Got a couple of nice 45/70 Rolling blocks this week.

[koger]

I limbered up some funds by selling a .44 mag revolver I never shot, in anticipation of bidding on these in a local auction. Both are 1867 Danish 11.5's that somtime in their lifetime had their chambers lengthened to 45/70, they are usually 1/10 of an inch shorter, a 405 gr 45/70 plopped in all the way. One is just bare metal, but no rust or pitting. The other one has a little blue left on the barrel, but the case colors on the reciever are about 70% or so, blue and grey. Both are full military dress, with all the wood, bands and cleaning rods. A previous owner had replaced the front sight, with lyman small brass beaded front sight, and had worked on the folded down fixed sight, with both rifles having a V rear sight pic, with plenty of room for the tiny bead. Both have 36" barrels and the bores are pristine, not a pit one, bright and shiny from one end to the other, and the rifles still have sharp squared off shoulders. I could not beleive the condition of the bores, from rifles of this age, and coming from The black powder era. I sat down at my bench and got some 405 gr 45/70 cast loads, with a .460 diameter slug, lubed with alox and loaded with Unique to velocity's made for these type rifles. They were slightly high at 30 yds, but centered. I decided to go to 100 yds on my black painted 16" x22" I beam target and holding dead center, hit about 2"above where I was aiming. I then moved over to my 4x6" clanger at 100yds, and holding on the bottom, put 3 in the top 3" in a nice group. I then tried the other rifle, same deal. Both had good triggers, about # 3.5 or so. The best part of the whole deal is that I bought them cheap, because they had been listed as muzzleloaders because they had ramrods underneath the forearm. I sent TBG some pics to post on this when he gets around to it. Just thought I would share.

[Texas by God]

Dang, you did good!


Very nice old rifles.


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[45workhorse]

Muzzle loaders?
Man I wish I could find some of those!
Nice!

[Mk42gunner]

It is sometimes amazing how little people know about guns.

My best friend once bought a Stevens Crackshot from a pawn shop for very little money, because it was "broken". They thought you had to take the barrel off to load it.

Robert

[WILCO]

Very nice!!!

[firefly1957]

Nice I have always wanted a rolling block just never seen a good one while I had the money in hand !

[marlinman93]

Nice Rollers, and the Swedes are always a very well built one!
I once bought a Ballard Pacific at a local small auction cheap because the auction house had it marked as a "Marlin muzzleloader" based on it having a wiping rod under the barrel. It was a very nice .45-70, with a excellent bore!

[hc18flyer]

Someday, I would really like to talk you outta one of those!

[Texas by God]

Someday, I would really like to talk you outta one of those!

Hey, I called it first


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[pworley1]

I shot one of mine today. They are great fun to shoot, simple to load for, and with cast bullets will never wear out. Congratulations.

[sukivel]

I’ve always wanted a rolling block, and don’t even really care what caliber.

You can never go wrong with a 45-70.


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[marlinman93]

I’ve always wanted a rolling block, and don’t even really care what caliber.

You can never go wrong with a 45-70.


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I love them, and don't care what cartridge they're chambered in IF I'm buying them to use as a donor action. But if you're buying one to shoot as-is, I'd definitely care what cartridge it shoots!
Some of these old Rolling Block cartridges can cost you more for brass, dies, and bullets than you pay for the guns! A number of these oddball chamberings can be either impossible to find brass for, or cost $3-$4 a piece for custom brass!

[Scrounge]

I limbered up some funds by selling a .44 mag revolver I never shot, in anticipation of bidding on these in a local auction. Both are 1867 Danish 11.5's that somtime in their lifetime had their chambers lengthened to 45/70, they are usually 1/10 of an inch shorter, a 405 gr 45/70 plopped in all the way. One is just bare metal, but no rust or pitting. The other one has a little blue left on the barrel, but the case colors on the reciever are about 70% or so, blue and grey. Both are full military dress, with all the wood, bands and cleaning rods. A previous owner had replaced the front sight, with lyman small brass beaded front sight, and had worked on the folded down fixed sight, with both rifles having a V rear sight pic, with plenty of room for the tiny bead. Both have 36" barrels and the bores are pristine, not a pit one, bright and shiny from one end to the other, and the rifles still have sharp squared off shoulders. I could not beleive the condition of the bores, from rifles of this age, and coming from The black powder era. I sat down at my bench and got some 405 gr 45/70 cast loads, with a .460 diameter slug, lubed with alox and loaded with Unique to velocity's made for these type rifles. They were slightly high at 30 yds, but centered. I decided to go to 100 yds on my black painted 16" x22" I beam target and holding dead center, hit about 2"above where I was aiming. I then moved over to my 4x6" clanger at 100yds, and holding on the bottom, put 3 in the top 3" in a nice group. I then tried the other rifle, same deal. Both had good triggers, about # 3.5 or so. The best part of the whole deal is that I bought them cheap, because they had been listed as muzzleloaders because they had ramrods underneath the forearm. I sent TBG some pics to post on this when he gets around to it. Just thought I would share.

You know you're probably going to get several "I hate you!" posts, including this one, over this, right?

Looks like a heck of a score to me! Why I can never find stuff like that myself, I figure I must have been very bad in a previous life. Or maybe even all of them!

Bill <---- drooling and green-eyed envy!

[WILCO]

I’ve always wanted a rolling block, and don’t even really care what caliber.

You can never go wrong with a 45-70.


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I've seen originals in 7x57mm.
Wouldn't mind one of those.

[hc18flyer]

Yesterday I was in Cabelas in LaVista, NE. They had a Spanish Oliveto in 11.7 rolling block. The price was $400. Looked like there was a little space around the firing pin. I thought it might be hard to find reloading components for? hc18flyer
Did I screw up?

[muskeg13]

Are your barrel bands nickel plated? The one I got long ago had bright barrel bands and looked like it had spent most of it's years as a wall hanger, so I thought someone had gotten them decoratively plated. Maybe all of the Danish M1867s had bright barrel bands? The bore in mine is also extremely good, as is that of a Swedish RB of the same era. I suspect the Scandinavian military RBs weren't shot much, but when they were fired, more care was taken in thoroughly cleaning them than in some RB equipped armies.

[koger]

Are your barrel bands nickel plated? The one I got long ago had bright barrel bands and looked like it had spent most of it's years as a wall hanger, so I thought someone had gotten them decoratively plated. Maybe all of the Danish M1867s had bright barrel bands? The bore in mine is also extremely good, as is that of a Swedish RB of the same era. I suspect the Scandinavian military RBs weren't shot much, but when they were fired, more care was taken in thoroughly cleaning them than in some RB equipped armies.

Mine are not nickel plated, but I suspect the metal has a high nickel content, so that is the reason they are bright on mine. During the 60 and 70's it was common to nickel or chrome plate a lot of guns, many a collector item has been ruined by this process.