If you can find a blackpowder/cast bullet loading that will shoot 2 MOA or better out to 500 meters, your rifle or carbine will at least get you started in BPCR silhouette. Generally, the .45-70 is eminently capable of such accuracy in a good gun. As ssdave has pointed out, the chief handicap after that is the lack of a finely adjustable sight. You might see if MVA could adapt one of their staffs to your H&R base. You get sighters at Silhouette matches, and they’re generally over in a few hours, so if your sight base is tight in the wood, it alone shouldn’t be an impossible handicap. You’re not routinely lying out there for days in alternate pouring rain and baking heat, swelling and shrinking the wood. Gong shoots frequently have a special “Trapdoor class,” where unmodified originals, with Buffington sights, can often get uncomfortably close to those with more specialized equipment. The first time I went to the Quigley, there was a guy who shot the whole course, offhand, with a Trapdoor army rifle. He got the same score as me, a 21. For a first approximation, though, taking your Officers’ Model to a local shoot and seeing how it goes, will at least inform you of the issues in play and let you decide what you might want to do about them. There are sometimes even rifles and accessories for sale at such affairs, that can help get you further into the game at a discount.
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