I should have said it is a truck gun, able to stop Jeeps, trucks, and horses at a gallop.
It is an 1884 Springfield 45-70. Fun old rifle. Grandfather got it from his. Of course it is chopped up. Interestingly, it almost resulted in fratricide in the late 50's.
My dad (Felix) had a brother (Oscar). Not real names but...
One day Felix came home after work to the farm where under-employed Oscar had helped himself to Felix' tiger maple blank purchased for his new Model 88 Winchester. It had been "adapted" to the pictured trapdoor, which had in the process become a "cavalry model", using a hacksaw and sawhorse. Had there been ammo....
I understand it took a few deer in its day. I only shot one, and I hit it quartering toward me in the shoulder. Bullet rode the meat along the spine doing the chiropractor thing...displacing each vertebra as it passed by. Deer was like a slinky, with totally useless backstraps. I was lucky, deer, not so much.
Ironically, I have a letter penned by my dad just before his death in 2009 (he was often up late and philosophical) telling me to never change it.
i guess he had forgiven Oscar.
I often used this rifle as a demonstrator of an "assault rifle" prior to our department finally authorizing Colt AR for patrol. My Sheriff was a total boob and I was anything but respectful of him because he regularly endangered his men, so jabs like that were the norm. I carried my cartridge in my pocket like Barney Fife. Got lots of chuckles. Then after "shotgun qualification" I would bang steel offhand to 150 yards with the old girl. Made my point about cover verses concealment. And made my point about ballistic advantage of a rifleman against a cop car. I even qualified with an old M1 carbine once, then shot the plate rack at 100 yards offhand to make our guys start thinking a bit about threats at a distance. It was fun to punch holes thru old cars we used for scenerio training, just to make a point. The little m1 would punch right thru both sides of a car unless you hit the framing inside. The 45-70 was loaded with 300 grain jacketed bullets, mildly, so it was not so good against car steel. In its 500 grain lead form, that is a different story.
Finally he saw the light and we got carbines. So this old truck gun is partially responsible for helping men of arms get what they needed 120 years after it was made.