45-70 Lee Enfield

[LGS]

I am looking at buying one of the Frontier rifles in 45-70 made on the
Enfield No1MIII action. Has anyone had any experience with this rifle. Will it hold up to the pressure and recoil of modern 45-70 rounds.

[KCSO]

The rifle will hold up to more than you can. The brass buttplate has to go first thing if you are shooting heavy. Mine likes 450 gr bullets at 1600 fps and that is all I like to shoot i have pushed 535's to 1800 and the rifle did fine. I put a recoil pad on mine and then went to a stock from boyds and the boyds stock with recoil pad makes just about any load tolerable. The down side is that the magazines take some work. I got mine to hold and function with 4 in the mag, but it took some fiddling. The magazine as shipped popped apart at the spot welds on round #12. If you can pick one up in the $300 range they are not a bad buy.

[LGS]

KSCO, thanks I planed on changing the recoil pad first thing. I have a couple other Enfields. 303 Brit is about the max I would want to shot with a brass plate. I am going to buy one. It will be a mate to my Marlin 45-70.

[carpetman]

LGS---I am fond of Pachmayr decellerator recoil pads. Haven't tried them all by any means but so far they are my pick of the litter.

[Four Fingers of Death]

The guys who convert Lees to 308s here make up a single stack magazine inside the stock mag. This seems to be the best way of getting the things to feed properly. I fancy one of these, but the fact that I could pick up a Marlin for the cost of the barrel and fitting makes it a little impractical. Having said that, I'll probably do it one day. Mick.

[bart55]

Had one made for me by a local gunsmith,put a ruger number 3 barrel on a number 4 mk1 and modified a magazine for it ,put on a bsa pistol scope and I have a great bolt 45 70 that has taken a few whitetails , shoot the lee 405gr flat base over reloader 7 for the most accurate load ,same one I use in my browning 78 . It is a real stiff load (for me ) and is kind of hard to shoot off the bench without a past recoil pad . but it is very accurate I am using wheelweights with about 25 percent lino . shot my largest deer with this one never recoved the bullet and the deer went down after a long leap. . Love that rifle

[LGS]

Bart, can you post the address for the gunsmith that did this. I would like to have it done om the No4 action. It is stronger and already has a useable peep sight. Was the conversion cost affective.

Thanks