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Jim,
Thanks -- not bad for the entry level no frills rifle - I bought the rifle to hunt and not for fancy so that I would not be afraid of messing up nice checkering or engraving. It has had it's share of hard knocks, including falling from a moving hunting truck onto a gravel road in some country north of RSA. However little scratches and dings in metal and wood can be smoothed out - so long as it still shoots straight - which it does.

A couple of range sessions with standard ammo convinced me to NEVER shoulder the butt like a shotgun. However I just tuck the bottom tip of the metal butt plate into the arm pit and all is well. The rifle rotates up and then back down - no brainer. Other folk place the crescent on the upper arm just above the biceps and that works for them. Try these with cowboy action ammo and see which works best for you.

Bullets?
For any big things like Kodiak brown bear, all buffalo, etc, try the Alaska Bullet Works Kodiak bullets made for .45-70. We used the heaviest jacket version. A very stubby bullet that makes room for more powder. Any lesser bullet is, well, just less.
You can load these to any velocity you like, but for Africa, we had our .45-90 (26 inch barrel) loaded to 2150 fps by Grizzly Cartridge and they may have used a proprietary powder. These shot through all bison and water buffalo and some cape buffalo with moderate expansion without breaking the FMJ.
For ele frontal brain shots, we used solids from Northfork and Punch bullets. The latter is now loaded in .45-70 to over 2000 fps by Grizzly Cartridge if you need them. Frontal brain shots from both the Punch and NF at 2000+ fps shot through the ele head and into the body and had to be cut out for examination.
For leopards and little stuff, the Nosler Protected Point bullets at 2200 fps MV ( max MV so as to avoid too much expansion and little penetration) are devastating. This same bullet at 1850 fps is also devastating on deer and elk sized critters. One shot kills save bullets. One memorable white tail buck shot at 110 yards ran for 100 yards before it realized it was dead. The PP took out two ribs going in and four going out; very little blood left in that carcass.

BTW, this experimentation was part of a larger bullet testing project for .45-70 and .45-90 1886 rifles. And was reported daily from the field on Leverguns.com forum. If you are interested, I can provide you a link.