hs45/70
05-15-2007, 12:42 AM
I first learned about Dacron and cotton being used as fillers in straightwall cases when I bought my first Lyman manual and my 45/70. That was 1978 and the Lyman reloading manual I bought to learn to reload this round indicated certain Powders/ loads were best served useing Dacron as a filler.
A friend who got me started suggested cotton instead and I used it for the next 25 years with cast boolits.
About 4 years ago while I was "mining" my new puter for reloading info. I came upon a site for Black Powder CAS shooting. A gent there was reloading 45 colt(IIRC)
for reduced loads useing black powder for his shoots. He was useing close- celled foam to take up the space between the powder and the boolits base for his reduced recoil loads.
Never having had much interest for this powder or sport I figured I could use his info for reduced loads with foam instead of cotton in the 45/70.
Located some cylindrical "caulk backer rod" which is used for around new bath tubs and windows, door frames at our Home depot. It is closed cell and no moisture enters it, and comes coiled like a garden hose.
It comes in 3/8 inch and 1/2 and 5/8 inch diameters and depending on the width either 20 feet or 25 feet long. As they didn't stock 1/2" I got some in 5/8 in.
After realizing I needed about 0.80 inch of foam between the 24 grains A2400 powder and the 500 gr boolit base I cut a few dozen lengths at 0.90 inch (useing one of those "one edge"only razor blades you can buy at Hardware/auto supply stores) for a bit of compression to keep the powder from possibly migrating .
To get this 5/8' s rod into the 45/70 case I put the small piece of rod on some soft wood lengthwise and cut a slice off one side and useing the trial and error method got it just a bit oversize and then pinching the end with thumb and finger slowly pushed and" twisted "it in and onto the powder with the last bit pushed in with a dowel.
Naturally it got faster and easier to cut..slice and get it into the flared case after the first dozen loads and then went off to the range to test them.
24.0 gr A2400, , the Lee 500 GC, teflon taped with cotton filler gets me 1280 fps on average from my 22 inch brl. Ruger #3 and will shoot 3 shots at 1.75 inch at 190 yds.
Useing the "foam" loads the 3 shots through the chrony avg. 1330 fps and the group shot at 100 yds was 1.0 inch. I fired a few more 3 shot groups at targets and got from 0.950 inch to 1.20 inch.
This proceedure was next tried with my 14.8 gr. load of Unique and Lee 500 gr and got the same 1.50 inch group at 100 yds but again velocities went from about 1060 fps avg. to 1090 avg.
Next came the .444 Marlin, and light loads with accuracy useing cotton filler remained accurate with foam filler and a bit of a gain in velocity was again noted.
The foam rod I use is 20 feet long.. costs about $4.75 and I get about 260 ish one -piece foam fillers per length of rod for this particular load. Each 0.90 inch piece weighs about 1 grain +/-.
I have found that the "exact" length was not critical so long as you got some compression on the foam... nor did it matter if the pieces were cut at a bit of an angle as long as you have the bit of compression between powder and boolit base.
I have not used this product in handguns as I don't use fillers for these small capacity cases.
Like anything else it gets easier and faster to assemble loads once you've done a few dozen. I have 2 main loads that I shoot in my 45/70 about 75 % of the time and I just cut up the foam fillers to the correct size/width in advance and store them in a container until needed.
Have fired about 700 of these foam loads and have not found any residue in the bore and like cotton, you will find most of it about 15 feet out in front of you in small chunks.
Will try to find the original site from 4 years ago as he had some pictures of his process that clarifys everything....
Has anyone else had success useing "any" types of foam for filler in straightwall cases ......
A friend who got me started suggested cotton instead and I used it for the next 25 years with cast boolits.
About 4 years ago while I was "mining" my new puter for reloading info. I came upon a site for Black Powder CAS shooting. A gent there was reloading 45 colt(IIRC)
for reduced loads useing black powder for his shoots. He was useing close- celled foam to take up the space between the powder and the boolits base for his reduced recoil loads.
Never having had much interest for this powder or sport I figured I could use his info for reduced loads with foam instead of cotton in the 45/70.
Located some cylindrical "caulk backer rod" which is used for around new bath tubs and windows, door frames at our Home depot. It is closed cell and no moisture enters it, and comes coiled like a garden hose.
It comes in 3/8 inch and 1/2 and 5/8 inch diameters and depending on the width either 20 feet or 25 feet long. As they didn't stock 1/2" I got some in 5/8 in.
After realizing I needed about 0.80 inch of foam between the 24 grains A2400 powder and the 500 gr boolit base I cut a few dozen lengths at 0.90 inch (useing one of those "one edge"only razor blades you can buy at Hardware/auto supply stores) for a bit of compression to keep the powder from possibly migrating .
To get this 5/8' s rod into the 45/70 case I put the small piece of rod on some soft wood lengthwise and cut a slice off one side and useing the trial and error method got it just a bit oversize and then pinching the end with thumb and finger slowly pushed and" twisted "it in and onto the powder with the last bit pushed in with a dowel.
Naturally it got faster and easier to cut..slice and get it into the flared case after the first dozen loads and then went off to the range to test them.
24.0 gr A2400, , the Lee 500 GC, teflon taped with cotton filler gets me 1280 fps on average from my 22 inch brl. Ruger #3 and will shoot 3 shots at 1.75 inch at 190 yds.
Useing the "foam" loads the 3 shots through the chrony avg. 1330 fps and the group shot at 100 yds was 1.0 inch. I fired a few more 3 shot groups at targets and got from 0.950 inch to 1.20 inch.
This proceedure was next tried with my 14.8 gr. load of Unique and Lee 500 gr and got the same 1.50 inch group at 100 yds but again velocities went from about 1060 fps avg. to 1090 avg.
Next came the .444 Marlin, and light loads with accuracy useing cotton filler remained accurate with foam filler and a bit of a gain in velocity was again noted.
The foam rod I use is 20 feet long.. costs about $4.75 and I get about 260 ish one -piece foam fillers per length of rod for this particular load. Each 0.90 inch piece weighs about 1 grain +/-.
I have found that the "exact" length was not critical so long as you got some compression on the foam... nor did it matter if the pieces were cut at a bit of an angle as long as you have the bit of compression between powder and boolit base.
I have not used this product in handguns as I don't use fillers for these small capacity cases.
Like anything else it gets easier and faster to assemble loads once you've done a few dozen. I have 2 main loads that I shoot in my 45/70 about 75 % of the time and I just cut up the foam fillers to the correct size/width in advance and store them in a container until needed.
Have fired about 700 of these foam loads and have not found any residue in the bore and like cotton, you will find most of it about 15 feet out in front of you in small chunks.
Will try to find the original site from 4 years ago as he had some pictures of his process that clarifys everything....
Has anyone else had success useing "any" types of foam for filler in straightwall cases ......