Looking for an good 47/70 boolit

[lead4me]

Need some input on a good accurate 45/70 boolit around 300/350 gr to shoot at around 2000FPS. Will be used to take Whitetail an Black Bear, and to punch paper.

Will be limited to around 150yds for whitetail/paper and of course much closer for bear. I will be shooting this out of a 1/28 barrel @ 26" long. It will be inside of a MMP sabot on top of BH209 powder.

I know that we have a muzzle-loader section but I was looking for a cast rifle boolit to shoot out of my Austin & Halleck, and figured this might have guy's more familiar with the 45/70.

I am also curious as to what you all might suggest as to a hardness for this application? Hard cast/semi soft or pure, HP-vs-flat? Would like to have a boolit that can hold 1 1/2" at 100yds. With commercial lead bullets it will shoot MOA @ 100 now but at 1.00 a shot and me sitting on 1500lbs of lead seems like a waste of money.

[btroj]

Since you are using a sabot in a muzzleloader I don't know that any one bullet is better than another. I really like the Ranch Dog 350 for a bullet that meets your requirements. Big flat nose will hit hard but penetrate like no tomorrow. Avoid a hollow point at the speeds you listed. Trust me, I learned that this year. Too little penetration, no more real world ability to kill.
I would go with something around 50-50 wheel weight lead. Water dropped they will be hard enough to penetrate but not so brittle as to fracture on bone.

I have, in the past, used the Lyman 457122 Gould hollow point cast in pure lead for exactly what you are talking about. Worked well on broadside shots on deer and left a massive exit hole. But a shoulder shot would have destroyed a whole lot of meat and may not have penetrated as well as I want. These would expand to quarter size or larger on the berm at 100 yards.

Brad

[rhbrink]

Go down to the vendor sponsers forum and scroll down to BRP custom mold he has a couple molds just for sabots been looking at them myself but for a little different reason, paperpatch.

[HammerMTB]

Lee makes a 458-340 RFN that would work fine.
Since you are using it as a sabot, you could use anything from pure right on up. Obviously, the softer, the more expansion. That said, I don't use expansion as a premise for .44 and up calibers. I want penetration to do the job, and an exit wound to leave the trail if the critter doesn't fall over in its tracks. There are good suggestions above. I do something very similar with ACWW
Happy hunting!

[lead4me]

Thanks guy's I will go look at BRP's mold for use With BP. I was thinking along the same lines as a wide meplat to do the damage. I was concerned that hard cast would make them harder loading in a front stuffer. I'll just have to experiment with different alloys to see what works best.

[BABore]

Since your using them in a plastic sabot, it's the sabot that is taking the rifling. The hardness of the alloy makes little difference. I typically use 50/50 WW-Pb, air cooled for 10 bhn. It handles the stress of 2,000 fps just fine. The last time I shot my Encore 209x50 bbl I used the 452-300 in a MMP black mag sabot. The load was 84 grain (weighed, max load for 150 grain capable guns) of BH 209 and a Federal 209 primer. Accuracy for a 3-shot group was just under an inch at 100 yards. I purposely didn't swab between rounds to see how the BH 209 handled. Worked great and I could easily load 10+ rounds with no concern of sabot damage from fouling. I did learn the hard way as to not use my normal Winchester 209 primers. Accuracy sucked big time. A quick call to Alliant confirmed my suspisions. They told me to specifically use either Federal or CCI 209's.

In regards to the two designs I carry, the 452-300 drops about 0.4535 with WW alloy. Weight is spot on. I use a Lee style, push-through die to size them to 0.452. The 452-400 really should be relabeled as a 452-350. I must have fat-fingered something when getting it on line. This boolit drops right at 0.452 with WW's. No sizing is needed.

[lead4me]

BABore I just looked at what you have to offer and I like that 452-400. Look's like its time to break out the check book again! I was shooting the PR Dead Center's and this look's very similar to what they are offering. Minus the Ballistic tip, and I don't see as how at 150yds and under that is going to gain me anything but a lighter wallet anyway. Plus I get to spend my money in my home state (God knows we need it) and support a Vendor Sponsor. Thanks I will be getting hold of you soon.

[BABore]

The only downside is that you have to add 6% for Jennifer's wart removal fund.[smilie=b: