Steve499
Member
I finally brought a Sharps ( Armi Sport, Taylor's) 45/70 home from a gun show Saturday. Now I have to re-learn loading black powder cartridges for it. I had a SILE Sharps several years ago and had poor luck with BP in it, but I didn't know about black powder lube, then.
Saturday afternoon,I loaded up a few cases with 64 grains of Swiss 3f, card wad, lube pill and some 250 grain cast bullets for my .45 Colt. I also loaded the same powder charge, card wad and some 550 grain, .450 bullets I shoot from my .451 Volunteer muzzleloader. I had no bullets on hand specifically for a 45/70 so I used what I did have cause I just HAD to shoot it!
The pistol bullets did O.K., probably would do better if I had weighed the ones I loaded but even at that, provided acceptable 100 yard hunting accuracy. The undersized 550 grain bullets all went into a group 1.5 inches wide. The group was about 2.5 inches vertically, which I expected since I had 5 rounds I breech seated the bullets on top of an uncompressed powder charge, 3 rounds with a compressed charge and 3 rounds with a SUPER compressed charge. The bullet is obviously 'bumping up' to fill the bore just like it does in the muzzle loader. Oh, forgot to mention this was only at 50 yards. That's about as far as I can use open sights on targets. I'm going to get a tang sight pretty soon which makes all the difference in the world.
Anyway, I only had 16 cases I found laying around here and there left over from that other rifle, so my testing stopped after those were fired. I now have cases and a .459, 405 grain mold ordered from Midway. My question is, what's the best way to compress the powder charge enough to allow a lube pill to be between the powder and bullet? I was able to fully seat those long, 550 grain bullets on top of 64 grains of Swiss just in my seating die but it bulged the shoulders on the bullets some. Can you compress black powder too much? I'd like to hear how everyone else loads for their 45/70s.
Steve
Saturday afternoon,I loaded up a few cases with 64 grains of Swiss 3f, card wad, lube pill and some 250 grain cast bullets for my .45 Colt. I also loaded the same powder charge, card wad and some 550 grain, .450 bullets I shoot from my .451 Volunteer muzzleloader. I had no bullets on hand specifically for a 45/70 so I used what I did have cause I just HAD to shoot it!
The pistol bullets did O.K., probably would do better if I had weighed the ones I loaded but even at that, provided acceptable 100 yard hunting accuracy. The undersized 550 grain bullets all went into a group 1.5 inches wide. The group was about 2.5 inches vertically, which I expected since I had 5 rounds I breech seated the bullets on top of an uncompressed powder charge, 3 rounds with a compressed charge and 3 rounds with a SUPER compressed charge. The bullet is obviously 'bumping up' to fill the bore just like it does in the muzzle loader. Oh, forgot to mention this was only at 50 yards. That's about as far as I can use open sights on targets. I'm going to get a tang sight pretty soon which makes all the difference in the world.
Anyway, I only had 16 cases I found laying around here and there left over from that other rifle, so my testing stopped after those were fired. I now have cases and a .459, 405 grain mold ordered from Midway. My question is, what's the best way to compress the powder charge enough to allow a lube pill to be between the powder and bullet? I was able to fully seat those long, 550 grain bullets on top of 64 grains of Swiss just in my seating die but it bulged the shoulders on the bullets some. Can you compress black powder too much? I'd like to hear how everyone else loads for their 45/70s.
Steve
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