The Winchester 92 is a scaled down version of the Winchester 1886, certainly the strongest lever gun made until the modern Winchester 88 and perhaps the Browning BLR. (the old Savage 99 is no slouch either!).

Yes, plain and simple a 30/30 is enough gun for hog hunting. A lot of hogs are taken with 5.56/. 223 and 300 blackout both being smaller rounds either in caliber as the 5.56 or in powder capacity and weight of the 300blkout.

30-30 have a maximum effective range of around 150-200 yards. When using a polymer tipped bullet and a scoped rifle (like a Marlin 336), it’s possible to extend that somewhat to around 250 yards or so. That’s plenty of range for most hunters though.

45-70 Ballistics Chart:

45-70 is too much gun for deer, then any modern blackpowder rifle of . 45 caliber or over would have to be considered “too much”.

45-70 with LeverE ammo should be around 30ft-lbs or so. 375H&H is about 50ft-lbs of recoil and it’s not bad either if you warm up to its feel. 458Win mag is what starts getting attention at around 75-80lbs recoil. These are all assuming a 7.5lb hunting rifle.

45–70 Govt., using a bullet of 300 grains or less produces about the same amount of recoil as say a stock Remington 870 pump action. When you go up to a 400 gr., and especially with a 500 gr. bullet, I think the . 45–70 produces more recoil than the shotgun by a noticeable amount.

While it certainly has its limitations, the . 45-70 is still an extremely effective cartridge when used under the proper conditions. There are few modern cartridges that can match balance of power and portability that the . 45-70 offers.