Hickok45 Shoots an 1880s Rolling Block in .45-70 — Would You Have Hunted Buffalo With It?

Hickok45 spent this one behind an actual 1880s original rolling-block rifle in .45-70 — not a reproduction, the real period piece — and put the question to viewers straight: would you have trusted this for buffalo hunting? It’s less a review than a genuine appreciation piece for how much rifle a single-shot, 140-year-old action really is.

Would YOU have hunted Buffalo With This? Watch on YouTube — Hickok45

Watching a original like that cycle is a good reminder of why .45-70 never really went away. It was a serious buffalo and elk round in the 1870s and it still is now — the case hasn’t changed, the physics haven’t changed, and neither has the appeal of carrying something that hits that hard.

Here’s our take: you don’t need to track down an actual antique to get in on that. A lever gun in .45-70 gets you the same era-appropriate feel — same cartridge, same big, satisfying report — without needing to worry about running century-old steel hard at the range. Our 1886 Ridge Runner Takedown in .45-70 is exactly that: a modern lever-action built on the same classic pattern Hickok45’s rifle traces back to, chambered for the same round, and it breaks down for the safe or the truck without tools. If the video has you wanting to feel what a proper .45-70 does, that’s the easy way in.