I have wanted one for a long time now and with all this 45-70 talk I am very close to plopping the money down. Only choice now is the 10" or 7.5" barrel. I know with 33 cal and less you need that extra barrel to get good speed. I was thinking with a large cal you have more volume for that powder to burn so mabe the 2.5" might not be worth it. Besides it's harder to quick draw a 10" barrel.......what do you guys think.

I think you got more kajonas than I do my friend![8D] A 45-70 in a pistol is..... uhm................ well.............. a lot of friggin gun.[][] I think with either barrel length it's gonna hurt.

Wear your wrist brace.

Well I'm no stud just a reloader that could tame the beast with mild loads and sucker my friends into shooting it with the "oh $hit" loads.....I'm not evil just like to do evil things.

No offense is intended by this, but unless you're used to shooting big bore handguns, the .45-70 BFR IS NOT for you (and I'm not talking about .44mags or .45colts). It's certainly not a beginners gun, truth be told, it's quite a bit of gun even for pretty seasoned handgun hunters-it's an avid big bore handgunner's gun, a handgun shooter's gun.

I had a BFR .45-70 for a time, really loved shooting it, recoil was pretty nice for what it is, honestly not that bad...BUT, as far as what you can use it for a .480Ruger or a .454Cassul is more practical. It's incredibly powerful, but you really don't need that much power to hunt any game on this side of the pond, it's a HUGE heavy single action that recoils like a son of a gun, so it's not a good choice for a self defense gun.

I really loved mine, only reason I sold it was because I got enough money to buy BOTH a .480Ruger AND a .454Cassul in Ruger Super Redhawks...sometimes I regret it, it was a really cool gun, even if these two new ones are more practical. I bought the 10" and took it back for a 7.5" because I didn't really like the handle on the long one, your mileage may vary.

If you've got the money burning a hole in your pocket, buy it, the resale value on them is much better than any other handgun-take me for example, I had mine for 5yrs, shot the heck out of it (kept it really clean and neat though) and only lost $100 on it when I sold it.

It's definately fun to shoot, get some light handloads made up to start yourself out though.

The velocity decrease between the two lengths isn't really noticeable in your hand or down range, even if it is substantial on paper-long story short, the 2.5" isn't going to bridge the gap between a .500S&W and a .454cassul, it's a small change (even though it should be substantial since .45-70's run best with slow burning powders), it's just behind the .500S&W and a long way ahead of the .454C and .480R regardless of bbl length.

BTW, you're NOT going to quick draw with the BFR, whether you get the 7.5" or the 10", it's huge regardless of bbl length, and it's HEAVY, and it's NOT fast.

I saw one today at a gun show, and I was impressed. Go for the 10" if you don't like the length after testing you can always have it cut. Good luck.

Just out of curosity, what does the BFR stand for any way. BIG !@#$%&* REVOLVER?

BFG Biggest Finest Revolver made by magnum research makers of the desert eagle. I think Bigbulls may have it right after shooting a full power load one time. Handloader thanks for the idea. Why didn't I think of that. I may just go the 10" barrel. I love that ol 45-70 cal. mostly for fun though. I hunt with a .300mag mostly and when handgun hunting I use the ol 44 redhawk but I seem to be just out of my own personal confidence range quite often though. I think with the right reload I could find a flatter more acurate round.

Beside I have most of that other stuff why not go for the "WOW"s down at the shooting range........what a fun sport we have.