[moooose102]

i just noticed a thread about 2 different size primes on 45 acp brass. is there the same situation on 45-70 rifle brass? it makes sense to me that if a small primer was used in a tube magazine, it would be harder to ignite via recoil forces in the tube.i have no problem with flat or hollow points, but i am nervous about round nose bullets. it seems like smaller primes would be safer in that particular load (350 hornady rn). i have a box of these bullets, have loaded and shot them in my marlin. i just feed them single file direcly into the chamber like a single shot. am i worrying about nothing, or is my paranoia keeping my fingers intact!?

[ReloaderFred]

I have two lever action Marlin .45-70's. If you've ever seen the pictures of a blown up lever gun from using pointed bullets, or even round nose bullets, in the magazine, you would do exactly as you're doing, loading them one at a time. As you know, there is considerable recoil with this round in a light rifle. Use only flat point bullets in the magazine tube, or the new Hornady Lever Revolution elastimer tipped bullets, which are only available as factory loaded ammunition.

I use several different bullets in my .45-70's, all of them flat point. The lightest bullet I shoot is the Berry's 350 grain plated bullet, which is exceedingly accurate in my guns. The others are the 405 grain Remington Jacketed Soft Point, which is an excellent bullet and did a really good job on my Canadian moose this October, and the RCBS 405 grain RNFP, which drops from my mold at 420 grains.

It's my understanding that one of the custom ammunition shops had some .45-70 brass made up with small rifle primer pockets, but I can't remember which one right at the moment. For me, I've had good luck with the large rifle primers in my Remington .45-70 brass, so I'll just stick with it.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[moooose102]

i am just curious fred, why do you have 2 45-70 lever marlins? is one a back up? or one stainless? long/short barrel?

[ReloaderFred]

The first 1895 is my hunting rifle. It was made in the early 1980's, and has Micro-Groove rifling, in a 22" round barrel. The second one is a new 1895 Cowboy, with 26" octagon barrel and Ballard Cut Rifling. I use the Cowboy for most of my lead bullet shooting and keep it nice. The hunting rifle gets a lot of use in the woods and isn't quite new looking anymore. It also has Ashley Outdoors sights on it, which is a peep sight rear and tall front sight. This setup is much better for hunting than the buckhorn style open sights.

I didn't opt for a scope, since I wanted a compact, easy to handle thumper for elk and moose. This combination fills that bill.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Ranger J]

One never has too many 1895s or any 45/70 for that matter.

RJ

[Starter52]

Two different sized primers in .45 ACP brass??? That's news to me. When did this happen?

[rcmodel]

All of the lead-free "Clean" ammo uses small primers, regardless of caliber.

The lead-free priming mix is very violent compared to regular primer compound, and using it in Lg. primers early on was causing gun damage from breach-face peening.

In addition to Sm. primers, most brands have very large 1/8" flash-holes, and the primers are crimped in, all an attempt to reduce primer pocket pressure, and prevent breech-face peening and primers setting back.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j219/rcmodel/KTOG/1224.gif
rcmodel

[ReloaderFred]

I've got some old .45 brass from Europe that was loaded with small pistol primers years ago. Of course, they're Berdan primed, but still small pistol.

The description rcmodel gives for the reason for the current crop of NT primers is correct. The burning characteristics of the NT priming compound is different than lead styphnate, so the primers were backing out of the pockets much more violently than previously. They first tried crimping them in, then enlarging flash holes, and finally small pistol primers.

They work.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[flashhole]

I've been shooting the Hornady 350 grain Round Nose bullet in my Guide Gun since I bought it new in 2000. I will usually put 4 in the magazine at one time when I'm at the range and I have fired several hundred rounds. I like the bullet so much I bought 1500 during a Midway year end close out sale. If there were a problem with this bullet causing guns to explode they would not be on the market. They have been on the market for a long time, a lot of people use them and you haven't heard of a single instance where someones gun blew up because of this bullet. They are perfectly safe to use in a lever gun with a tubular magazine.

My favorite load for the 350 grain RN bullet is 58.0 grains of Varget with CCI 200 primers. It is a mildly compressed powder charge and very accurate in my Guide Gun. I don't have a chrony but working the on-target numbers backwards through a ballistics calculator for different ranges (100 and 160 yards) indicates they are leaving the barrel at between 1900 - 1950 feet per second. My Varget powder charge has been as high as 61 grains with no pressure signs but accuracy fell off. At 58 grains I have a "scary accurate" load in my gun that is no where near the top end of the pressure scale.

[kelsonAK]

You will find some 45-70 with small rifle primer pockets. Buffalo Bore loads use brass with small rifle primer pockets, and a couple of other small producers do also. I believe starline has small rifle primer brass.

I haven't reloaded any of the small primer pocket brass - that is one of my winter projects.

TTFN