round ball loads in Buffalo Classic?...32" of barrel~!

[Alan in GA]

'Cat sneeze' loads should work well in this rifle's 32" barrel. THIS ONE has a very smooth bore and rifling with NO reamer marks as found in some recent manufacture H&R 45/70 rifles.
Anyone tried? I bought this BC 'newsed' in box and no evidence whatsoever of having been fired.
I couldn't resist it and now wondering what to fire through it. Probably a PP'd Speer 250 SWC to start with, but have lead balls in shop to try as well. Got some Unique powder, too.

[Texantothecore]

I shoot rb in my buffalo classic a lot. Easy on the shoulder and accurate. When shooting cat sneeze loads be sure to check the barrel to make sure the round exited.

An rb with 70 grns of black powder is quite a hoot and is worthwhile for entertainment as well as for hunting purposes.

[Texantothecore]

I use Johnson's Paste Wax for lube on the bullet and leaves my bore quite shiny. Good Stuff.

[texassako]

I happened to get a .460" round ball mold in a group of molds and put it to use. I give the round balls a coat of 45/45/10 and load with 10gr of Unique.

[BAGTIC]

I use JPW on my round balls with the same results. It also prevents them from oxidizing in storage.

[big bore 99]

Glad you brought this up. I have the same rifle and looking for the same info. Question: do you push the ball down into the case, on top of the powder? How do you do the JPW lube? Melt a little wax and shake them up in a margarine tub?

[Lonegun1894]

Good post! This will be educational. Thanks Y'all.

[Alan in GA]

I used to do it two ways: push ball and case mouth on flat surface resulting with ball totally inside case mouth, or push ball just inside case mouth to where just over half the ball was INside case. Case internal taper due to thicker case walls near base prevented me from pushing ball deeper into case interior.
If you push ball JUST to where it is totally inside case it will leave a crater that holds lube nicely. It's been many years since I last played with RLBs but I used .310" swaged LBs in 30 cal rounds too.
Somewhere in my collection of OLD Handloader/Rifle magazines is an article on lead ball loads. Probably quicker to just search on the internet.

[bedbugbilly]

big bore 99 - as far as lubing with the paste wax - I lube all of my cast boolits (pistol and rifle) in Johnson's Paste Wax and Alox. As far as just doing the paste wax - put your round balls in a container (I use a tupperware bowl) - take a hair dryer and warm the balls - throw in a dollop of paste wax - melt with the hair dryer - when melted - swirl and then put them on a piece of wax paper to dry/harden.

Before sizing my boolits - I just repeat what I did above only leave out the hair dryer - put 'em in a container - throw in a little of the paste wax (a little goes a long way) and swirl. That seems to work just as well and I'm sure would work fine on round balls. I mainly use the heat with the thoughts of getting lube into the lube grooves of conical boolits.

I don't have a 45/70 but this sure sounds like fun! I hope you'll post your results!

[725]

I do as Allen in Ga does. Push a .457 RB into the case mouth to just over half the dia. of the ball. 9 gr of Unique and a light smear of lube to fill the gap between ball and case mouth. Fun for the whole family. Good on woodchucks, too. Wouldn't hesitate to sight on a fox either.