Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR 50-70 Govt Granddaddy of them all for sport or battle

29"-long Trapdoor barrel with .515" groove and 1:42" twist had velocity about same as in McNelly, worse accuracy,
even more tickling with duck feathers needed.

I have 4 choices to work with:



To be continued.

Heck of a lot like the old .44-77 Sharps.
I have an action that likely came from one of those .43 Spanish Rolling Blocks:





Collecting parts to go with it:





Would I dare make it a .510"-grooved 1:20" twist, .50-70 instead of using that barrel for a .500 Jeffery with some extra throat added ?



Maybe not.

Here is an "unknown gunsmith" special, action has 1866 year as last patent on it,
might be 1868 production for .43 Spanish,
barrel is a modern .458-caliber 1:20" twist, chambered for .45-70 Govt.
It is a possible donor for another .50-70 Govt.,
what with .45-70 being so common:

Wow that's nice! I had a 50-70 Navy carbine, that I foolishly sold!

RC that is a fine looking rifle . got me drooling on my puter screen

I would love to have an H&R Officer’s Model converted to .50-70. It would make a dandy deer gun

That would be another OH MY moment if I ever saw one of those !

Bookreview excerpts from this little excellent book:









Compare to my old RB action, parts is parts:

Same old action, with the oldest type, long, sliding extractor. I did find a new-made replacement extractor for it:

Ive got an Navy Arms 50-70 rolling block with bullets, cases, ammo, dies, wad cutter, bullets, and mould that ive yet to use. Bought the whole package and never got around to try it.

I confess to having dabbled in smokeless powder with the .50-70 Govt. cartridge.
I added 0.200" length of 0.512"-diameter parallel-sided free-bore to the throat,
loading it 0.200" longer in COL adds a little over 10 grains of water to effective case capacity.



So loaded with smokeless I call my re-barreled Pedersoli Rolling Block the ".50-70 Little Bighorn."

Note the sights and the initial sight-in, discussion to follow:







The fouling shot goes high then the next four settle down:
(Please excuse the busy target, lots of info there.)



Filing down the front sight would not do with the Beach combo.



If I can raise the POI at 50 yards by 2 inches through increasing the charge with the same bullet,
then the pinhead globe and big gold post will shoot together with the flat-top-V-notch open rear sight, dead-on at 50 yards.
Then the lowest setting on the peep will be 6" high at 50 yards.
Adjust that to 8" high at 50 yards and
it will then be about a foot high at 100 yards, and dead-on at 200 yards,
with lots of adjustment left for long range pestering fire.
YEE HA !

The gunner500 load of 70 grains of compressed FFFg with 530-grainer would make for a good try in the .50-70 Little Bighorn.
A little extra barrel time at 1250 fps MV and a little extra muzzle lift (recoil) from the greater powder mass ejected might get it zeroed,
as long as the lesser bullet weight does not drain off too much of the recoil.
Many .50-70 possibilities with either Holy BP or sacreligious smokeless:

440-450-grainers in antique Trapdoor 1:42" twist

480-535-grainers in Pedersoli Sharps Long Range 1:26"

480-680-grainers in the Little Bighorn 1:24"

480-680-grainers in the McNelly Sharps 1:18"

One can conceive of my 777-grainer (BOL = 1.568") at 1050-fps using gas check and smokeless
in the McNelly Sharps carbine for a .50-70-777 subsonic plinker.
That requires a 1:19" twist according to this: https://mcgowenbarrel.com/twist2/
Could go down to 950 fps MV with the 777-grainer in a 1:18" twist,
But since the bullet is almost as long as the brass case,
that might require re-throating of the McNelly Sharps carbine

Grease lube with BP, and powder-coat paint with smokeless.
Save the paper patches for .40 and .45-cal.
The .50-70 Govt. was a grease-groover to start with.
I have no desire to paper patch .50-cal bullets !

Well crap! Now I have to call Jes and see if the H&R Trapdoor can be bored out. You are a bad influence Jerry

You fellas are having more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

Next time one is inclined to run some metal wool down the bore use some brass wool rather than steel.

Trump's hairpiece?

Brass wool would more easily show any lead removed.
0000 extra fine steel wool is harmless in the bore, surely, and does a great job of lead removal.
You can scrub a gloss blue exterior gun finish with it and not scratch it.
More like iron wool.
It is also coated with oil to keep it from rusting in the package and thus makes a dandy fire starter, lights easily with a flint and steel, match or Bic.

@pacecars,
I have one of those Navy Arms-Pedersoli Trapdoor carbines in .45-70 Govt also.
22" barrel length, 0.760" diameter at the muzzle, 1.040" breech diameter where it screws into the action.
The .50-70 McNelly Sharps carbine is also 22" long in the barrel, muzzle diameter 0.810", breech diameter of barrel is 1.225".
Both are round barrels.
I think a re-bore is do-able.
Go whole hog and Gemmerize it too ?

Always wanted a Gemmer. I have found a couple of the H&R versions and I am waiting on a call back from JES. I really need to stop reading this site

Wait a minute, I just realized mine was the Pedersoli M1873 Trapdoor Carbine, "the enlisted man's model" with 22" barrel.



The "Deluxe" Pedersoli M1873 Trapdoor Officer's Model has 26" barrel and has already been "Gemmerized" with a wiping stick,
and it has a tang vernier sight +/- Lawence Ladder on the barrel.
Springfield-made originals of that configuration numbered only 477 between 1875 and 1885, produced as hunting rifles.



Just getting this straight in my mind.
Be careful that the extractor can be fitted for the .50-70's larger rim before re-boring a .45-70 to .50-70.
That may be the limiting factor.
Looking at my Trapdoor carbines, there would not be much left of the extractor on an M1873.

With the purpose-made M1873 action that could have a new-made barrel screwed onto it,
the insides of the action are smaller than on the old M1866 2nd Allin conversion.
The extractor might vanish if you opened up an M1873 for the .50-70 rim.
It would be a pity to have to use the wiping stick as extractor.

Talked to Jes and it won’t work. He can and has rebored and rechambered them to a .50 Alaskan that is shortened just enough to keep a standard Alaskan from chambering

I'll see your .50-70, and raise you a .58 Roberts rolling block