The rifle arrived today at my local shop and it's sitting here at home now. I'm very happy with the wood and build quality. Barrel is 28" to breach block. Hooded front sight, express rib, quick detach rings and a 1.5-4.5 scope. Weight is 9 pounds with the scope.
I have not tried the trigger yet as I do not have snap caps yet for the 45-70 round.
The rear sight is missing from the rib, but from talking with Dakota today, that would not be a problem and I knew it was missing beforehand.
I have two concerns that I would welcome any thoughts on. First is about how deeply the block falls within its mortise when the lever is fully forward. The block's top surface is roughly 1/8" below the channel cut for feeding the cartridges to the chamber, and I'm worried extracted cases will hang up here on the back edge of the block mortise.
This picture shows the block retracted.
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The second concern is about how much resistance the lever gives when starting and completing the open/close arc. This seems much different than the few I had handled in the past. Can this be adjusted by Dakota?
[img:left][URL=http://s376.photobucket.com/user/returnspring/media/Dakota%20Model%2010%20in%2045-70/DSC_04271.jpg.html]
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