I plan to reload for my 45/70 using shortened 1.8" long cases to meet the legal case dimension limits here in my part of Michigan.
I am thinking about using the Hornady 325 FTX. I have a shorter custom Lee Factory Crimp Die and will likely seat the bullets to an overall cartridge length of 2.52".
I am thinking to use H4198 powder and CCI 200 primers. I only had one bullet left from previous trials with full length cases (seated long at 2.7" and singly loaded).
With the 1.8" case I tried 45 grains of H4198 with the bullet seated to 2.52" and crimped and got 1700 fps from my Marlin 1895 SBL with the 18.5" barrel.
Will this bullet perform well on deer? I sure imagine so but I have only shot paper so far with this bullet.
Has anyone else worked up a load with this shortened case and bullet and powder? If so what would be sensible max powder charge and velocity?
I would think that I should be able to safely duplicate Hornady's factory velocity since even though my case is shorter my overall cartridge length is long, thus yielding similar actual powder volume.
Comments?
