.45-70 Derringer? Yikes!!!!!
As someone who ownes four .45-70 caliber firearms, and has been loading and shooting that fine round for the past 25 years, all I can say is "Yikes!!"
I have a Ruger No.3, A Marlin 1895, a Siamese Mauser, and a T/C Contender barrel in .45-70, and let me tell you this, even though the Contender barrel is 14" long and has a bunch of them little holes in the end (which are supposed to reduce the recoil), IT KICKS! A friend of mine, a fine young man who came to visit before getting deployed wanted to shoot it. So, I let him. But I made sure I told him that it kicked. He watched me shoot it. He watched me shoot it one handed (to prove it wasn't completely unmanageable). And he did a fine job of locking his wrists when he fired. Unfortunately for him, he didn't "lock" or tension his elbows!, and the gun came back, up, hit him in the face! The edge of the red dot sight took a divot out of his nose! And he bled a bit. We all had a good laugh (try hard as I could not to). He did hit the target! I guess my nearly 40 years of handgun shooting gave me skills that I didn't conciously realize, at least compared to the 20 year old. I failed to realize that when I told him it kicked, he didn't understand it the way I meant it. He did find out though.
I saw the ads for that .45-70 Derringer back when they came out, and passed on it then. I would pass on it today, as hand damage and nerve damage are something I can gladly do without. I don't heal up like I did when I was 20 something.
Shoot the .45-70 derringer? go ahead. Shoot it with a hot .45-70 load? go ahead, if you want. Just remember that doing that belongs in the "Hey, y'all wanna see somethin?" or the "Hold ma beer and watch this!" category.
If you get it on film you might be able to sell it to the people who do that Jackass movie thing!