45-70 mbc 300, 405 loads

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ericuda

ericuda

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Ordered an 1895 marlin guide gun, will update previous post after review when I receive it next week?

Received brass today (starline) and I will trim, chamfer and debur to uniform lenghts tomorrow. Should get some 300 and 405 grain rnfp coated lead bullets from mbc early next week.

Which powder would be the best in both. I have a pound of imr3031 and am going to stop at lgs tomorrow to see what they have. Manuals show 3031 and 4198 are both good. What powder would you all recommend, lgs has had a good supply of imr and hodgdon? I am purely using the gun for fun. I am hoping to have something loaded up when gun arrives. I can load for around .92 cents and cheapest factory i see is 1.82 and of course the reloads drop in price per reload due to reusing exp brass (.46 per).

Other thoughts or advice on 45-70 welcome.
 
I bought the same bullets for my new Henry. EDIT: I missed the coated comment. Mine are plain (uncoated) lead.

Im running the 300s with 14.0gr of TrailBoss. Havent chronoed yet (hoping Friday), but expect a bit over 1000fps. Very fun plinking round.

Then when I want to get serious, Im running the 405s over about 48.5gr of 4064. IIRC start load for this was 46.0. Expect velocity will be somewhere a bit over 1600fps.

I have heard good things about 3031 in 45-70, but havent tried any (yet).
 
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I have heard Trailboss is good for light loads. I'll add that to my list to look for but I don't remember seeing it.
 
I'm loading both weights of MBC bullets but in plain lead, not coated. I have used both 4198 and 3031 with success but the 3031 was mostly used with jackets bullets. I'm now using only AA5744 and it's great. Accuracy is excellent and it's a clean powder. I load for a Marlin levergun and an original Trapdoor too.
 
I have also used 4064 with good results with the MBC 405's. It was easy to find accurate loads in the trapdoor and lever action levels. Im using an 1895 classic.

I've heard 3031 suggested many times for cast loads.
 
Anyone given RL7 a try? I also have 3031 on hand for .308 loads and saving 1lb Trail Boss for a rainy day.
 
I have the Marlin in 22" (I believe) barrel and used 3031 with 300 JHP. I loaded to around 2,000 fps and found this gun kills at both ends. Settled on around 1800 fps. Deer, Hog, and Bear will not know the difference. I went hunting many years ago (1980's) with the 2000 fps and killed a deer and don't remember feeling the brutal kick on my shoulder, only at the range.
 
gojones said:
I have the Marlin in 22" (I believe) barrel and used 3031 with 300 JHP. I loaded to around 2,000 fps and found this gun kills at both ends. Settled on around 1800 fps. Deer, Hog, and Bear will not know the difference. I went hunting many years ago (1980's) with the 2000 fps and killed a deer and don't remember feeling the brutal kick on my shoulder, only at the range.
Click to expand...
The 45-70 will kill @2000 fps, 1800 fps and even 1200 fps so there is no reason to hurt your shoulder. Many of us didn't feel then what we feel now! My wife said it's because I'm getting old, maybe lol... (I'm old already hehe)
 
I load 3031, 4198 and RL7.
My favorite is RL7 with jacketed bullets although I've only shot the Oregon Trail 405s with it in cast.
Any of the three mentioned will work for you.
One of the previous posters had it right when he said cast doesn't need to be run fast to work well. You can push them if you like but the gains are small and the recoil becomes a factor.
Great cartridge choice by the way.
 
I have a 22" 1895 and also use it as a range gun - not hunting anything. For punching paper and steel, I've found 300 gr. MBC bullets on top of 15.0 gr. of HS-6 a really light recoiling, accurate load. I got this recipe from this site which has more powders listed for light 45-70 loads:

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

Good luck!
 
Wow, I didn't realize that you could load 45-70 with all the pistol powders. Bullseye surprises me.

Is AA5744 a unique powder, I see it upwards of 30 plus a pound which is the most expensive out there.
 
4198, 3031, AA5744, and Reloader 7 have been standbys for a long time. Pick you're bullet of choice, start with Trap-door level loads and go up until your shoulder says to stop (this will likely be before max loads for the Marlin but there's some messed up people out there that like getting slapped around) and you will have a perfectly capable load for anything that walks in North America.
 
Loaded a few different recipes of .45/70 this past weekend. RE7 was the powder dumped in all of them because I had that sitting on shelf waiting to be used.
Don't know how those particular loads shoot, still waiting to get the rifle I loaded em for.
Word in 'my circle' is H4198, IMR4198, and H322 are top choices for accuracy, but RE7 is certainly worth trying.

Can say that H322 provided more accurate loads than RE7 with Sierra 300 & Hornady 300s from a 22" 1895 a few months ago, but that's just a couple loads from one rifle.
Experimenting is how we find the best for any given rifle.
 
Another vote for RL-7...it seems like an ideal powder for 45-70 and will meter much nicer through my Hornaday measure than the IMR stick will. Max pressure Marlin loads end up with the powder right to the bottom of the bullet so the pressure curve is nice for that case. Reduced or light bullet loads still don't seem to have any powder position sensitivity and remain consistent.
 
matrem said:
Loaded a few different recipes of .45/70 this past weekend. RE7 was the powder dumped in all of them because I had that sitting on shelf waiting to be used.
Don't know how those particular loads shoot, still waiting to get the rifle I loaded em for.
Word in 'my circle' is H4198, IMR4198, and H322 are top choices for accuracy, but RE7 is certainly worth trying.

Can say that H322 provided more accurate loads than RE7 with Sierra 300 & Hornady 300s from a 22" 1895 a few months ago, but that's just a couple loads from one rifle.
Experimenting is how we find the best for any given rifle.
Click to expand...
H322 is the only powder I use, except for a few BP loads. It works fine and I use it in my 223 loads too.
 
I've used 3031,4198 I now use 5744 and 4227 in my 45/70 loads. The bullets I use are my own cast 500 and 525 gr in a Sharps 1874 and get excellent accuracy with both.
 
I played with my chrono today, same mbc bullets you mention but using cast only (not coated).

Temp was 53 farenheight. Velocity is average of five shots over my prochrono. CCI 200 primers for all loads. Gun is a Henry H010, 18.5" barrel.

MBC 300gr over 14.0gr trail boss, 1139fps.
MBC 405gr over 46.5gr IMR 4064, 1291fps.
MBC 405gr over 48.5gr IMR 4064, 1418fps.

Wondering about the 405s and 4064. Manuals I've seen put these loads at about 1500 and 1600fps, respectively. Is 4064 a little slow for my barrel (possibly published loads run in barrels longer by a few inches EDIT: I went back and looked sure enough, published load was in a 24" barrel)? Is something like 3031 a bit faster and better suited to my barrel? I like that I can use 4064 in both .308 and 4570, but if I'm giving up some performance that sounds like a good excuse to buy more powder :neener:.
 
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Picked up some h4198 this morning and have been looking at data in both lee and Lyman manuals. My coated bullets also showed up from mbc.

The data confuses me. I see from 30-55 with h4198 and 52-58 in imr3031 for the 300 grain loads and 27-46 with h4198 and 45.5-51 in imr3031 for the 405 grain bullets. I pulled the top end from the low side of jacketed bullet data as my manuals did not list a lead bullet for the 1895.

The question, do both of these powders download well and burn good at the lower end or would i be better staying at the top end of the data?
 
I have loaded 45-70 with 325 gr cast bullets with 12 grains of Alliant Unique and that works very good for me in my Marlin Guide Rifle.
Have used 15 grains of Trail Boss with same bullets. Fun to shoot.
 
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