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reload68
12-08-2011, 07:55 PM
Gents,
I've purchased an old marlin 45 70 1895G (2001) to begin my fun with the ole govt round & I need your help. I'd like to stay between 300-400 grs for a plinking round & need some suggestions for which boolit/mold would do me right. Any tried & true loads, dies, etc would be appreciated also. Can't wait to take 'thumper' out for a session.
Thanks for any help
David

Jason30-30
12-08-2011, 08:11 PM
I Use The Lee 457-405F 2 cavity mold it works Great.

mpmarty
12-08-2011, 08:47 PM
The Ranch Dog series of boolits are highly thought of around here. I personally use and enjoy the 350 gr 45/70 from that fine firm and push it with either fifteen grains of Unique or twenty five grains of 2400. This is in a Marlin 1895 also.

zuke
12-08-2011, 09:03 PM
NOE 330grn Hollow point with 16 grain's of Trail Boss pushing it

DLCTEX
12-08-2011, 09:07 PM
Lee 350 and Ranch Dogs 340 and 420 boolits over SR 4759 powder. We like these in Guide Gun and Handi Rifle.

EDK
12-08-2011, 09:09 PM
RCBS Cowboy dies are designed for loading lead boolits in the 45/70. I used the RCBS 300 grain gas check boolit for a long time, but have shifted to a plain base 350 grain...which I haven't done any work with yet. Because of prior experience, I think you might look at the various RANCH DOG designs...especially the 350 grain. A slightly lighter weight boolit and an appropriate powder charge would help flatten out the 45/70 trajectory..especially in a strong action like the 1895 MARLIN.

I've got a Cowboy rifle and an 1895 LDII gathering dust in the safe.

:Fire::cbpour::redneck:

softpoint
12-08-2011, 09:13 PM
Ranch dog boolits are top notch in the Marlins, but are gas checked. If you don't need the gas check, one of my favorites is the 325 gr. Plain base RCBS mold. With about 27 grains of 5744. I use a pinch of poly filler with this load, but you don't really have to. I got slightly better accuracy out of a couple of 45/70's with the filler, but I'm still trying to decide if it is worth the extra trouble.

reload68
12-08-2011, 10:45 PM
Gents, Thanks so much for the posts. Now I can start the searchin'.

EDK - Almost got a LTD II instead of the G but couldn't see myself dragging it thru the woods hunting pigs!

Thanks again guys- this is the best site on the web!

bld451
12-09-2011, 12:24 AM
Seems a 350-400 gr. 45 boolit ought to be called a "plunkin'" boolit. Plinking just sounds too whiny.

W.R.Buchanan
12-09-2011, 12:29 AM
I was in this same thrash a year ago.. i bought a RCBS 45-300FNGC mould and it dropped undersized and so accuracy was bad. I bitched at them and they made me another one that drops at .461 and I size to .459 or 460. Accuracy now good.

Rather than run into the same problem with the 45-405 FNGC I went to Al Nelson and got one of his .45-425 RD moulds which is essentially the same mould as the RCBS except one hole has a hollow point.

Both are Gas Check style boolits, and I am planning on sending my original .45-300 mould to Erik to have the Gas Check feature removed and the driving bands increased by .002, and a HP pin installed in one hole.

Essentially I will have 5 different Boolits which will cover virtually anything I could want to do with this gun. A 325 gr GC solid , a 300gr PB solid, and 300gr PB HP, 425 gr solid and 425gr HP.

These boolits will take me from 1000 fps up to 2000 fps for 300gr sized boolits, and from 1000 to 2000 fps in a 425 gr boolit. With the option of HP's for both size ranges.

This will cover both Long and Shortrange Silhoutte, and any other target type shooting I could ever want to do with a .45-70 , and any type hunting I will ever be able to do.

If I get a chance to shoot an Elephant or Cape Buff I can buy some solid brass bullets for that application as I won't need very many. I think 50 would last a life time.

Thats how I look at the .45-70, and there are certainly many choices. I don't think you can pick one mould or boolit that will do everything, but depending on what you want to do with the rifle you might get close.

Randy

reload68
12-09-2011, 09:30 AM
Thanks Randy - lots of good stuff.

Yeah, plunking sounds way better than plinking

Grandpas50AE
12-09-2011, 10:11 AM
I have a Marlin 1895 that I bought back in 1973, and have hunted with it many of the years since then. For jacketed bullets I always got my best groups with the 400gr. Speer and even the factory 405gr. Remington loads shot well. The only casting mould I had was an old plain base OHAUS 540gr. RNFP that would not stabilize in the Marlin (it did work well in my Ruger .458 mag though). I have had too many other projects to really play with the cast boolits in .45/70, but I would venture a guess that the 350 - 450gr. thumpers would work pretty well. I used IMR4198 and IMR3031 for my pet loads before all the newer powders came out, and I'm sure many of them will work as well as what I use. The best groups I ever got with the Marlin was using the Speer 400gr. with IMR4198 - my brother printed a clover-leaf at 100 yards with it. It was a bit better than factory since my load was running 1600 fps and the factory only runs 1300 (IIRC).

Load development will tell you what exact load works best in your gun, but whatever you end up with, load it and hunt with it, you will really enjoy it - it is a great cartridge.

44man
12-09-2011, 11:16 AM
RD, RD, need I say more? Every Lyman I bought over the years was too small. I was always on the tail end of re-sharpened cherries or something. :sad:

Wayne Smith
12-09-2011, 11:26 AM
Mine's an older one and casts fine, some say Lyman molds are better again now. If so, the 457122 Gould HP is the classic 320gr Eastern Whitetail boolit for the 45-70.

runfiverun
12-09-2011, 12:21 PM
well the 429667 made in october of 2011 begs to differ on them being better.
it is nicely made. good ventlines, no burrs on the cavities, straight sprue cutter, nicely blued.
and oh did i mention pours 427 x 428.
been lapping on it for most of a day now.

W.R.Buchanan
12-09-2011, 02:35 PM
I have several generic moulds, and in the last year I have aquired several "custom moulds" 2 from Al Nelson and one Mihec. These moulds are designed around the shrink rate of Wheel Weight material so they drop boolits that are able to be sized to the most common sizes needed. They are also pure jewelery, and some of the nicest work I have seen.

Of all of the generic moulds I have, some drop big enough to size, others do not. RCBS origianlly established it's mould dimensions using the shrink rate of Linotype which produces a bigger Boolit than WW material does. Unfortunately they did this across the board so many moulds do not yeild satisfactory products for their intended uses. NObody uses linotype for low speed pistol boolits or .45-70's in a trapdoor.

Lyman appears to at least have considered what kind of material was appropriate for a given application. Pistol boolits come out fine, large rifle boolits come out fine. Smaller rifle boolits are sussed with Linotype so when you use WW material you come out small.

I had a .311299 that dropped at .296 on the nose end and .309 on the driving bands with WW. Too small. With linotype it would have been fine. I traded it for a .314-299 and it drops at .302 on the nose end. This is too big and can't easily be sized. Understand Linotype would be completely appropriate for these boolits in the .311299 mould however, I just don't have any and don't want any. I have 400 lbs of smelted WW to use, and with gaschecks thatmaterial is fine for .30 cal boolits. Also I can Water drop them if I need harder.

I just bought a NOE .311299 mould from Al Nelson and it drops perfect with WW. It was $72! which is less than the Lyman mould cost from Midway!

As far as quality goes there is no comparison. The NOE mould is being made on SOTA CNC machinery and the Lyman and RCBS ones are being made on a Bridgeport mill with a manually operated mould block fixture. If you look at this new generation of custom moulds you'll see that they are a cut above anthing else that has come before. I am a Machinist/ Toolmaker with 35 years in the bag, and I can't do this nice a work! And at $72 it is pointless for me to even try.

Do some more research, go to the active group buys area of the site as see what is available at this time. I would also call the different MFGs and ask what they have in stock. I got lucky on my .45-70 mould and Al had one instock that was exactly what I wanted. He might have one for you too?

This site has everything you could possibly want to know about casting boolits and the sum total of years of experience here is astronomical. You should be able to achieve your wildest dreams for boolit casting with the info you get here!

Not bad for a website!

Randy

nanuk
12-09-2011, 05:59 PM
What Randy said

Crawdaddy
12-09-2011, 06:33 PM
x2 on this one.. Lee 457-405F

stubert
12-09-2011, 07:23 PM
I have a stainless guide gun, I had an RCBS 45-405 mold hollow pointed by Buckshot a few years ago. My guide gun loves them, they drop at 390 grains now. I'm using 49 grains of 3031

n4qwf
12-11-2011, 08:57 PM
I just bought a 45-70 barrel for my Encore. My friend gave me 30ea. 300gr. RCBS FNGC boolits. I loaded them up in Hornady brass with 52 grains of H-322 and they chronography at 1925 fps. At 100 yards they are minute of angle and same hole mostly. Now they are thumpers for sure but for hunting I can't imagine anything they would not stop at least on this
continent. I have now purchased myself one of these molds.

rintinglen
12-12-2011, 12:32 AM
I like the RCBS 45-325U a whole lot. I have shot well over a thousand of them loaded over 24 grains of 2400. I have a 4 cavity Lyman 457-192 that casts about 345 grains that I use more these days, but I hesitate to recommend a boolit that is so darned hard to find, they shoot about the same.
I also have several other molds ranging from 210 grains (useless piece o'junk) up to 525 grains. Big boolits kick harder than little ones. I find I don't like getting banged by my guns asmuch as I used to, so the 325-350 grainers get much more use than the heavier boolits in my Marlin Cowboy.