Gee I thought we'd ridden this one to ground enough times?

If a person was concerned about recoil and weight he'd have a heavier rifle. Last time I shot my 45/70 Marlin I didn't think it was mild at all. It has poor terminal ballistics performance and that's why it's taking a nap in the back of my gun safe!

Bless the 45/70's heart it was a fine man killer in 1873 when it was adopted as the offical U.S. Government military cartridge. Today, it's just a straight walled hold over black powder round that folks have been trying to make into poor man's big bore! If you want it to perform well you need to load it up to brutal recoil levels in a bolt action rifle to generate enough velocity to overcome the poor bullet design of that .458 bullet.

My old Speer manual says "Because of the high trajectory of its slow-moving buller, the .45-70 is limited to short range hunting with 150 yards about the limit for reliable bullet placement." Let's see it says a 300 grain bullet out of a 1895 Marlin at 2150.

Respectable!
However, Kynoch specs on my 450/400 3 inch launches a 400 grain bullet at 2100. A long, 400 grain .408 bullet that penetrates well. And the recoil is very managable.

You go for that Lever Action, it's your money. But I'd stick to plains game and white-tailed deer, up close.
Just my opine!