Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Load for 45-70

Any good suggestions for a non punishing load for a 45-70 using400 405 gr. bullets. I'm shooting a C. Sharps Bridgeport and a Shilou Quigley. Both have 30 in. barrels.

However much powder you can fit in there using a drop tube and about 0.1" of compression. You can compress more, but a tenth is generally what I find about optimal for Swiss 1.5fg. You could go with 3fg if you want a little more velocity. Not sure what 400 405 gr means. Generally 405s are considered very light in these rifles.

Brent, you are presuming that the man wants to load with blackpowder.

I am presuming. Why else would he be shooting a Sharps? It defeats the purpose to shoot smokeless. Anyway, he asked for a load and certainly that includes black.

Shooting smokeless in a Sharps is like putting ice in your beer. You can do it but why?

I dunno. Mebbe because he is a beginner and has yet to be shown the way to the Darkside and true happiness???

well, if he is, the load directions will get him through the door to the Darkside as you call it.

If you prefer smokeless, Accurate Arms 5744 is your best bet.

The 405 grain with 26 grains of 5744 will work great. I have shot that load for years in my 45-70's and had great success with it.

Works for rabbits...



Antelope...



But for Buffalo I used 41 grains of 4198 and a 500 grain bullet and it will way way over penetrate...



The 5744 load will also work nicely in an 1886...

Thanks guys: I'm not a black powder shooter as of yet. Thanks Shrapnel that load looks promising. I've been loading 42 grs. of 4198 with 400 gr. bullets.

22 to 24 grains of 2400 works good with a 405 gr bullet too. If you would try the black stuff, you'll most likely never go back to that fad stuff they call smokeless. My most accurate load is 67 gr. of Swiss 1.5fg(no compression) with a 525 gr Hock nosepore bullet. It's not really pleasent to shoot, but I have no trouble shooting 100 round in one visit to the range. If you deside to load black powder, you can get a lot of info from "The Black Powder News" by Steve Garby. They are several book out there too.
Bill

You might consider trying Trail Boss, definately non punishing.

Not that I have ever tried it but I have heard just the opposite. Recoil is pretty stout for what you get from what others have said.

I just tried some, using 350 gr cast bullets. Recoil was very soft, about like a Marlin 1894 in .357

Must be I have it confused with some other replacement powder. Does TB hold up over time or does it degrade with humidity and so forth?

I don't believe I have ever seen it for sale but that probably says more about me than the product.

Brent

It's not really a "replacement" powder. It's smokeless that was developed with CAS shooting in mind.

http://www.imrpowder.com/PDF/Trail-Boss-data.pdf

I use 34 grains of IMR-4198.

My go to smokeless load is 40.0 grains of RL-7 under a 405 grain bullet that I cast. This yields about 1600 fps in most of my 45-70's. Fairly fast load without punishing recoil. 1500-1700 is about where you want to be, and 1700 is a bit on the heavy side.

But those rifles really are screaming for good old BLACK.

And for the above guys, are you loading by volume or by weight?? A new guy to black might want to know. Tom.

The Shiloh folks seem amendable to smokeless in their 45-70's but discourage it's use in the 90's, 100's, etc

In my Marlin 1895 Guide unit, I run 55 grains of H4895 with 405 grain slugs and it steps out at 1,769 fps. I think from memory it wears an 18 1/2 inch tube. Factory rounds are very pleasant to shoot, and factory stuff moves out at about 22 LR velocities (like 1,230 fps). With my loads, one better be ready for some recoil with the Marlin. In a 10 or 12 lb Shiloh, recoil might be more tolerable.

Those rifles though, are pleading for black powder. Once you go black,.......

Trail Boss is loaded by weight.

Thanks again gentlemen. Looks like I have some new loads to try out and also learned alot. I just may try BP shooting in the future.

70 grs of 2f black with a .030 fiber wad is the preffered way to go.
If you absolutely must shoot smokeless then get a good load manuallike the lyman 49, and follow the trapdoor recipes for cast bullets using aa5744, if you're shooting jacketed then use the 3031 data.
Trailboss is to fast burn rate to be of much practical use in rifle cartridges, to much pressure not enough velocity and accuracy is generally somehthing akin to the drizzlin shxts...