Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers 1895GuideGun 45-70 and cast bullets

I'm a recent owner of a Guide Gun in and was looking at some different gunsmiths sites that do upgrades to these types of rifles.

on David Clements sight he has two packages, the expensive one that rebarrels with a pac-nor, and the budget one without a rebarrel. On the Rebarrel package he says

For the budget package he says,

Quote

Chamber is throated for cast bullets.

My question is are these guns, just stock, able to shoot the premium cast rounds from Garrett's and others, like the long 520grainers from garrett without having the chambers custom throated for it?

405 grain is the heaviest cast bullets I have tried .

I would give the 520's a try and see , before I dropped some change .

Remember , no matter how long the throat is , there is a max OAL that is practical . You may be able to load longer ammo , single shot , but may not be able to eject it , with out a lot of grief . Unless you shoot it .

I am speaking of my 2 standard length rifles . I do not have a guide gun .

God bless
Wyr

My 405 Rem FP's chamber okay, but they look to be very close to at the outer edge of the envelope. Cast may be better because it is all lead, but I don't know. My heaviest cast bullet weighs 407 grains. Absolutely no issues with length there.

Beartooth Piledrivers are made especially for the Marlin platform.

You a commo specialist?

I was up until about 6 years ago. I was in one of the last classes to get AIMC at Bragg.

Good deal. I had a good friend that was with 7th group as an 18Echo, but he has since retired and as far as I know, in Florida doing the Dive Instructor thing.

I really haven't kept in too much touch with old friends since '07, too busy picking up the pieces where I left off and getting my daughter raised proper.

Thanks for your service, and hope you get the GG going like ya want.

Got to thinking about your post . What are you going to hunt that you need 520 grain bullets ?

God bless
Wyr

I have shot the 550 grain Crater bullet along with the 525 grain Beartooth(My favorite heavy weight at 1515 fps)and my to go cast bullet is the 425 grain Beartooth(1850 fps)..Yes..They shoot extremely well in my stock Guide Gun as well as in my 45-70 BFR.

No custom work needed....Just get atleast a .459 diameter bullet or maybe a .460 sized...

Jayco

I was wondering what diameter beartooth to buy without slugging my barrel. Recommended is .460 then?

As far as bullet weight, I guess it's going to depend on where I'm carrying the gun and who/what I'm sharing the space with.

That's what I did, went .460". And that Piledriver Jr (425 g) is a helluva bullet, but you wish to dabble with the 525, Try Piledriver. I, like Logcutter, have found the lighter bullet suitable for anything I would hunt.

I have found the 300 grain Speer UniCor to be an excellent deer-small bear-pig bullet. I haven't tried the Barnes offering, but they have a solid reputation.

I have shot both the .459 and .460 and see no difference at all.I will be buying only .459 in the future as .460 is to big for my BFR in 45-70...

I have shot alot of Cast Performance in .459 as well as JB Youngs but I do not see a difference that "everyone" say's I should with .460's....

I am not a Cast Freak like some and still like to shoot Noslers/Woodleighs and North Forks out of my Guide Gun but I am impressed with the big cast.

+1 on the 300 grain Speer Unicore.

Jayco

I just cannot see trying to use a 500 grain bullet when the 405 will kill anything that walks or crawls in North America. The Beartooth Bullets are great cast bullets for sure on a hunt.

I don't see much need for exceeding the 405 either, given that they can exit a broadside buff. Longer/heavier slugs are needed if one is going to do the 1000 yard stuff, but I've not seen a Guide gun on the line in that realm.

Regardless of slug length, one can always back down a bit on powder and simply seat them deeper into his cartridge. That's what I do with my Shiloh 45-90 and the 545 grain Creedmores.