Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers A couple of big bores

Both are Bighorn Armory Model 89's in 500 S&W. 440 grain hard casts exit the muzzle at 1750 fps with my handloads. Big medicine for sure yet surprisingly comfy to shoot, at least offhand.

I haven't fired the black one yet and am deciding which one to keep. The RMR sight is very useful and enables me to shoot quickly and accurately offhand at the ranges I'd intend to use these rifles for.

John,
Those are indeed, beautiful rifles. They look very solid; may I ask what they weigh?

Here are a couple of my Winchester big bores from which the new has been worn off:
1895 TD .405 WCF - 300 grainers at 2250 and 400 grainers at 2076fps - the rifle is light and handy, so the heavy 400 grain loads recoil a bit.


And 1886 TD .45-90- top load so far has been 450 grain Kodiak at 2150 fps, which makes even the 9.5 pound rifle push back some.

Without an RMR both rifles weigh just a bit over 7 1/2#. The 18" barrel wrings everything out of the 500 S&W magnum cartridge and helps keep the weight down. I bought them both thinking that I might carry one of them on my backpack as brown bear protection if I wasn't carrying my bow as the #1 shooter. Therefore lower weight for carrying several miles on my backpack would be a welcome thing.

I might add that the fps I quoted was with reduced loads in the 500 S&W. After putting two holes in anything you want to shoot how much more speed do you really need?

John,
Agreed on the two (in and out) holes point, especially when they are BIG holes!

To clarify the reason for my heavy loads, they were especially for DG in Africa. The .405 400 grain loads for Cape buffalo and the 45-90 for Cape buffalo and larger.
Both were tried on the target critters and succeded.
Those are definitely not needed for most game and not used for anything but DG. Three hundred (300) grain bullets are used in both rifles for all non DG game with a few exceptions where they were used for the fun of it on bison, water buffalo and such.

Back toyour rifle = please post results on game so we can see your big smiles with the results.

Will do. I bow hunt each fall in Alaska and normally just carry a very big revolver on the waist belt of my pack for bears. But for only a few pounds more either of these little short rifles nest nicely on the side of my pack. I'd be a lot more confident if I had to use a gun on a brownie with the 89 versus a big revolver.

So far all I've shot is paper. Still vacillating on which one to keep. The one with the RMR on it shoots lights out, but I kind of like the black one too. Both have the upgraded wood and it doesn't make sense to keep both. Since the black one is new and unfired it might go to a home where it's needed and I'll focus solely on the silver one. Either way it's a fun gun to shoot.