I have a Guide Gun from the first year. In 45-70 they are no longer ported, factory ammo is so light recoil that porting is unnecessary. I had shot 45-70 for years, but never factory. A friend at a gun store gave me a broken box of 7, 405 grain Remington soft points. From the ported Guide Gun the recoil was less than factory 44Mag from a '92. From my 26" octagon barrel 1886 it was almost un-feelable!

Most 1895's won't take the 540 grain bullet without opening things up a little (I have the mold and bullets, I just never tried)

My "Save my Butt" ammo is a hard cast 400 flat point with gas check at 2200 feet per second. The porting helps some (only some)! For a test; set up a grapefruit sized target at 50 yards. Load 4 +1 of you hottest ammo. From the offhand position, fire into target as fast as you can. If they all hit; YOU WIN! If they all miss; YOU LOOSE! I use a Sightron 34mm red dot scope, my personal best is 2.5 seconds, all hit in a clover leaf group. In a T-shirt, I shot 2 back to back groups at dad's farm. The bruise took 2 days to surface and a week to go away and went from the base of my neck to my elbow. I used a shooting coat after that!

Ivan