My first experience with 45-70 reduced loads...

[Ridgerunner665]

I figure as much blabbling as I've done here about the hot loads....I should share this experience too.

I have been thinking about trying some reduced loads for quite a while, and I finally broke down and did it.

The "Postal Match" going on over at Marlin Owners forum kinda spurred me along...

The load...
Starline brass (annealed, trimmed to 2.095")
Ranch Dog TLC460-350-RF boolit seated to the crimp groove, fully crimped with an RCBS seater die (these boolits are HARD...30 BHN)
13 grains of Unique (no filler)
CCI BR2 primer
1,175 fps



This is a 50 yard target (Skinner peep sight on the rear, factory front)...5 shots from a bench, I shot several groups that day...and pulled at least 1 shot every dog gone time



VERY mild recoil...not very loud either!

No leading, excellent accuracy...and powerful enough for any deer anywhere within 150 yards...after that the trajectory gets really steep, really fast.

The gun...a Marlin 1895 that I have been accurizing a bit.



Those HARD boolits...the 3 on the right were used in the group above (couldn't find the other 2...they went deep) and recovered from the hard packed shale bank behind the target...the one on the left is the same boolit, but fired a few months back at 2,050 fps into the hard packed shale. (I cleaned it)

 

[mcofboise]

Ah, inspiration!

In spite of the flyer, that's a lovely target.
I love my Marlin, but I don't enjoy shooting more than 20 or 30 rounds off the bench with it, so load development has kind of ground to a halt with it. It loved Hornady LeverEvolution, so I worked up a load with those FTX bullets, locked it down when it outshot the factory stuff and that has become its standard fodder. I had hoped to find a cast load that would shoot well so I could achieve that ultimate goal: take a deer with a load I put together using a bullet I'd cast myself. Unfortunately, the MicroGroove rifling in mine refuses to shoot lead worth sour owl poop. So, I'm sitting on a pile of bullets I cast in various weights thinking I should just melt them back down and turn them into something other than shelf weights.
Then you come along and remind me of how much fun 45-70 is to shoot with reduced loads. When I was a kid, there was a gun hanging on the wall of our home that fascinated me, but it belonged to my uncle and was off limits for tinkering. It's an 1873 Trapdoor Springfield that I conned him out of when I was in my early twenties. It had led a bit of a hard life before it became a wallhanger at our place, and it took me and a local gunsmith, who was a master of restoring these guns to service, a couple of years of fussing with the thing in our spare time to get the stock into safe, serviceable shape and making the rest of it shootable. I didn't want to abuse the poor old thing, so several old-timers around here helped me with working up reduced loads for it so I could hear it speak after so many years of silence. I used some blackpowder loads, filled with corn meal with some bigger bullets, and some 255 grain .45 pistol bullets with 11 grains of Unique and a Dacron wad, then went out into the forest and abused some tree stumps. The pistol bullets were a hoot because they buzzsawed the instant they left the muzzle. Heard a "ZZZZZZZZip!" and they'd keyhole into the logs. Some of the BP loads didn't seal the chamber well and the gasses in my face from that gappy action showed me the wisdom of wearing shooting glasses, and leant credence to the tales that cavalrymen frequently wouldn't shoulder the gun when they fired it.
So, I'm thinking this will be a fun way to use up some of those 295 grainers in the larder, and maybe find a reduced load that'll push the 383 grain w/gas check down the Marlin's tube. Cuz there's considerable fun shooting golf balls at 50 yards with a nearly-half-inch bullet.
Eons ago, Bob Forker wrote an article about his pet UMAGGB load (Universal Make Any Gun Go Bang). In any rifle cartridge with at least the capacity of the .243, nothing smaller than 45 grains of water capacity, load with 14 grains of 2400, a bullet (preferably lead cast, not jacketed), and pull the trigger. Low velocity loads tend to stick jacketed bullets in the barrels according to him. For big cases, more than 80 grains of water capacity, he said to go to 21 grains of 2400. Oh, and use a Dacron wad.
So, I'm going to go extrapolate some numbers, look at some loads that might work with my bullet weights, and do something with all that 45-70 brass that I've been avoiding in the inbox.
Thanks!

 

[george d dennis]

nice shooting! i need to get a set of skinner sights for my 1895gs. i cant hit much with
the factory sights and handloading. im sure my age might have something to do with
it. i have to keep telling myself im not 20 yrs old anymore. thanks for the write up.

george

 

[TonyT]

I have used a very mild 45-70 load with 405 gr. cast lead bullet and 11.6 gr. UNIQUE without any fillers. It burns clean and you can see the bullet going to the target.

 

[Dave B]

The RD 350 is my favorite 45-70 bullet. I usually shoot it with 27gr AA5744. I dont even bother to put on the GCs. It's very accurate in either my Pedersoli Sharps or a Marlin CB.

 

[mcofboise]

...and you can see the bullet going to the target.

I love it when that happens! Early, mid-morning light seems best for it. Used to see a lot of .45 ACP bullets on their way downrange. 22-250 with exposed lead and a little humidity in the morning leaves contrails... like using tracers on rockchucks. I bet with a 400 grainer lumbering along like that you have time to take a drink of coffee while you wait to see the results.

 

[1KPerDay]

How deep were they into the shale? I assume you could melt them down and re-cast them, right?

 

[Asherdan]

Hey, Ridge, nice photos and a fun load!

I use the Oregon Trail .459 350g for the same purposes.

R-P Brass
2.525" OAL
CCI 200
LFCD 3/4 of a turn in
12g Unique
1126 fps

The first time I was putting the load on paper off the bench at 50 yards I was working with aperture sights and I shot the first and noted the hole, then shot 2, 3...and stopped to see what was going on because there was still only one hole.

This is from a knee at 50 yards while forest bumming.



About the best I do kneeling in the forest with open sights, I s'pose.

The ballistics kinda look like this:

	ELV	 V	 E
50	+4.75	 1054	 863
100	+3	 1000	 777
125	-1	 975	 739
150	-7.25	 954	 707

Here's a photo of the .459 350g and the 240g .431 I dug out of a river rock and clay berm, I had to dig in about 9" for them.



The furthest I ever taken a deer with the 1895G is 90 yards while whomping the Manzanita brush, so I'd have no problems taking this load along except I get similar accuracy out of 2400 with the same bullet and 1390 fps.

They make a great range round, though. I load a bunch of them each year for when I want to sharpen my field positions practice and work a lot on the cheap and accurate.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Those 3 went in about 16 inches...the other 2 went further than I cared to dig.

That other one (@ 2,050 fps) also went about 16 inches.

Yes....I melt them down and cast them again.