50-90 loads?

[Eric F]

I use to load bp for 45-70 years ago and it was easy enough a 405 lead 70 gr of cleanshot ffg and a greased felt over powder wad. Simple enough.

I am now about to but a 50-90 and I will be shooting a 515gr lead. My question is how do you figure out how much bp to drop in the case?
I have a few Ideas but so did alot of other guys with missing body parts

 

[Tommygunn]

50-90 designates 90 grains of powder. Will the use of a 515 grain bullet preclude the use of a full charge? Find out how deep the bullet needs to be set into the cartridge; subtract the thickness of the wad, and that should be the answer, I would think....
I'm not missing any body parts ....wait, that's not technically true -- I had a cataract operation; but the lenses were replaced with bionics lenses ... ;-)

 

[Eric F]

This was my thinking with the 45-70 but..........when I tried to load a 500 gr bullet I seated the bullet in a case with out a primer. Then I used a syringe and water to inject the case to check how manny cc's would fit in the void. I came up with X cc's Well then I loaded a bullet with X cc's of powder and a wad and I was no where near compressing the powder. I had to tinker alot with the load and as it turned out I was adding another 5 or so gr of powder I am uncertian what went wrong with my atempt at cc figuring in therory it should have worked perfectly.
Any other thoughts?

 

[ocharry]

hey eric ,,don't get up set here but i need to steal your thread for a sec.

Tommy,, tell me about those BIONIC lenses,,, these old eyes of mine are getting harder to see through and i would give just about anything to have my 20yr. old eye sight back

ok back to the 50-90,,,515 is a light bullet for a 50,,,some would call it an express load,,, and the 90 would be the designation for the powder charge,,,,i would think you could load it that hot or hotter or cooler,,, but one thing you must keep in mind is that the bullet MUST be on the powder column,,,,so if you use a lesser load fill up the space with some kind of filler,,,,dacron,,,,cream of wheat,,,,gritts,,,, us a little compression so everything stays tight and you should be good to go,,, some compression is pretty normal for real black powder,,,,GOEX comes to mind,,,some of the other brands of real black powder may or may not like to be compressed,,,,can't say anything about smokeyless in the big cartridges,,never tried it,,,,again make sure the bullet is down tight on the powder and you should be fine(i'm talking about Black Powder)

hope this helps some,,,,the "BIG FIFTY" is a cool cartridge,,,,YMMV

ocharry

 

[Eric F]

Any one have a source for heavy bullets like 550 to 600 gr in a .512 inch. I would like to not have to make bullets.

 

[Jim Watson]

The field rep for Goex Powder - rdnck on the Shiloh board - says to fill the case up level full with loose black powder. Dump it out and weigh* it; that is your powder charge. That takes care of brass thickness, powder granulation, and any other consideration for picking a starting load. No CCs, no calculation, just a case full.

When actually loading ammunition to shoot, use a drop tube to settle the powder in the case. The weight* of powder that filled the case full when loose will settle below the case mouth through a drop tube. Put at least a dry card wad down over the powder.

That probably won't leave enough room to seat a bullet.
So measure the seating depth for your bullet - base to crimp groove. Use a separate compression die to compress the powder to where seating the bullet will put it down firmly on the wad but without compressing the powder any more, which would distort the bullet.

That will get you started. You can fool with lighter loads with less compression and heavier with more. And there is a lot of other stuff to experiment with, like whether to size the brass or slip-fit a bullet in fireformed cases; whether to crimp or not; how close to the rifling to seat, etc; but the above will get you started. WITH BLACK POWDER! If you are using fake powder like the cleanshot you mention, all the above is off. Do what the maker says.

*Right, weight. The Sharps Rifle Company recommended weighing black powder loads about 130 years ago. I don't think the current crop of "grains volume" geniuses know better than the people who made the rifles.

Good information at
http://www.ssbpcrc.co.uk/Resources/Introduction to BPCR Loading.pdf
and in 'Shooting the Buffalo Rifles' by Mike Venturino.


I had to learn to cast my own bullets to load my .38-55 for BPCR and cannot say who makes really good bullets. Mt Baldy has a good reputation
http://www.mtbaldybullets.com/asp/products.asp

Montana Precision Swaging is ok
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=477831&t=11082005
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=130370&t=11082005

I'd use the second one, it carries more lube, which is seldom a bad thing.

 

[Eric F]

thanks for the great info Jim I will put this to good use

 

[Millwright]

Actually, its simple.....All that will fit with slight compression of the powder..... >MW