I just got a 45/70 barrel for my encore. I got the 24" barrel and mounted a 1.5-4x20 leupold. I really like the encore. I also have a 209x50, a 24" 22-250 barrel, and a 24" 30/06 barrel. I haven't gotten a chance to shoot the 30/06 barrel yet bt the other barrels all shoot very well. The nice thing about the encore is that when I'm traveling I can have a short easy to carry case with both a 22-250 for fox-wolves and a 30/06 for moose/carabou/bears. The 45/70 is an excellent barrel to have on when traveling the river fishing incase I run into a moose or bear. There is a serious amount of power in that little package when you shoot a 350gr JFN @ 2100fps. I am sending my 24" barrel to be cut down to 18" for portabilty/quickness. A 18" barrel still achieves pretty good performance in the 45/70 and a 18" barreled encore is a lot shorter and more compact than a 18" barreled marlin. I think you would really like the encore.