45 70, the manly cartridge

[woodstock]

Just got my dies and started to reload 45/70 for the first time. Could Not find carbide for some reason and settled for steel, blechh.

The sizing die needs to be polished as its a bit rough inside, had to use prodigious quantities of lube.
Have to figure out how Im going to polish that , open to suggestions.

Got brand new starline brass which has a sturdy thick wall, but is not all that uniform in diameter, compounding the rough die problem. Should last a good long while, especially since I load the majority of my rounds in the center of the charging chart.

Am using speer 300 grain HP FN. I like speer, as they have good quality control in my experience. Weighing the projectiles, most weighed at or just under 300 grains. And by just under I mean 299.xx .
Diameter at the base was very good as well.

Made up some test rounds, only 4 of each as this round is a good shoulder adjuster, of H335 and Benchmark.
For primers I went with large rifle magnums from CCI. Those babys will light off.

Started above the minimum charges but well below the max , and kept the lengths conservative as well.

Range test in my hopefully near future.

 

[alleycat]

Cool, pls post more pics as you work on this!

 

[BillMe45]

Starline 45-70 has been good to me... might as well be its hit and miss finding any thing else. I'm also having good luck with Penn cast lead bullets. There very good on batching by weight. Weighing 10 out of a 500 round batch and all are within .4 grains. These are also rated for 2000 fps without a gas check. I dont have a chrony, and havnt shot any over my friends yet but according to the data I'm loading them real close to 2000 with no leading.

I'm also using the Lee steel dies. Are you using the Lee factory crimp die?

I'm interested in your work with Benchmark and will keep watch. Good luck and keep us posted.


http://www.pennbullets.com/4570/4570-caliber.html 300 gr lead fp $74 per 500

 

[sc951]

get a .410 shotgun mop and wrap 1200 or higher sand paper (get it at an auto paint store like PPG) around it. Spray a good quality lite oil on the sandpaper. I use Balistol. Chuck the mop directly into a cordless drill and polish away. 1200 or higher is like using tough toilet paper, it would take a tremendous amount to change the dimensions. Once you get the interior polished take a wood pencil and chuck it in your drill and wrap a paper towel around it with acetone on it and clean the inside very well. You may want to put a very light coat of oil back in it after you coat it or it may rust.

 

[7pt62THOR]

Subscribed for more info.

 

[BillMe45]

Had something of a feeding breakthrough today. Dropped COL down to 2.50 and there it was, like butter. Not the first hitch cycling my Marlin 1895.

Todays load was a .458 300gr lead round nose flat point. Starline never fired brass, WLR primers, 16gr of Trailboss. Seated to 2.50 COL and crimped hard using the LEE factory crimp die.

As stated above cycling turned to butter, I tend to have a hitch in the cycle using a LRNFP.

Accuracy is hanging in there, smallest group of the day was 2" at 50 yards. This is almost the last of the .458's, thankfully. .459's shoot so much better. I'm using up the .458's working on COL, seating depth and crimp.

Next up I want to know if I can go 2.50 with 405grs over the Trailboss. The 300's arnt compressing it.


What have yall been working on?

 

[savannahboy]

That's a hoss of a cartridge. In Wanted Dead or Alive, Mcqueen carried 45-70s on his cartridge belt for camera effect, but his mares leg was a 44-40.

 

[woodstock]

Had something of a feeding breakthrough today. Dropped COL down to 2.50 and there it was, like butter. Not the first hitch cycling my Marlin 1895.

Todays load was a .458 300gr lead round nose flat point. Starline never fired brass, WLR primers, 16gr of Trailboss. Seated to 2.50 COL and crimped hard using the LEE factory crimp die.

As stated above cycling turned to butter, I tend to have a hitch in the cycle using a LRNFP.

Accuracy is hanging in there, smallest group of the day was 2" at 50 yards. This is almost the last of the .458's, thankfully. .459's shoot so much better. I'm using up the .458's working on COL, seating depth and crimp.

Next up I want to know if I can go 2.50 with 405grs over the Trailboss. The 300's arnt compressing it.


What have yall been working on?

Ugh can't remember the max length off the top if my head, is it 2.55? You're at 2.5 and it feeds well?

I put a good crimp on mine as well with the factory die. Has to have a tight crimp with that feed.

Can't report on my loads performance yet, hope to next week.

Anyone annealing their brass? Thinking of doing that with a few of this new batch of cases I bought and loading more before I go to the range.

 

[BillMe45]

Ugh can't remember the max length off the top if my head, is it 2.55? You're at 2.5 and it feeds well?

I put a good crimp on mine as well with the factory die. Has to have a tight crimp with that feed.

Can't report on my loads performance yet, hope to next week.

Anyone annealing their brass? Thinking of doing that with a few of this new batch of cases I bought and loading more before I go to the range.

Yes, I started at 2.55 and worked my way down 0.01 at a time. Trying the cycle and making sure not to compress my charge. LEE calls min OAL with the 300gr cast bullet and Trailboss 2.465 so there was some wiggle room. Dead on 2.50 is where my rifle cycled good at.

When I go back to work on the 405's I may have trouble because LEE calls Min OAL 2.54 (I havn't researched this deeply, this is just whats in front of me). The 405's will be used for hunting and as of now I intend to load them with IMR 4198 (as I have plenty on hand and it gives good power) but H4198 gives almost as good power and takes up a little less room so I may find myself looking into it.

 

[BillMe45]

Anyone out there loading with Accurate 1680? Looks like it might be my best choice for deep seating a 405 gr.

With a VMD of only 0.0655 a 39gr load will drive a 405 to 1800fps but only take up 2.55 cc of case. That power is very close to where I'm wanting to be at for hunting, right at 3000 ft/lb (2913 ft/lb) for a starting load.

Safe to take it to 43gr for 1949 fps (3415 ft/lb) so there is plenty of room in between.