Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers Down loading a 45-70

If you're loading some light loads like 12 grains of Unique, do you think it would be necessary to add Dacron under a 350 grain gast bullet?

No. Even though Unique is not considered position sensitive, out of habit I always lift the barrel vertical prior to aiming with cartridges underloaded.

Thanks Sheriff

I've been loading and shooting 340 to 405 grain cast with Unique and Red Dot exclusively for almost a year and have not had any position sensitivity issues. Accuracy has been quite good with both as well. I've loaded up and down from 10 grains to 15 grains of Unique and my 1895 CBA prefers the 12-13 grain neighborhood best shooting either Lee 405's or 340 grain Lyman 457122 HP's. Extremely pleasant even in a 6 1/4 lb gun and I have no doubt they will both go end-to-end on anything I could possibly come across in the woods.

use trail boss instead

Trail boss seems like a good idea. I've downloaded before and the loads had high standard deviations, one even got onto hangfires and one squib. I get pressure up to about 28 Kpsi then things start to settle out.

By then, the 425 grain loads I use are going close to 1700 fps, 300 grain loads are near 200 fps. I want to try some 1200 fps loads with a 400+ grain bullet. Granted, I haven't tried Unique or something like that. Load density seems too low.

14-15gr Unique with 405 gr will pretty much hit anything you aim at out to ~125 yds/meters.

Has its own "unique" and satisfying report as well.

RL-7 or H4198 for loads over 1300fps for me.

Funny you ask, I just got back from the range with my 45-70. I shot 14 gr Unique with a 405 Gr cast ACME bullet. I also use my 340 gr cast bullet with results accurate enough for deer hunting. I all but sold that stupid barrel I got for my Encore. It is a light barrel but the gun only weighs bout 6.5 LBS. so I hunt with it. Accuracy is ok but only shoot 50 yds .

off the top of my head I cant remember my trail boss load but im thinking its around 12gr or so with a 350gr Hornady bullet. Its a pipsqueak on the shoulder but would stomp a deer within range.

I tried dacron filler with unique and bullseye back in the day. I always felt it shot dirty and left residue in the barrel. I switched to Trail Boss and haven't looked back.

You can look up recipes on the Hodgdon/IMR website, but the basic recipe for trail boss is always the same. Fill the case to the base of a seated bullet without compressing the powder. If you need to go slower, you can reduce from there. The basic benefit of TB is that it fills the case so well while providing the mild recoil of a reduced load. It really is fantastic stuff.

90% of all my handloads are Trail Boss. I buy it by the case. But then I am a lever and six gun guy.

Trailboss works fine.....