I have had a 74 shiloh LRE chambered for 50-140 3.25" for 29 years never shot a jacketed bullet or smokeless in it, it's a black powder round to me. Paper patched lead alloy bullets 140+ grs. of Fg black.
Last year my brother found a #1 Ruger with a heavy bull barrel chambered for 50-140 he put a Vari x lll 6.5x 20 on it and brought it out to my place. He did not get any ammo for it but I had some loaded for mine. I bore sighted it and fired 2 rds making some sight adjustments. The next 5 were a connected in1 ragged hole at 50 yards. It shot nice recoil pretty tame because of the octagon barrel on it that went 1 1/8" across the flats making the gun weight around 15 pounds. Brass when you can find it starts life as 50 basic at about 75 bucks for 20. The very first thing you need to do of course is to determine the rate of twist, a 1 in 36 will be good for bullets to about 600 grains, you need a 1in 22 or 26 to shoot 600 to 800 grain bullets. The older Hodgdon's and accurate powder catalogs listed some smokeless loads that would have been dangerous on both ends to target and shooter. Ask specific questions and I will help if I can. MB
Last edited by Magnum_Bob; 11/28/20.
