Round ball in 45-70

[Texantothecore]

I can't wait. I just ordered a round ball .457 mould. I have been watching these threads for a while now and am excited about the round ball loading. Is there nothing a .457 will not do well?

[Jim]

I have a Gibbs Summit .45-70 bolt rifle. Jarrett, the younger of the two boys in the photo on my signature, calls it my "elephant gun".
I load .457 RBs over a bit or Red Dot, Unique or Bullseye for gallery loads. I bump the RBs to slightly over .460 and then resize them to .460 on the button. Kinda' like a 45 caliber .22 short.

[TCLouis]

So scb what is that"mystery favorite load' with two RBs?

[steg]

LEE got me, LOL, I have a bunch of LEE moulds, and they all cast well. I got the itch to play with round balls in my 45/70, so I went to the Lee site and all they had was .457 round balls, and I ordered it, I was hoping for .460, and every other Lee mould that I own drops at least .002 oversize, so I was figuring on at least .459 which would have been fine, But the way my luck runs it casts at .457, the rifle slugs at 458. Maybe I can give em a little bump................steg

[grampa243]

ok so i tested my round ball load today

it's great.

i took a .490 round ball sized it to .457 with a lee sizer and loaded it over 15 grains of UNIQUE. seated just off the rifling.


2 inch group at 50yd with open sights from a t/c encore katahdin.[feels like a heavy .223 load ]

alox gave less leading then wax and P.jelly.

[Texantothecore]

LEE got me, LOL, I have a bunch of LEE moulds, and they all cast well. I got the itch to play with round balls in my 45/70, so I went to the Lee site and all they had was .457 round balls, and I ordered it, I was hoping for .460, and every other Lee mould that I own drops at least .002 oversize, so I was figuring on at least .459 which would have been fine, But the way my luck runs it casts at .457, the rifle slugs at 458. Maybe I can give em a little bump................steg

Pour some and see how they work. I have the same mold and they work beautifully in my Buff Classic.

[bigted]

grampa...you inspired me as I also have .490 inch lead balls so I ran em thru my .460 lee pushthru die and loaded em over 8 grains unique...will see how they do. im gonna run em without lube first and see what happens. im hopin for way better then 2 inch groups but will see and if my japchester wont shoot em then ill try thru the ruger #1.

ive patched some .440 inch balls but they are a pain in the rump to load and deal with for what I got outta them but will see with these elongated .460's and the unique powder. should be able to get a bunch of em outta the pound of powder and the lead is easy on the supply compared to the 500's I usually run thru my 45-70's. id be able to keep my dwindling supply of GOEX cartridge powder from going into the wind so fast as well.

thanks for the inspiration!...

[Texantothecore]

Roundball is so commonly shot by .457 crowd that Bass Pro normally carries a few boxes .458 ball. I cast my own and they work great.

The .457 rifles are complete shooting systems with many alternatives depending on your needs at the moment. It is very much like owning a number of different rifles.

[bigted]

well shot em...THANKS GRAMPS !!!.... I went outside and faced the snow fall to shoot these .490 inch shoved thru my .460 Lee push thru die. I loaded them with the described 8 grains of unique.

shot 5 thru the Ruger #1 with the 2x7 Leopold scope...and at 35 yds they all went thru a single hole... way under an inch...second shot I fired I thought I missed the target so walked up to find where it went and there it were in the same hole...just a bit longer on 1 side [barely]. cleaned the bore looking for lead but nice and clean...just powder fouling.

next I drug out the Winchester hunter with the 28 inch barrel...a marples wrist mounted peep with the stock bead up front...[this rifle is seriously picky about what it eats so I shrugged into it with dubious thoughts]...shot em at the target and darned if they didn't group just as tight as the Ruger...[now I cant shoot that good...LOL.]...5 into the same hole just a bit larger in size then the Ruger group.

these are easy to load and cheep to shoot. very small recoil and really accurate...will have to chrony them when we get some calm sunny days.

THANKS Gramps for the suggestion and you should try the .460 inch diameter extruded ball... lee sizer dies are only around 35 dollars... it very well may beat your previous group size. im bettin that the load will harvest squirrel bunnys and grouse with hardly any damage except to put into the pot and enjoy.

[DCP]

38-55 works good also

[shaune1022]

Anybody try 3 or 4 balls in a 357max?

[grampa243]

bigted -- glad to hear you found the fun load.

i forgot to say is i did use alox for my first set. had no fouling to speak of.

i'm trying them with my wax/Pjelly lube next; just rolled on it.

with the 15 grains of UNIQUE it shoots to the same POA as my full power 300/405 grain boolit hunting load.

my bore slugs at .4575 so the lee .457 works great in mine.

p.s. i'm going to try for a better group this time wish the Katahdin had better irons.

[Texantothecore]

ok so i tested my round ball load today

it's great.

i took a .490 round ball sized it to .457 with a lee sizer and loaded it over 15 grains of UNIQUE. seated just off the rifling.


2 inch group at 50yd with open sights from a t/c encore katahdin.[feels like a heavy .223 load ]

That boolit looks exactly like the lead that came out of my rifle when I slugged it with a .490 ball. I was struck at how it might make a good boolit and it looks like you have done it.

[Reverend Al]

Quite a few years ago I worked up a 3 ball load for my .45-70 Browning (Miroku) B-78 single shot High Wall clone. I dropped 10 grains of Unique into the primed case, seated a .45 calibre gas check over the powder charge, then dropped three .445 round balls into the case and used an inverted .45 calibre gas check over the top RB at the mouth of the case. The height of the RB's was just about right to get a nice, light roll crimp at the mouth of the case. They shoot into about a 2 1/2" to 3" group at 100 yards and they're a hoot to shoot. By the way, the reason I don't use .457 round balls for that multi-ball load is because I found out the hard way you shouldn't do that! I tried loading three .457 RB's to see if my rifle would shoot more any more accurately than the three .445 RB's I'd been using previously and got a bit of a shock. (I just happened to have the .445's on hand from a muzzle loader so I used them for my first tests.) The .45-70 case "tore off" at about mid-length (where the gas check and the bottom ball would be located) and it fired all three .457 sized RB's and the front half of the brass cartridge case right out of the barrel just like a one piece jacketed bullet! It cleared the barrel OK and there was no damage to the rifle since that model has a very strong action, but it sure was a lesson well learned. From then on I stuck with a single .457 - .458 RB seated at the mouth of the case, or with the three undersized .445 RB's seated between the two gas checks.
Just thought you might like to know about that little incident before you learn it yourself the hard way ...!

[Sekiar]

After reading how well a 457 round ball works in the 45/70 I gave it a try. I started out with 9 gns of Unique with the ball about 1/2 way in the case. First four did just fine. So I loaded up 10 more and that's when the fun started. First went click whoof and I could see the ball bounce on the ground and a flash of fire at the muzzle. The next one fired as it should. About half of the rest fizzled. I tried moving the ball slightly farther in the case. No improvement noted. In all cases the ball seemed to fit tight and would not easily be moved. I did up the powder load to 10 gns of Unique but no better results were had. I have been reloading 45/70 shells since the mid 60's and even at one time load and shot round balls in my 30-30 with out a problem. I would really like to fix the problem as I have many different 45/70 firearms to enjoy shooting the little round ball. Help will be appreciated. tnx Charles

[DCP]

Try 700x see if that helps

After reading how well a 457 round ball works in the 45/70 I gave it a try. I started out with 9 gns of Unique with the ball about 1/2 way in the case. First four did just fine. So I loaded up 10 more and that's when the fun started. First went click whoof and I could see the ball bounce on the ground and a flash of fire at the muzzle. The next one fired as it should. About half of the rest fizzled. I tried moving the ball slightly farther in the case. No improvement noted. In all cases the ball seemed to fit tight and would not easily be moved. I did up the powder load to 10 gns of Unique but no better results were had. I have been reloading 45/70 shells since the mid 60's and even at one time load and shot round balls in my 30-30 with out a problem. I would really like to fix the problem as I have many different 45/70 firearms to enjoy shooting the little round ball. Help will be appreciated. tnx Charles

[Lucky Joe]

Has anyone tried Trail Boss?

[bigted]

trail boss...hmmm...maybe there is a use for this powder after all. I got a bunch when I didn't know the pressure spike and since then it has languished in the powder cabinet. maybe ill drag it out to see how it works behind this spiffy elongated round ball. great idea and im bettin that the spike will not be anything with something as lite as the round ball load.

[grampa243]

After reading how well a 457 round ball works in the 45/70 I gave it a try. I started out with 9 gns of Unique with the ball about 1/2 way in the case. First four did just fine. So I loaded up 10 more and that's when the fun started. First went click whoof and I could see the ball bounce on the ground and a flash of fire at the muzzle. The next one fired as it should. About half of the rest fizzled. I tried moving the ball slightly farther in the case. No improvement noted. In all cases the ball seemed to fit tight and would not easily be moved. I did up the powder load to 10 gns of Unique but no better results were had. I have been reloading 45/70 shells since the mid 60's and even at one time load and shot round balls in my 30-30 with out a problem. I would really like to fix the problem as I have many different 45/70 firearms to enjoy shooting the little round ball. Help will be appreciated. tnx Charles

sekiar are you getting a good crimp on them? if you don't have a good crimp that can make for odd ignition ; even more so with reduced loading.

[Sekiar]

I'll check and see if I can increase the crimp. That may just be what's needed. Thanks, Charles