[Mike Duke]

Oooooooooooowwwwwww
So excited!

 

[toolmanm203]

Nice job Mike that did not take long glad the belts were to your liking

 

[hkg3k]

Bravo...nicely done!

 

[haakster]

Bravo...nicely done!

Great Mike! When you get it running, I will donate some tracer ammo for you to use. Regards, JH

 

[GBYENKO]

That is nice, 45/70 in vickers. That baby's going to hit hard.

 

[IMBLITZVT]

Now that is the coolest British thing yet! I really like them. Almost has me wishing I had a Vickers over a MG08. You need to get some good video of these guys shooting. If you could team up with Ian at forgotten weapons... it would be awesome to see these guns working today with the history and a modern replication of WWI use. Can you get a big balloon of hydrogen? I would love to see what you can do with this.

As far as them hitting harder... I wonder how it will compare.

30-06 = 2,429 ft⋅lbf
303 = 2,408 ft⋅lbf
45-70-405=1,748 ft⋅lbf
45-70-300=2,852 ft⋅lbf

So it looks like it depends on exactly what 45-70 you are loading up. I would be interested to know if you can feel the difference when shooting the gun.

 

[MG34_Dan]

Dave Rosenfield's loaded 45-70 Vickers ammo belt consisted of running four (4) black powder loaded rounds and one (1) smokeless powder loaded round over and over for the 100 round belt. The black powder loaded rounds always left a small cloud of unburnt powder. That cloud was ignited by the smokeless powder round. When fired we got 'Bang Bang Bang Bang Boom!'. What a cloud pleaser. Dolf acquired Rosenfield's 45-70 Vickers setup years ago. I wonder if Dolf still has it.

 

[Mike Duke]

Well, I’m running the gun in 11mm Gras currently. One of my Vickers is an aircraft gun so I had the parts. I’m running 390-405 grain bullets at 1400FPS it’s a big THUMP when it hits the target. I don’t think 45-70 will be much different. I’m going to stay about 1400fps. Just waaaay cheaper and accessible components than 11mm.
you guys should see the barrels. New, 416 stainless steel barrels 28.5” long target crowned. Way overkill for a slow, low pressure cartridge.
Barrel pic

 

[oprod]

Thumper!