Lee Loader

Don't know why but I've always wanted one, a 45-70 Govt. or 450 Marlin chambered in a bolt gun. Well, I finally own one. It is a Navy Arms/Gibbs Summit chambered in 45-70 Govt and the durn thing is in like new condition!





These rifles were reconditioned and rebarreled SMLE No. 4 Mk Ones that were marketed by Navy Arms. The function and feed is perfect with my 435-grain cast bullet. Will see how it shoots sometime in the next couple of days.

Nice rifle! The cartridge is on my "need" list, too. But I'm looking out for a Remington Rolling Block or a Winchester 1895 levergun chambered in that caliber. Never found my way into bolt actin rifles.

That is nice. Is that the same Gibbs that was involved in a bunch of wildcat cartridges back in the '60s?

Make smoke,

Nice and heavy lookin'

Ohio3Wheels wrote:That is nice. Is that the same Gibbs that was involved in a bunch of wildcat cartridges back in the '60s?

Gibbs did a lot of runs of Mausers with their hot rod cartridges but as far as I know they only used the SMLEs for the 308 Win and 45-70 Govt.

GasGuzzler wrote:Nice and heavy lookin'

Yeah, almost needs a set of wheels! All said and done it weights what my 1895MR (450 Marlin) did and what my 444T does: 8½ pounds.

I almost bought a Mauser chambered in 450 Marlin earlier this year. Really nice, short action rifle. I got confused on the closing date and missed it. There is generally a few modern bolt guns chambered in that cartridge on Gunbroker, not today, as they seem to have become quite popular in those States that have just started allowing rifles to be used for deer hunting with the straight wall cartridges.

I always thought that Marlin should have offered their short action bolt guns in both 338 Marlin Express and 450 Marlin. I would have bought the latter.

That's a nice looking rifle! Hopefully it shoots as good as it looks.

Looking forward to the range report....

A true gibbs now that has to be a bucket list rifle looks amazing. Love those rifles out of my price range, but so sexy I can't wait to see a hog you take down with it.

akuser47 wrote:I can't wait to see a hog you take down with it.

"A" hog?

With a rifle like this I think we need to see a "Three-Fer."

We have some big pigs here in Texas.