Originally Posted by
Sgt H
Among 3 Miroku/Winchester/Browning 45-70's I have found the barrels very uniform from one rifle to another. Very short throats as already mentioned. All 3 slug at .457-.4575 and have 1/20 twist. Two are 1886 Brownings, rifle and carbine, the third an 1885 sporter. I suspect their specs for barrels are the same for the 1886 and 1885. The barrels are also very smooth internally. My 1886 rifle has been shot the most lately and has almost 200 rounds of cast boolits through it since the last cleaning and no leading. Think seasoning like a .22, don't mess with it when it is shooting good. It is also very accurate, even with 525 grain boolits which measure 1.335" long. I recently fired a 5 shot group of 3.5" at 300 yards with the 525 loaded over 27 grains of 5744. Also shot some Lyman 457193's (415 grains) over 24 grains of 2400 that produced a 1.6" group at 200 yards. And no I cannot duplicate that performance on demand but the rifles are capable.