've probably still got some of those handloads someplace.
