prichard,
my father has two new england firearms handi-rifles and numerous barrels for each including a 45-70. he has been reloading for over 35 years and works up some very interesting loads including plenty of "hot rod" loads for the 45-70 that will make your shoulder ache after just a few rounds. by the way, he regularly shoots 1 to 1.5 moa groups with moly coated home made cartride case bullets. as far as i know he hasn't had any problems the guns besides snapping a few firing pins. he isn't really familiar to the computer but he is pretty interested in the tfl so i am going to try to get him online this week. if you have any other questions, just send me mail and i will ask him.