The Goose
NES Member
Well, here is another of my oddball projects that is probably of little interest to all but a few demented souls.. Several years back I met a guy at the range who was shooting an old Dutch Beaumont rifle and he let me try it, I thought it was cool. He had to make his own brass and was casting his own bullets, but he made it work. I thought that if I ever had the chance I would pick one up. However, each time I found one in decent condition they ranged from $600 - $1,200. In early July of this year I found one for $150, but it was pretty much being sold as a wall hanger. It was all rusted and dirty and nasty. Upon inspection and to my surprise the bore was in very good to excellent condition so I bought it. When I got home I started playing around with cleaning it up. I hate mucking around with the finish on old rifles, but this sucker was all rusty. Also these rifles were originally left in the white so there was no bluing or browning involved. I started with a little rubbing with a Lead Away cloth and with great effort a small area looked pretty good, of course now I had no choice, but to proceed. I wish I had taken a before picture. A LOT of time with a combo of Flitz and a Dremel polishing kit and I had it looking pretty good for a rusty rifle from 1876. I left the stock alone. I had wanted a shooter more then a collector’s item and was satisfied with the results.
Now the real challenge began, how to get some ammo to get this old smoke pole roaring again. It is chambered for 11.35x52R also referred to as .43 Beaumont. The first thing I did was to slug the bore and found that it was actually .458, the same as a 45/70 bullet. I searched the web and found a few sites with some pretty good info. The original cartridge had around a 345 gr. hollow based bullet pushed by 60 grs. of black powder, depending upon source, the fps seemed to be around 1400. Pretty fast for the time. The only dies I could find were by C-H 4D and cost considerably more then the rifle. I also found out that the brass could be made by cutting down 50/90 Sharps brass which is available from Starline. It also happens that I have two 50/90 rifles and was already reloading that round. I also reload for 45/70 and had a ton of 405 gr. bullets. I may eventually cast lighter bullets, but for experimentation purposes the 405 gr. would be fine, I found references of others using the same bullet. Obviously black powder and primers would not be an issue.
I ordered the dies and some new brass that I wanted anyway. When the dies came I was surprised that given their cost that they did not come with a shell holder, luckily I already had my Lyman 50/90 shell holder. I was ready to go to work. I knew that the length of the case after cutting and sizing should be 2.04 and even though I knew the sizing would stretch the case I cut the brass to 2.06 with a Dremel with cutting wheel. Every thing I read simply said cut the brass down with either a Dremel or hacksaw like it was no big deal. I found it tough not to be incredibly sloppy. I ruined 3 cases. Regardless I finally had 10 cases cut down. Next I removed the primer decapping pin from the die and began sizing. I used Lee sizing lube liberally. This part went well and easy. I cleaned up the messy brass and prepared to trim only to find that my dependable old Forster trimmer was too small. I ordered the Forster Classic trimmer which is larger, but meant another week of waiting and another $100. When it finally arrived I mounted it and went to work. trimming the brass to 2.04. I had heard that this brass would likely hold more powder then the original and I found that I needed 72 grs. by volume to fill the case with a Walters .030 vegetable fiber wad on top. I did use a very slight compression with a 45/70 compression die and then seated and crimped a 405 gr. hard cast lead bullet. I now had 10 rounds of loaded 11.35X52R ready to go. By the way the primer was a Winchester Magnum Large Rifle.
Now finally it was range time. I had no idea what to expect. Mostly I hoped that the rifle did not blow up. I set up a tall piece of new cardboard at 100 yards with a 12” Shoot N C on white paper. I wanted to be able to tell where I was hitting. I rested the old Beaumont on my range bag and squeezed off my first shot with the rear sight at it’s lowest setting. I had the black Shoot N C resting right on top of the front sight post. A nice boom and a huge cloud of smoke ensued. When it cleared I looked through my spotting scope and found that the hole was dead center, but about 12” below the paper on the cardboard. I fired a second shot and was pretty near the first so I began to move the rear sight up. If you check out the picture below you can see how the next 8 shots moved upward. The final 3 shots are the ones near the bullseye in a row. I was damn happy with the results to say the least. Also was a bit bummed that I did not have more loaded ammo. At least I know that it is worth making up some more brass and continuing to play around with this rifle. It was a lot of fun to shoot!!.
Now the real challenge began, how to get some ammo to get this old smoke pole roaring again. It is chambered for 11.35x52R also referred to as .43 Beaumont. The first thing I did was to slug the bore and found that it was actually .458, the same as a 45/70 bullet. I searched the web and found a few sites with some pretty good info. The original cartridge had around a 345 gr. hollow based bullet pushed by 60 grs. of black powder, depending upon source, the fps seemed to be around 1400. Pretty fast for the time. The only dies I could find were by C-H 4D and cost considerably more then the rifle. I also found out that the brass could be made by cutting down 50/90 Sharps brass which is available from Starline. It also happens that I have two 50/90 rifles and was already reloading that round. I also reload for 45/70 and had a ton of 405 gr. bullets. I may eventually cast lighter bullets, but for experimentation purposes the 405 gr. would be fine, I found references of others using the same bullet. Obviously black powder and primers would not be an issue.
I ordered the dies and some new brass that I wanted anyway. When the dies came I was surprised that given their cost that they did not come with a shell holder, luckily I already had my Lyman 50/90 shell holder. I was ready to go to work. I knew that the length of the case after cutting and sizing should be 2.04 and even though I knew the sizing would stretch the case I cut the brass to 2.06 with a Dremel with cutting wheel. Every thing I read simply said cut the brass down with either a Dremel or hacksaw like it was no big deal. I found it tough not to be incredibly sloppy. I ruined 3 cases. Regardless I finally had 10 cases cut down. Next I removed the primer decapping pin from the die and began sizing. I used Lee sizing lube liberally. This part went well and easy. I cleaned up the messy brass and prepared to trim only to find that my dependable old Forster trimmer was too small. I ordered the Forster Classic trimmer which is larger, but meant another week of waiting and another $100. When it finally arrived I mounted it and went to work. trimming the brass to 2.04. I had heard that this brass would likely hold more powder then the original and I found that I needed 72 grs. by volume to fill the case with a Walters .030 vegetable fiber wad on top. I did use a very slight compression with a 45/70 compression die and then seated and crimped a 405 gr. hard cast lead bullet. I now had 10 rounds of loaded 11.35X52R ready to go. By the way the primer was a Winchester Magnum Large Rifle.
Now finally it was range time. I had no idea what to expect. Mostly I hoped that the rifle did not blow up. I set up a tall piece of new cardboard at 100 yards with a 12” Shoot N C on white paper. I wanted to be able to tell where I was hitting. I rested the old Beaumont on my range bag and squeezed off my first shot with the rear sight at it’s lowest setting. I had the black Shoot N C resting right on top of the front sight post. A nice boom and a huge cloud of smoke ensued. When it cleared I looked through my spotting scope and found that the hole was dead center, but about 12” below the paper on the cardboard. I fired a second shot and was pretty near the first so I began to move the rear sight up. If you check out the picture below you can see how the next 8 shots moved upward. The final 3 shots are the ones near the bullseye in a row. I was damn happy with the results to say the least. Also was a bit bummed that I did not have more loaded ammo. At least I know that it is worth making up some more brass and continuing to play around with this rifle. It was a lot of fun to shoot!!.
