45-70 Gibbs Enfields. Your thoughts?

[RedneckFur]

I saw a rifle recently that sparked my intrest. A Gibbs hunter 45-70. looks to be a rebarreld No4 SMLE action with a 45-70 barrel in a sporter stock. has the lines of a big bore hunting rifle, and the conversion looks to be very well done.

Cany any of you shed any light on these rifles, and tell me some more about them? Any good, bad, or ugly secrets about them? Hows the recoil, if you know? I'm considering purchasing it, but I'd hate to buy something that later I regret.

 

[Freightman]

Don't see any reason the action wouldn't work ok, don't know about haw it will feed from the mag. The problem with a 45/70 is you get to where you only want to shoot 45/70, you spend all your time casting new bullets, trying new loads and experimenting with length (however with a mag you will be limited in this) heavy bullets black powder, grease cookies ect. you get the picture. Try at the risk of neglecting other calibers.As far as recoil you can manage that because you can ether load them wild or mild your choice. Now this is if you are a hand loader which I recommend if you are going to play with big bore stuff because of cost.

 

[tbtrout]

No info, but I hae wanted one for a while now.

 

[Webleymkv]

I've never heard of a Gibbs that had any major problems, but from the examples I've seen fit and finish can be spotty. Honestly, for the prices I see Gibbs going for anymore, a Marlin levergun makes more sense.

 

[HiBC]

Interesting.Per SPG bullet lube's booklet,I becan blowing out 30-40 Krag/.303 Brit to straight wall to make a 40-60 Maynard on a Rolling Block.Then Hornady gave us the .405 WCF.
Piggy backing on the 45-70 conversion,are pressures/case length of the .405 suitable for the SMLE?

 

[HiBC]

Did a little checking.Per my Hogdon Reloader Guide and Accurate manual,
Max cartridge oal for .303 is 3.075.The load in Hogdon for .405 with a 300 gr Hornady flatpoint is 3.085 A guy might be able to fing that .010 somewhere.Saami max pressure for .303 is 45,000 cup.None of the loads shown in Hogdon for the .405 made 45,000 psi.Conclusion,action can handle the pressure.
So,possibly a good platform for a 10 shot .405 bear companion.Same 2400 fps as a .303 with a 170 gr bullet,the 405 is 300 gr.
One might also consider the possibilities of some of the cast 385 gr .410 slugs with a long body,short ogive.
something near 1900 fps is possible. A 416 taylor is a 400 gr slug at 2100.
Hang on to your wheelweights!
I.m wondering about the fellows who rebore/rerifle.A good,deep hook rifling,an SMLE with a decent chamber but dark bore..
Minute of 150 yds would be good,and there is enough bbl to shorten for the re-rifle.Holy Jungle carbine,Batman!!

 

[cat9x]

hit and miss

I've owned two of these rifles. I would not buy one unless I had really good pictures and/or the rifle to look over in person. On my first Gibbs Summit the fit and finish wasn't spectacular but hey it's a $375 reman enfield so what can you really expect right?

My second Gibbs Summit was extraordinary. Both were wood stocked but the stock on the 2nd rifle was tiger striped and finished very nicely. Wood to metal fit was exceptional. Both rifles were the same price. Pictured is the rougher of the two rifles which I eventually sold.

The proprietory magazine is of course single stack and be careful loading your cartridges. The magazine will actually hold 4 rounds but it's not made for that, only load 3. I found recoil to be somewhat mild shooting 405gr. SP's. These are not target rifles and I would limit my hunting range to 100 yards. The barrels are marked "Navy Arms Company Union City, NJ". Very fun rifles to shoot! Hope this helps out somewhat.

here is a good article to read on them...
http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2005/kingandcountry/index.asp

 

[RedneckFur]

Thanks for the information so far. Its been very helpful. I knew nothing about these rifles yesterday, and I feel im off to a good start. I'll be doing some more research on them before I commit to buying one.