45/70 plinking loads

[The Goose]

Yesterday's bullet casting workshop inspired me. There was some discussion of reduced charges for the 45/70. This morning I rummaged through my molds and found a .459 300 gr mold from BACO. I originally bought for a 45/60 Uberti's 1876 lever gun which has long since moved away. I also found a website called "lever gun performance studies". They cover lever gun rounds, including the 45/70, and the use of pistol powders for reduced loads. I have a boat load of Red Dot, Unique, Bullseye and Tite Group. I think I will do my own little study using 300 gr and 405 gr reduced loads in my Henry lever gun. I have spent many years slamming heavy loads into my shoulder punching paper. It occurs to me that less powder, less lead and less pain could be a good thing. I suspect that the paper will not know the difference. LOL! I will keep you guys informed

 

[mac1911]

Trailboss is good for light loads.
I help a friends dad Load up some 400 grain slugs with Varget that are Around 1200fps.
I don't really know how much lighter you can get?
I know there are some pistol powder loads. I just don't have any experience out side 200 grain 30 cal cartridges.

 

[The Goose]

I will undoubtedly throw Trail Boss into the mix as I also have a lot of that.

 

[gerrycaruso]

I've used Unique for reduced .45/70 loads. I've never used Red Dot but I know it's used for reduced lead bullet loads. Trail Boss will also work. I know a full case is supposed to be the max. load but for the .45/70 the mfg. told me to start at 50% and go to a max of 75%. Maybe they're concerned about old weak rifles.

 

[mac1911]

Y o u should not have any problems with trail boss as long as you follow the directions.

 

[1919FAN]

My 2 petloads for my 1886 are 12grs redot and 22grs 2400. Both shoot real smooth.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

If I remember correctly some of the people involved in developing that data had stated that all groups were shot at 50 yards. They found a trend that the subsonic loads were shooting good groups and the ones just above the speed of sound usually grouped relatively large. Further testing showed that supersonic groups were barely supersonic and were most likely transitioning around the target distance of 50 yard. Stretching those loads out further the bullets stabilized and yielded tighter groups.
I haven’t tested anything that extensive but they did have a correlation between velocity and group size.

Something to ponder

 

[Stape]

I shoot a bit of 45/70 and for my needs prefer reduced loads. I cast a 405gr bullet and load it over 13.5gr of Unique. It is a very comfortable load to shoot and chrono's at 1200fps which will easily put down anything I'm hunting with it.

I shoot this load out of a Buffalo Classic and a 14" Contender pistol, both with excellent results.

Soft shooting (as much as it can be for a 45/70) very accurate and economical.

 

[The Goose]

Good info. It seems that as I get older I have less and less desire to get thumped hard on a regular basis.

 

[Stape]

What I like about the reduced loads is that there's really no need for anything bigger, at least in 45/70. All you're gaining is increased recoil, blast, and expense in powder. Your kicking out a 405gr bullet at 1200-1300fps, that's just about near the original 405gr loads which proved effective on a variety of game, most notably, buffalo.

I used to shoot a 300gr JHP at about 2,300fps and it just wore me out after a while. Came across the aforementioned reduced loads and haven't looked back. Now I can plink comfortably for much longer sessions, its accurate, fun, and an effective game getter.

 

[shootymacshootface]

Just want to add that 12gr of unique behind the lee 500gr spitzer is a fantastic load in my trapdoor.

Shooty