This rifle was made in 1887 and was originally chambered in 577-450 in use by the British Army.
Sometime in the future (we suspect the 1950’s) this was converted to 45-70 GOVERNMENT. Yes, this is actually how it was labeled on the barrel.
Custom action rework. Custom barrel we suspect. Custom sights. Custom wood. Modified lever to accommodate the pistol grip sporting stock. Entire rifle parkerized.
Looks great!
That is until we dig deeper and discovered numerous issues:
Action wouldn’t lock.
Headspace was out of spec.
But didn’t look like it has been shot much…Weird.
Was it built like this? We suspect yes. Ok, so it was a bubba kitchen-table gunsmith job you might assume. Well…maybe not. Further inspection seems to show that someone spent quite a bit of time, skill and possibly money, converting this old rifle.
So…did they build it “wrong”? The fact it’s park’ed suggests the work was “complete”. So maybe yes.
In the end, we’ll never know for sure. But right now, it’s 100% in-spec and ready for the Range!!!
Marky
Www.john1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
Areas of focus: Defense and National Security, Modern Light Weapons, Small Arms, Weapons Training.
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