Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers New 45-90

Local shop had a new Winchester 45-90 for sale today.

1886 model of course.


Instead of the usual set up it has a fairly light weight round barrel, a full length magazine, and rather plain wood. The receiver is driller for a sight as well.

Typical crescent butt.

They are asking 1250 for it.

Anyone have this rifle?

Any reason to want a 45-90 if you have a 45-70?


Thanks.

Sounds like a cool rifle Jim.. You should have it!!!!!!

Yeppppp, you should have it. No reason needed.


Vic
Va chapter Enablers International.

Go buy it. Damn those crescent stocks though.

I have a 1886 in a 45-70, a Marlin in a 45-70 and a high wall in 45-90. I probably shoot the 45-90 the most. My bucket list includes shooting a bison with the 45-90. Of those three, I think the 45-90 is the most accurate, but that probably has to do with the rifle, not the cartridge.

Well, thanks to you guys the rifle is on layaway now!

Time to go get me some black powder!

Sounds like a rifle that deserves some photos here!

Alright!

Always wanted one, you will be glad you bought it!! and 15 years from now you can pass it down to your son!

Glad you got it SlimJim, a man cant have too many lever action rifles, I must have a dozen or so around here, I love em, check the twist on that 45-90, if it will stabilize em, get some 500 gr flat nosed grease groove bullets lubed with black powder lube, and 30 thou Walters card wads, a set of dies and a 45 cal powder compression die, you'll be set for anything in conus.

Old Eynsford FFG black powder will give you all the power, range and punch you'll ever need.

You'll never regret this purchase trust me !

The website lists the twist as one in 20.

Is that fast enough?

Hell yes, perfect, you can order bullets, wads, brass, and dies at Buffalo Arms.

BOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!

Thanks Gunner!



Those rifles look great Flem.

Yo welcome Big Jim.

Really nice!!

Speaking of nice, you should see how pretty FlyboyFlems bullets are that he casts, damn nice work, mine are hard, smokey grey and ugly.

For the record, the .45-90 does very well with smokeless powder and factory .45-70 or .45-90 ammo.
Also, the curved steel butt plate does not hurt at all if shouldered/ mounted properly + it looks really cool.
Mine has Marbles tang peep AND Marbles folding barrel sights. This combo has been an effective hunting setup for me.


Mine is a Miroku/Winchester 1886 TD with 26 inch octagon barrel and it stabilizes 300 - 450 grain jacketed bullets well. I bought it to hunt big game and have never bothered with black powder. The few 325 cast bullets I loaded and shot were OK.
Using a variety of hand loaded ammo, it has taken critters from Blackbuck to Black Death(3) and ele.

It is a great cartridge that can be loaded for plinking or DG.

Shoot it a lot and enjoy.

Thats a nice looking rifle.


Try and try....read all the tips and tricks....but for the life of me I cant get a crescent butt to fit comfortable. I will try again.

On my Miroku 45-70 I shot it with a Galco leather slip on butt pad for a while.

Worked pretty well. Jerry sold me some carbine style furniture that I inletted and use that now.

I still use the Galco pad because it gets the LOP out there where it is better. These 1886's are an inch too short!



What were the 450 grain jacketed bullets you used? Does your rifle have a long throat?

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.

And it aint going to fit ya Slim Jim, they don't fit me, I'm just 6'2" 250, you must be 6'5" 350, I put a leather lace on with a scored rubber pad in my 50-110, more to get the l.o.p. and the rifle out in front a bit more so I can get my face down and behind the sights, like CRShelton said, put the crescent butt on the ball of the shoulder muscle and squeeze it off, the men they built those rifles for back in the day had to be all of 5'9" and 140 lbs, they wont fit pork chop gravy hands like us.

BTW, hope that carbine wood is serving you well.

Gunner500,
I agree with you on fitting the rifle to the shooter. And you are correct on size - I stand 5'10" and weigh 170 pounds(was 145 back in high school) and the 1886 fits fine. Larger or smaller folk may need to make changes in stock configuration and length.

The era and region of gun design can also influence the final design. For instance, my Parker shotguns are based on a pre 1900 design and for shooters living in the Northeast USA where bird hunting was a cool weather sport. Therefore the standard butt stock length fits me ONLY when I am wearing a winter coat under a padded shooting vest. In Texas dove season, I must use a slip- on pad to get proper stock length. A person with longer arms may have this problem in all seasons.

Nice pick up.

I have a few rifles with crescent buttstocks and i don't like them. They look great and authentic but are so impractical. Apart from making the stock fragile they can really hurt if not shouldered precisely. My advice is to swap it out for a shotgun buttstock, similar to the one Winchester fitted to the Extra Light Model. It's far more comfortable and practical to use.

Interesting and good to know about that Parker too, also glad to hear you've used your '86 on African game, have always thought about taking my Turnbull 50-110 WCF to Africa , it fires a hardcast 700 gr flat nosed grease groove bullet to 1240 fps with black powder, I think it'd take a hell of an animal to catch one of those, have the Smith ladder sight on it, hits to 200 yards have been pure cake.

Gunner 500,
Agreed on lethality of your 50-110! MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR ANY ANIMAL THAT WALKS OR CRAWLS. It might even kill some whales!

FYI, I have hunted RSA with Chris Troskie and he has hosted several Levergun Safaris in past years. Some of my friends from Leverguns.com have hunted with Chris also. Nice guy based in northern Limpopo Province who can put you on game.
I will post link to his web site in a bit.
http://www.ct-safaris.com/

It was one of Chris's DG PH that put me and my 1895 .405 on a Cape Buff a few years ago.

Big medicine!

Got the rifle off of layaway just now.

Can I shoot a few 45-70 rounds through it?

Gonna take some extra cash to get brass and dies.

In a pinch you could fire a 45/70 cartridge in a 45/90 chamber but it's the same situation as firing a 38 Special in a 357 mag. The risk you have is filling the front of the 45/90 chamber with debris from firing the shorter cases (especially cast loads). Fire enough of them and you may not be able to chamber a 45/90 cartridge until you clean the chamber out properly.

I'd recommend the Lyman die set as they include their M bullet expander die. If you cant source the dies you could buy cases and use 45/70 dies (suitably adjusted) to load up some ammo.

Okay thanks.


I have the M dies for my 45-70. I like them.

I will get them for the 45-90.

Congrats on your 45-90!.

Please post a picture when convenient.

Above my 45-70.

Big difference in weight. This 45-90 will make a fine hunting rifle.

Put on a receiver sight.

This is a new rifle, is the dove tail for the rear sight a standard size?

I would like to drift the sight out and drift in a blank.

Jim,
Very nice rifle and you are likely to find it easier to carry than smaller folks. BTW, your boy may already be looking forward to the day that he can hunt with it.

Before you put in a blank, please consider the benefits of the Marbles folding barrel sight, as backup for the receiver sight.
This made much sense for my 1886 Bull barreled 45-90, but may not be for everyone. Here are a couple of pix:
Tang peep down and barrel sight up:


Sight down for use of tang peep:

Should be an adequate back for the 45j-70. Envious, even though I do have a backup.

Dang, don't know how I missed this one CRS, nice shooting and agreed, all these rifle with big chunks of lead at medium velocities are stone cold killers, going 8 or 9 feet deep into an 1800lb bedded Eland bull in Africa with a 50-90 Sharps rifle and 750gr bullet forever buried all doubt I may have had.

Congrats Jim, cant wait for you to get that one going and give us some shooting and hunting reports.

Congrats on pretty darn cool rifle. I want a Mag Na Ported one with a pistol grip stock and a Pachmayer Sporting Clays recoil pad. I know, I am a sissy, but a smart one!

I remember reading a lot of stories about Alaska and the Yukon in the time period ranging from the late 1800's to the early 1900's, and the 45-90 was mentioned quite a lot. I'm guessing that's because it was considered as a good choice for the big bears. Glad to see it's still alive and kicking over a 100 years later.

Very NICE Jim ! These 86's are great shooters I certainly enjoy my 45-90 even though my Marlin 70 is hoot as well..

The Sharps 45-110 will always be special for so many reasons but the '86 is my favorite all round big thumper !

All I have shot through it are some store bought 405 grain bevel base bullets.


Over 20 grains of Trail Boss of all things!


Kids get a kick out watching me fling them big cases out though!




Woody, I would like to venture into the single loading world next. Those big Sharps riles look too interesting to pass up.


I want it to be a zip code gun though. One with 5 digits.



45-100 at the minimum!

I love my Miroku .45-90, but there's nothing it can do that a .45-70 can't that I would want to do in a light, crescent butt straight stock rifle. Some people say they're comfortable, but I don't find that to be true. Give me a recoil pad and a pistol grip. The lever jumping back into your hand sucks.

In my opinion the hot nitro loads benefit a lot from a rifle set up a specific way.

Will 45-70 dies work for your 45-90? If they do then that is a plus as about every one makes 45-70 dies.

Congratulations on the new rifle!
This talk of a shotgun butt replacement interest me. I have 2 of the Browning 1886 High Grade rifles in 45-70 and the crescent butt does not agree with me. Where would a fellow begin to look for a shotgun butt replacement? Any chance of finding one with High grade wood?
Thanks all,
Rick

Gunner500 sold me a carbine style butt for my 45-70.


I had to do a lot of inletting to get it to work with the new style safety and hammer set up.


Worked good though.


I have thought about giving Winchester a call. They are making a rifle right now with a shot gun style butt. Wondered if they would sell one.



A shotgun butt and a Galco leather pad would work pretty well. The Galco adds some much needed LOP.