Fillers in 45-70 Remington RB
When loading a 450 grn pure lead pp bullet, I go by the Hogdon reloading site and experienced all kind of hang-fires and delayed ignition. I decided to get some cotton balls, but a full cotton ball was too much so I cut them in two with scissors. I loaded 38 grns of benchmark and pressed the cotton down to the powder with a wad between the cotton and the powder. No more ignition problems, but no appreciable accuracy either. Then I decided on a slower powder and used 4064 within the recommended charge weight. I pushed the cotton down against the powder with no wad and compressed with a little tool I fashioned from a 7/16 bolt using a nut for a stop so I could set the depth just right. It would spring back about 1/16" with the 1/2 cotton ball (4.3 grns) and the bullet did the rest of the work. Result was 3 bullet holes touching each other at 112 yds. The paper patches were water proofed and lubricated with graphite flake.