Many years ago I acquired an Remington Keene nickel plated Indian Police saddle ring carbine. This was a .45-70 Govt., bolt-action with a tubular magazine that had been issued to Native American police by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1874. Most of these were long rifles but a few were the nickel plated carbines. Cartridges were loaded into the tubular magazine through a hole in the butt plate and the magazine extended below the barrel.
I found my gun in pristine condition hanging from the ceiling at Bandito's Gun Shop off Highway 80 in Weimar, CA, just east of Auburn, CA. It's only flaw was a missing leaf spring on the military rear sight which allowed it to flop up and down. It looked brand new.
A couple of months after I bought it, a friend and I took the Remington Keen and several other guns out shooting in the foothills out Highway 26 east of Stockton. It too, did not produce a huge movie "BANG!" I was shooting some authentic black-powder .45-70 govt. rounds at a pie plate I had put on a tree at 200 yards. The Keene produced a "WHOMP!" and clouds of white smoke. About a second or so later I heard a "THUNK!"
My buddy was watching from about ten feet away through a spotting scope and said "WOW! There's a hold in the middle of the pie plate!"
"You're kidding."
"Bet you ten bucks you can't do that again!" my buddy said.
"I'm not taking that bet, not with this flopping sight!" I raised the Keene and aimed at the pie plate again. "WHOMP!" and about a second later "K'THUNK!"
"DAMN! There another hole, about two inches away from the first!"
The third shot was just at the bottom of the plate.
That Remington Keene outshot every other short barrel .45-70 I ever shot. . . even with a floppy sight. I did have the adjustment set pretty high for 200 yds. . . but the first shot was a guess, because I had no idea what the load's velocity was. Back then, they really loaded the BP loads down for older guns. Given the estimated time of the sound and time for bullet travel, it was probably about ½ second for the bullet to reach the target and another ½ second for the sound of the hit to reach us, which equals bullet speed of about 1200 - 1300 FPS.
More modern .45-70 smokeless loads designed for modern made guns can hit up to 2500 FPS but should not be used on any antique gun.
I was collecting antique Winchesters at the time and it did not really fit in my collection so I traded it away to a Remington collector for a mint condition 1876 Military Rifle that was worth about six times the $375 I paid for the Keene back in 1975. We were both happy with our trade.