To rolling block or something else

[marlinman93]

WOW, lots of great info! Thank you all for your input .

Being a green horn to this wonderful old rifles, I am the same way with BP. Will work on that after I find what I want. I'm sure there will be more than one.

Now the fun is trying to find some here in the valley to look at. Or a road trip for Father's day weekend.

You might consider a short road trip to the Big Reno gun show at the Grande Sierra! It's 3 times a year, and you just missed the spring show last weekend. Lots of good old single shot rifles at fair prices. Shouldn't be a problem finding a good Rolling Block in a good caliber amongst the 500+ tables there!

[sw Idaho]

Thank you for the heads up. Trip to Reno would make the wife happy.

[Drm50]

I had a 7x57mm Rem RB, Smokeless Action. Did the Numerich Arms Buffalo Hunter
45/70 Kit on it. Gun worked fine and was accurate. The down side was there was
a clearance problem because of diameter and length of 45/70 cartridge. You could
not run a cartridge straight into the chamber, you kinda had to keep back of cartridge
up, to clear the breech block. Could have been fixed by grinding a small radius in top
of the breech block. The larger black powder actions don't have this problem.

[JSnover]

I have a roller in 40-65. The only problem I have had is seating a balky cartridge from black powder fouling, and the extractor doesn't have the leverage others have. If your careful with your ammo you should have no problems. Mine is very accurate.

Mine has the rotary extractor and you are correct. If a boolit gets stuck in the throat or hung up on the fouling DON'T try to force it out by yanking or tapping on the hammer block.
Mind your OAL, keep the chamber clean, bring a rod to the range to tap out anything that might get stuck.

[pietro]

.

I've owned/shot/hunted with several different .45-70 single-shot rifles over the past 40-odd years, including RB's, Browning/Miroku Hi-Wall's, Ruger #1-S's, H&R Trapdoor's, and a H&R (Handi) Buffalo Classic.

For me, the locktimes make a big difference, styling preferences aside.

The central hammer Hi-Wall's & internal hammer Rugers had the fastest locktimes, but were also the most expensive.

The central hammer H&R break-open BC's locktime was only marginally slower than the Hi-Wall's & Ruger's

The roller's which have a very heavy hammer, had locktimes that were barely noticeably slower than the higher-priced Hi-Wall & Ruger's.

The slowest of all were the side-hammer trapdoor's, which IMHO have a noticeably heavy/slow hammer fall, that distracts me during game shooting.

Once I swapped out the H&R Buffalo Classic's 32" barrel for a shorter (22") Handi barrel, I liked it as much as my Ruger #1-S's - AND it was a much less expensive option.

YMMV, of course.


Also, as I've aged, I've also moved away from boolits heavier the 300gr-350gr in my .45-70's - as the lighter weight makes them much more comfortable to shoot w/o any sacrifice in effectiveness on game.



.

[Area Man]

I've got a Pedersoli roller in 45-70, considering selling. Shoot me a PM if you'd like to discuss.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[marlinman93]

Lock times are relevant to the hammer shape and size. Big hammers like a Rolling Block, or Sharps '74 will have slower lock times. Small hammers like a 1885 Win., Ballard, Hepburn, Stevens, etc. will not be able to measure differences without some very sophisticated equipment, since they're so similar. But lock times don't mean much, as some of the finest shooters in the world are winning with an 1874 sharps clone! It's more about what you want in a gun, and how it fits you. I'd not make a choice as to what gun I'd buy until I'd looked at all the various options, and shouldered each of them to see what fits you best.
Once you decided on the gun you like the feel of, then you can narrow down calibers, and look at reviews of various makers guns to see which has the best comments from folks who have owned them.

[country gent]

The hammer on my CPA shilouette is factory lightened with cuts in its sides and a heavier spring I suspect to make up for the lower mass. It has a very fast lock time.I have done this on M1As and garands hammers also adding a heavier spring to speed lock times. The lock times coupled with a good consistant trigger pull greatly improves position shooting.