Howdy
First off, I have to say that those of you commenting on how much easier a Black Powder single shot is to clean than a lever gun must not have fired many lever guns loaded with Black Powder.
Yes, of course it is easier, because you are basically just cleaning a pipe. But having fired lever guns with Black Powder for many years, I can tell you it only takes me about ten minutes to clean a lever gun after shooting with Black Powder. The trick is to use a cartridge such as the WCF family of cartridges, such as 44-40 or 38-40. The thin brass at the mouth allows the brass to expand and seal the chamber at the relatively low pressures that Black Powder generates, keeping almost all the fouling in the bore. Very little vents back into the action. Not so much with a 45 Colt lever gun, the thicker brass does not seal so well in the chamber and there is a fair amount of blowback.
Anyhoo, since you asked, I would choose a Pedersoli Sharps. Which I did about 15 years ago.
I bought this Silhouette Model from Dixie Gunworks on sale for $800 at the time. Dixie still catalogs it, but it costs a bit more now, $1650.
https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index/page/product/product_id/8340/category_id/314/product_name/CR0415+PEDERSOLI+SHARPS+M1874+SILHOUETTE+RIFLE,+.45-70
When I went shopping for a Sharps, I looked at all the fancy ones, The Quigly model and all the other fancy Sharps models. I was quite disappointed in what I saw. Most had a fore end cap that was pinned in place, and not too well. A fore end cap should be cast in place, not pinned. And the checkering on most of them was not so hot either. So rather than be disappointed with poor quality extras, I choose this very simple model. It had everything I was looking for. Double set triggers and a pistol grip. No fancy checkering, no fore end cap, and most important, shotgun style butt plate. Shooting a heavy recoiling rifle with a crescent shaped butt plate requires a different technique than most modern shooters are used to. You have to hike the butt out on your arm so the crescent encircles the shoulder joint. Put it on the meaty part of your shoulder and the points will dig in and it will hurt. I put an inexpensive Pedersoli rear sight on my Sharps, also from DIxie.
Actually, I much prefer shooting this old Trapdoor. It has the original military sights, and my eyesight is pretty poor, so I can't do much precision long distance shooting anyway. It is just more fun with the old Trapdoor.
I also have this original Winchester Model 1886, also chambered for 45-70. Have not had a chance to shoot it yet. But I won't worry about cleaning it, it's not much more difficult than cleaning a single shot.
Regarding 45-70, I wouldn't dream of going with one of the fancier cartridges such as 45-90 or 45-110. 45-70 brass is much more easily available than any of the other more esoteric cartridges. And more has been written about it than any of the other cartridges either, so finding loading data is much easier. I don't care if everybody else has a 45-70, it works fine for me.
Here is a photo of a bunch of my Black Powder cartridges. Left to right, 44 Russian, 45 Schofield, 38-40, 44-40, 45 Colt and 45-70.
For 45-70 I use a .458 diameter 405 grain bullet from Montana Precision. I use Winchester brass and Winchester Large Rifle primers. I drop about 72 grains of Schuetzen FFg down a drop tube and into the case. I follow it with a .030 thick card and compress the powder with a compression die. Then I seat and crimp. I use a standard RCBS 45-70 die set. Since I don't have the eyesight for long range precision shooting, that load suits me very well.
