Trapdoor Springfield 45-70. Looking for ammo

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I recently rebuilt a rusted-shut 1884 Trapdoor for my Uncle and am trying to track down some ammo for it. Does anyone know of a local shop/person in the Central MA (Fitchburg, Leominster, Sterling) area who would be a good resource?

Also, has anyone had success firing the new production 45-70 smokeless ammo in their antique rifles? I see it occasionally on a few websites, but its usually about $2/round.
 
you want to find ammunition that is labeled 45-70 Govt. TRAPDOOR the "Cowboy" loads work well also.
Your not going to find it much less than 1.50 round closer to 2$ is the norm.
Winchester and Remington make or at least they did some low recoil loads for the trapdoor..... mine is long gone.
 
MA cabelas carries it, not sure if that's farther than you're willing to travel.

probably only for modern rifles though...I never looked for low power loads.
 
If you need brass to reload, I can spare some.
Goose might have a few ideas. Send hom a PM. He loves old guns.
 
I make my own ammo for an 1873. I use 5744 or SR4759. If you decide to load for it, I can give you a few different lead bullets to try.
 
I use a 405gr head over 12grs. of Red Dot if your local to the Dartmouth area PM me.
 
I have 400,500 and 525 gr cast bullets on hand if you'd like some I could donate 20 of your preferred weight. I size them to .458 but can leave them unsized if you prefer.
 
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If you are on facebook, Central Fire Custom Reloading, he is out of NH and loads up 45-70 BP rounds (among other BP rounds). I bought a few bags as I recently picked up a trap-door also, I don't believe he is comfortable shipping to Massachusetts, however his rounds are great and he's not that far away, so something to consider.
 
Thanks for the replies. I had been toying with the idea of reloading for it, but I would have to outlay the capitol cost for the Lee kit, bullets, brass, and powder (and it's not even my rifle). Figured I would buy 2 boxes of commercial/cowboy loaded stuff and give it to my uncle for Christmas, then depending on how fast he went through it, invest in the equipment to reload.
 
Tagging this thread to prepare to reload.

My Election Day Victory Gun purchase was a nice Trapdoor. It's arriving sometime next week.



Does anybody use the old-gun-standby for the Trapdoor? ~16-18 grains of Alliant 2400?
 
If you buy the lee kit I'll send you some cast bullets to sample with it.

I think that's too light for 2400. I want to say there is a small window when working with 2400 in that large case.

Go for 12ish grains of unique and you will love it.

Some good data here too.
http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm


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Thanks for the replies. I had been toying with the idea of reloading for it, but I would have to outlay the capitol cost for the Lee kit, bullets, brass, and powder (and it's not even my rifle). Figured I would buy 2 boxes of commercial/cowboy loaded stuff and give it to my uncle for Christmas, then depending on how fast he went through it, invest in the equipment to reload.

The Lee whack a mole kit is around $20 and should load acceptable ammo,it's slow but it works.
 
For the price of a few boxes of cowboy ammo you could probably just about set yourself up to load.
Lee kit is less than a box of ammo
Pound of powder is less than a box
Get a few sleeves of primers
Few hundred bullets.
All total probably 3 boxes of ammo in cost.


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