I was watching "Wanted, Dead or Alive" and got to wondering about Josh Randall's gun. I understand they were chambered in .44-40 and for visual effect, Josh wore .45-70 cartridges in his belt loops.

I have never fired a .45-70 and understand that the bullet doesn't leave the barrel without a fight. So help a non cowboy's curiosity.

If you did fire a .45-70 from a mare's leg, what kind of jolt are we talkin' about.

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A BIG one, almost like being kicked by a real mare's leg! (OK, maybe not THAT hard, but close enough.)

It's not so bad. Think 12G slug out of a pump shotgun without a recoil pad ....more or less depending on load

There is a revolver currently made chambered in .45-70.. I believe it's called the BFR revolver...... I think Magnum Research has owned the company or has a big stake in it...most people use milder loads of .45-70 ammo they intend to use in their BFR... I suspect that full bore/maximum loads for the .500S&W & .460S&W exceed the loads commonly used in the .45-70 BFR by a good bit.

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I shot a friend's BFR in .45-70 with his handloads with 300 grain bullets.
Recoil was not bad at all.
The gun is heavy.

Ha! If you are a manly man, shoot a 45.70 derringer: http://youtu.be/i89cMnfxXy0

http://youtu.be/nax7El5hIHg

(I suppose as an alternative to death, it may be preferable, but I am not sure about that...)

My friend has an H&R buffalo Bore classic single shot. He loads the original 405gr. There is definitely a nice wallop to you shoulder but nothing a stout 12G won't do. Some of his hotter loads do put you into a uncomfortable state after 5 or 6 shots

I don't think it could be worse than a .416 Weatherby magnum.

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My son and I ran accross this one last summer at the outstanding Buffalo Bill Museum and grave-site outside of Denver.

Frankly, I can't imagine cuttting loose with this hand cannon with both feet firmly planted on the ground, much less galloping along on a horse. But I guess the Indian who had it was packing the ultimate big-bore snubby/concealed carry piece.

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The name fits the firearm

I've shot a .44 mag 3" with magnum loads, an 870 with 3" magnum loads, but the hardest-kicking round/gun I've ever fired was a .303 Enfield No.1 MKIII with that small, brass plate on the stock against my shoulder covered by a T-shirt. Damn.....I know it's not all that powerful of a round, but nothing ever kicked me like that.

My brother's .303 Enfield has to be the worst I've ever fired but I surely don't have the experience of various firearms that most of you have!

If you want to go to the trouble, you can actually calculate the recoil energy of any firearm, assuming you know the gun weight, the bullet weight, the powder weight, and the bullet MV. There are some handguns in .45-70 (I think T/C barrels in .45-70 are available), but I believe most of those who shoot them use light loads. Back in the frontier days, .45-70 ammunition used by cavalry troopers with trapdoor carbines used a lighter load than was used by the heavier infantry rifles.

My Remington Model 81 seems to really kick hard even though it's just a .300 Savage. I think it's because of the whole barrel flying back in recoil. A couple months ago in Arizona I shot a different type of Mare's Leg called the Thunderbolt. It's an AWA replica of the Winchester pump 44-40 in legal pistol form. One of ten made, it's fun and MUCH faster than a lever action. With factory equivocal reloads recoil was virtually non existent.

I want one but, Academy only sells the .22 version, and I want either a .357 or a .45---eater.

I have two Remington 81s in .300 Savage, and with full loads they are indeed punishing to your shoulder. The Remington Model 8 or 81 in .35 Rem is also said to be painful to shoot, but I do not have one of those. The first time I took my brother (who is not a small man) out to shoot one of the .300 Savage M81s, he decided after the first shot, that was enough. I have developed some lighter handloads in that caliber which are less fearsome, but still develop enough recoil impulse to operate the aqction.

The Remington M8/M81 rifles are somewhat unusual, and operate on the long recoil principle. That means you have a lot of metal mass moving rearward at high velocity which comes to a stop inside the receiver very suddenly. And you are very aware of it. Those rifles in lighter calibers, such as the .25, .30, and .32 Remington, are not nearly as unpleasant to fire as one shooting a full-load .300 Savage. By the way, you can very easily form .300 Savage brass from .308 Win brass, and in fact the .300 Savage cartridge (which dates from the early 1920s) was the model for the development of the 7.62x51 NATO military cartridge. The two are very similar, except for the much shorter neck of the .300 Savage.

Henry Rifles makes some nice mare's legs currently in revolver calibers, but not in .45-70. They do make a .45-70 rifle, though. Hmmmm.

I don't find my Model 81 in 35 Remington to be the least bit painful. But then I find most comments on "punishing recoil" to be humorous and generally overstated. But perhaps it is just me.

The worst, the dumbest thing I ever did in my 20's was to hip hold a sxs double barrel 12ga and pull both triggers. The trigger guard bit my trigger finger. But it looked scary.

I haven't seen too many rifles kick harder than a 12 ga.

I do believe I have read that the Model 92 used by Steve McQueen was in .44-40 caliber.

The extra large cartridges in his ammo belt were strictly for show!!

UPDATED INFO

Randall's special holster held a sawed-off .44-40 Winchester rifle nicknamed the "Mare's Leg" instead of the six-gun carried by the typical Western character, although the cartridges in the gun belt were dummy .45-70, chosen because they "looked tougher".

When shooting buddy and forum member Nimrod 308 were teenagers, we wanted big-bore revolvers; specifically, .44 magnums. We wondered if we were up to the recoil - so we decided an equivalent test would be firing our 12 gauge shotguns one-handed. That was pretty fierce, so we decided we were up to the .44 mag when we got enough nickels saved to get one. Imagine that was like 3x the free recoil energy of a .44.

A 16" Contender .45-70 with warmish loads is one of the hardest-kicking things I've shot. No, actually, it's probably my Mossberg 936 with 3 1/2" magnum turkey loads. Have never shot any truly heavy recoiling rifles. Did shoot a .500 BPE double one time and a .375 H & H. Neither were bad at all. A .338 Win Mag is worse than either.

This is the Remington model 81 in .300 Savage that kicks hard to me. Yet my lighter Savage 99 Model EG, also .300 Savage with steal butt plate, feels just fine, even when wearing just a T-shirt. Rifle breaks down in seconds using a dime for a screw driver. This is a real favorite.

I shot a friend's very early Mossberg 3 1/2" 12ga pump..it weighed 5 1/2 lbs., the stock was very narrow & the semi hard recoil pad should have been on a 28ga or 20ga. at most...by far those 3 fast shots kicked worse than any centerfire rifle I ever shot...only the crescent butted Win model 1886's in the large bores kicked nearly as hard.

He ended up putting lead weights in the butt stock & putting on a much nicer recoil pad... a 9 lb 3 1/2" is much more pleasant to shoot in it's intended role as a goose gun.

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I find any .44 Magnum lever action carbine, whether Marlin or 1892 repro, to be a hard kicker with full bore loads. That thin buttplate and straight - line stock are doozies when it comes to channeling the recoil impulse to my shoulder. Oh my.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Try some heavy 30_06 loads or shooting a 338wm.

Straight cased bullets have less recoil over bottle neck cases.