Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers All time 45/70 load

A basic cast 400/.405 gr . I cast mine from wheel weights. Driven at no more than1500fps . A super tough bullet. Will out penetrate the jacketed 405's . Mine run about an11 on my BHN LBT tester. Several good powders like H or IMR 4198, IMR 3031, Tac & more. This load good for about 150yds. It will kill well beyond that range, but trajectory gets to be a problem.

mmm...mmm...mmm !

Yeah, past 150 yards am good at hitting snow.

46 grains of reloader 7 350 hornady flat nose. Goes not quite 1700 fps

Ive used 55 grains of H4831, Fed 215 primer, Remington cases, with a Remington 405 gr soft point. Out of my Marlin 95 with a 22 inch barrel, it gave me 1286 fps, with the 405 Remington factory load going 1224 fps. The load is very accurate with mild recoil (for a 45-70.) At this speed, the bullet does not expand much, it simply disrupts the nose a little flatter. Lots of penetration, the only one Ive recovered was under the off side hide of a buffalo bull. Deer and pigs it sails through.

It is a case full of powder with that bullet which has the side benefit of preventing the bullet from seating deeper in the case in the magazine from recoil.

Phoneman
Do ya have any chrono data from the 38/3031 load?

Manual's velocities seem to vary greatly for 45-70.

So does a crimp.

Back when I started loading for 45-70 I bought a couple of boxes of Remington 405 and a couple of boxes of Speer. Both of these bullets were very scarce back then. I read an article about cast bullets and liked the idea of mostly free cast bullets and never turned back. Over the years I acquired for the 45-70 500 grain, 445 grain, a couple of 400 grain, and a couple 350-grain molds. My most favorite cast bullet is the Lyman 445 grain, with any lube I happened to have on hand with a case full of IMR 4064 out of my Siamese Mauser. I got my loading data from Ken Waters Pet Loades. Only had one at that point in time so I experimented with lots of different bullet molds, a plinking load for beginners, and squirrel hunting was a 255-grain cast bullet out of a Lyman mold for 45 Colt. This mold threw a bullet as cast .458+in diameter. Thirteen grains of Unique with a wad of Kleenex, toilet paper tamped down on the powder made a fun load. For my 1886 I use a 350-grain cast bullet over some IMR 3031.

I have not. A buddy of mine loaded same with 39 gr and shot them from his guide gun and got 1500. He said he thinks that his chrony is off though as that is way above what book says it should be.

I'd be that buddy...

I don't know that my chrono is "off", but I don't know that it's "on" either. It was dang close on some 22wmr loads, and fairly close to some 44mag loads according to the book. I could have shot through on a funky angle and I know with an arrow that will throw funky speeds, but three shots were 1409, 1493, and 1512. Phoneman and I figured that according to book calculations, that load should be in the 1300-1350fps range.

THX quackaddict

Your real numbers vs manual info is what made me wonder about book values.
Real measured numbers are what I was looking for and you have them.
3031 throws a good group to great group out of my 1895 with 22" barrel
and loads around 35 grains so I will have to ladder on up to 39 and see what I get.
Thanks again.

No problem. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I’m shooting a guide gun. Going to try to get out and chrono a few rounds again next week and I’ll give you an update.

Phoneman, I got very lucky with my new Guide Gun and my initial load development.

This is my information using my cast 430 grain WFN bullets (Accurate Molds)...... cast from wheel -weights, quenched at casting, powder coated, gas checked, sized to 0.459”, using Starline Nickel plated cases, 42.0 grains of RL 7 powder, CCI Standard primers.

This was the first load built for the rifle....virtually zero load development. The first ten cartridges were loaded from some internet information.....just to give me a starting point, check for proper feeding, and observe pressure indications. The first 5 rounds were shot @ 50 yards.....primarily used as a test, and to get on paper.

The group pictured below was rounds #6 through #10, fired about 1 to 2 minutes between shots.....the 4 shot group is just a fraction over 1” (the first of the five shots was used for a scope adjustment), fired @ 100 yards, giving 1789 fps average velocity. Group was obtained using a 4 power scope....higher magnification “may” have improved the group a little!

For my intended purposes, I didn’t pursue anymore load development! I was pretty darn happy with my accidental results! 😁 memtb

I am using a 350 cast bullets with 3031 and a very old can of 4895, 50 grains works fine, Marlin 1895.

For my guide gun I load IMR-4198 50gr behind the remington 300gr HP. I loaded the 405s with 39gr of IMR-4198 in my CBA man only did that once that light rifle almost made my arm go limp. I've since backed that charge down and much more enjoyable to shoot

30-34gn 4198 with the 405gn in a CBA works great with modest recoil.

39gn is pretty stout and more appropriate for a grizzly...maybe.