By John Floyd
Excerpt from Fouling Shot 131 Jan-Feb 1998.Nearly fifty years ago when I was a cattle rancher here in southern British Columbia, I was the chap that introduced an old single-shot .45-7() Peabody rifle to a large black bear. I had found one of my cows that had been killed by a bear and I was out to even the score. Hardly anything makes a rancher angrier than finding a predator eating one of his cows!
I had acquired the old Peabody from a shooting buddy and he knew as little as I did about the rifle. It had "Peabody's Pat." and "Providence Tool Co." stamped on the receiver, was in fairly good shape for an old gun, with clean, deep rifling in the barrel, a tipping breech block action and a big external hammer. There were no caliber markings on it, but my buddy had been shooting .45-70 factory ammunition in the rifle, so we felt sure that was what it was chambered for. It was years later before I discovered that the old Peabody was rather rare and was originally made in a metric caliber for the French during the Franco-Prussian war. It was also sold to Connecticut for the state militia, which later returned it to the factory to be rebarrelled to .45-75, with the then new seven-groove Henry rifling.
While I did not know all this at the time, I had heard that it was not a good idea to use jacketed bullets and smokeless powder in these old rifles. Too expensive also! So, I got a Lyman mould for the 400 grain 457124 bullet and started with lead and black powder. No sizing of the bullets for me; just lube them with water-pump grease and seat them with enough black powder in the case to fill it to the base of the bullet. The resulting groups were hardly of match quality, but plenty good enough for hunting large animals.
Now, a cattle rancher has things to do besides sitting up by a dead cow, so I could only check out the area in the evenings at dusk. One evening I was a bit late and it was nearly dark under the trees where the carcass lay. I was carrying the Peabody with a round in the chamber and three shells between the fingers of my left hand. When I was about sixty yards from the carcass I saw what looked like a big black stump, but it growled at me! At first I couldn't tell which end the growl came from, but when the black bulk moved broadside to me, I let the front sight of the Peabody down into the forward half and squeezed the trigger.
Although I was momentarily blinded by the muzzle flash, I heard the solid thunk of a good hit. While slipping another round into the chamber I heard the bear run off into the trees. I knew that was the sign of a heart-shot animal. When all was quiet I went forward and found a very large, dead bear piled up against a tree. In daylight the next morning, I surveyed the remains. The 400 grain bullet had clipped the heart and passed on through
Now, a cattle rancher has things to do besides sitting up by a dead cow, so I could only check out the area in the evenings at dusk. One evening I was a bit late and it was nearly dark under the trees where the carcass lay. I was carrying the Peabody with a round in the chamber and three shells between the fingers of my left hand. When I was about sixty yards from the carcass I saw what looked like a big black stump, but it growled at me! At first I couldn't tell which end the growl came from, but when the black bulk moved broadside to me, I let the front sight of the Peabody down into the forward half and squeezed the trigger.
Although I was momentarily blinded by the muzzle flash, I heard the solid thunk of a good hit. While slipping another round into the chamber I heard the bear run off into the trees. I knew that was the sign of a heart-shot animal. When all was quiet I went forward and found a very large, dead bear piled up against a tree. In daylight the next morning, I surveyed the remains. The 400 grain bullet had clipped the heart and passed on through
the animal. In daylight, that "black" bear was a dark chocolate brown.
In time I found that the Peabody would shoot excellently with pure lead bullets sized to .452"
Over the years it has done fine work for me, even out to five and six hundred yards in the Military Black Powder Matches. It is little wonder that the old rifle has an honored place in my gun cabinet.
In time I found that the Peabody would shoot excellently with pure lead bullets sized to .452"
Over the years it has done fine work for me, even out to five and six hundred yards in the Military Black Powder Matches. It is little wonder that the old rifle has an honored place in my gun cabinet.