What To Do With Short Hornady 45-70 Brass?

[BigBoreBubba]

Before I got into reloading, I shot a lot of Hornady LR 325 FTX’s. My 1895 GS really likes them. It routinely puts them in the same hole at 50yds with iron sights. Now I have a bunch of Hornady brass. So I bought a box of 325 FTX’s thinking I would try to duplicate the factory loading….. Well, I didn’t know that the LR Hornady load was loaded into significantly shorter brass than normal…. From what I’ve read, most seating dies don’t do very well with the gummy tips, and to crimp most guys are getting a Lee FCD and machining the base down. I CAN do that, but I really don’t want to. I’ve also heard that the factory loads are almost impossible to duplicate, since the LR powder that is available is the recipe used in the 30-30 factory loads, and is not nearly the same as the recipe used in the powder for the 45-70 and 450 M factory loads.
So now I have a bunch of short brass that I have no idea what to do with. Is there a decent cast bullet or something out there that could be easily loaded in this brass, using only neck tension? Or should I just put the brass on gun broker or something?

 

[FROGO207]

You should be able to use regular 45-70 bullets and the seating die you have. IIRC my seating die has a sizable gap at the bottom that should be able to compensate for the different lengths. I would try a resized brass and see where the crimp starts hitting and if you have adjustment left. You could grind the bottom of the die if necessary. This same principal is used to load both 38 SPL and 357 with the same seating die. Mine are Lee dies and about 15 years old for refrence.
You just have to adjust length and crimp for each brass length and process in batches.
Guess you could get a second seating die and keep it for the short brass. I would not sell that brass though.

 

[BigBoreBubba]

You should be able to use regular 45-70 bullets and the seating die you have. IIRC my seating die has a sizable gap at the bottom that should be able to compensate for the different lengths. I would try a resized brass and see where the crimp starts hitting and if you have adjustment left. You could grind the bottom of the die if necessary. This same principal is used to load both 38 SPL and 357 with the same seating die. Mine are Lee dies and about 15 years old for refrence.
You just have to adjust length and crimp for each brass length and process in batches.

I’ll try that. My dies are an older set of Lymans. I really haven’t paid attention to how much space is left between the shell holder and the base of the die when set to crimp. Do you know of any bullets, other than the FTX, that can be roll crimped with this short brass?

 

[FROGO207]

I would think that any of them useful in the regular brass would work OK but the total length would be a bit shorter. You might make a couple dummies and see if they still feed OK before you commit to making a bunch. I have a single shot and never bothered worry about length and feeding. The thing to be mindful of though is there will be less volume for your propellant and the need to reduce your loads accordingly. Keep in mind that I have no experience with the shorter brass though. If you know someone with Quickload they could run the program with the shorter brass and get a safe load idea for you.

 

[Charlie98]

Easy way would be to seat and crimp in separate steps, if you are not able to adjust the crimp down far enough with the bullet seat insert in the die.

Short brass isn't that big of a deal in the .45-70, but it depends on what you are doing with it. A nice plinker load with a cast bullet, loaded over IMR4198 would be an easy pick... no worries about pressures. A starting charge with the bullet seated to the crimp groove shouldn't be a problem.

As Frogo mentions, if you are going to load jacketed bullets to velocity, something like QL will be your friend here.

 

[BigBoreBubba]

Easy way would be to seat and crimp in separate steps, if you are not able to adjust the crimp down far enough with the bullet seat insert in the die.

Short brass isn't that big of a deal in the .45-70, but it depends on what you are doing with it. A nice plinker load with a cast bullet, loaded over IMR4198 would be an easy pick... no worries about pressures. A starting charge with the bullet seated to the crimp groove shouldn't be a problem.

As Frogo mentions, if you are going to load jacketed bullets to velocity, something like QL will be your friend here.

I’ll probably stick with cast from here on out. I also always crimp in a separate operation. I learned that from the school of hard knocks, lol. Good idea about using them for low pressure plinkers. I think that’s what I’ll do.[/QUOTE]

 

[FROGO207]

Lately I have been playing around with 405 grainers and Trail Boss. Nice soft load for a plinker. There is a formula of how to determine max load in any brass they show you as well.

 

[BigBoreBubba]

Lately I have been playing around with 405 grainers and Trail Boss. Nice soft load for a plinker. There is a formula of how to determine max load in any brass they show you as well.

I’ve got some plinking loads worked up with 300gr cast over Unique using full length brass. I may work up a few more with the Hornady brass before I go to the range on Thursday.

 

[Soonerpesek]

Try this.....

 

[BigBoreBubba]

Try this.....View attachment 1014413

I thought about that, but I think I’m just going to use the brass for plinkers and donate the FTXs to a buddy of mine to use in his 458 SOCOM.