Filler question...

[Knarley]

What is the best material to use as filler? I'm loadin' fer an I.A.B. "Sharps" ( Yea, I know it's a crowbar) but the dern thing shoots straight. The Mrs. likes it cuz it's short and isn't too heavy, which inturn makes it kick more. It's supposed to be in 45-70 Govt. but is chambered a tad on the "long" side. Plan on loadin' some 405gr. Lee flat nose with reduced B.P. ( I read the thread on smokeless loads, and I ain't goin' there!) Was wonderin' if'n one of them "Dead Mule " thingies would work. I spose a thick recoil pad would be easier and cheaper, anyway ,thanks for your input.
Regards,
Knarley

[hydraulic]

The Army loaded carbine cartridges with 55 grs. of BP with a 405 gr. bullet down on the powder.

[kodiak1]

Knarley your 45-70 is a good choice of rifle,
You can use cream of wheat, but if I were you I would start out with a full measure of black.
It will suprise you how little it kicks.
Ken.

[Kraschenbirn]

Dunno the weight of your I.A.B. Sharps, but I shoot the Lyman 457124...406 gr from 30-1...over 55 gr of FFG with a .030 fiber wad as a "standard" load in my H&R Trapdoor Carbine. It's as accurate as any BP load I've put together for that gun and I regularly through 50-60 rounds at a session without feeling "beat-up" the next morning.

Bill

[Boz330]

Cream of wheat would work, or Kapok. You might try a grease cookie to take up space, 2 fold benefit there. Or just stack more wads in there. Just depends on how much less powder you want. Limb saver might be the best option if she can deal with the added length of pull. Or all of the above in a sensible combination.

Bob

[KCSO]

The military load hd a cardboard tube to take up space. I would just use COW over the powder. Have you done a chamber cast in your IAB quite a few of them have long chambers and shoot the 450+ bullets best.

[WBH]

Don't get all nervous and worried about the "smokeless" issue posts. If you do a little research you will see that the pressures generated by 27gr of XMP5744 are equal to or less than that allowed by the weak trapdoor Springfield (18000 psi). I'm not telling you what to feed your particular rifle..........just stating the facts what are verifiable from many sources (Accurate Powder being one of them). Sometimes when I am short on time to reload I will shoot that load under a 405-430gr 20:1 in my original rollers and replica Sharps. You can also buy a Shooters Friend slip on pad. I use it on my 50-90 full house loads and it is a real pleasure. I'm sure I'll stir the pot again with this post.

[JSnover]

21 grains of SR4759, 385gr boolit is downright mild.

[Don McDowell]

What is the best material to use as filler? I'm loadin' fer an I.A.B. "Sharps" ( Yea, I know it's a crowbar) but the dern thing shoots straight. The Mrs. likes it cuz it's short and isn't too heavy, which inturn makes it kick more. It's supposed to be in 45-70 Govt. but is chambered a tad on the "long" side. Plan on loadin' some 405gr. Lee flat nose with reduced B.P. ( I read the thread on smokeless loads, and I ain't goin' there!) Was wonderin' if'n one of them "Dead Mule " thingies would work. I spose a thick recoil pad would be easier and cheaper, anyway ,thanks for your input.
Regards,
Knarley

The only filler to use with bp is more black powder. The recoil from a 45-70 isn't all that bad. Get her a past shoulder pad if necessary, but what ever you do don't go loading bp to charges less than what the bullet and wad will be in firm contact with.

[MSgtUSMC]

Some time back I asked a guy at a trapdoor only table at a gun show what load I should use in my recently acquired original trapdoor. He said 60 grains of BP and 10 grains of cornmeal. It's been working. Any disagreement with that load out there?

[405]

MSgtUSMC,
Sounds like a reasonable load to me. For any BPCR newbie out there it is the volume and length of the charge column in BPCR that is critical not so much the specific charge weight.

First figure out how deep into the case your bullet must seat. Bullets can have very large variations in seating depths. Some of it is just length/weight of bullet and some of it is based on throat length of rifle or magazine length of rifle. That will give an internal length (length of charge + filler). By trial and error add blackpowder at +/- desired grain weight. Measure, with the bottom depth gauge on a caliper, where the powder column extends up the inside of the case. Add enough filler so that when the bullet is seated to desired depth there is some compression... +/- .1"-.3" compression.

When all is said and done with normal bullet weights (300-500 gr) and regular blackpowder, the 45-70 case cannot be "overloaded" with blackpowder even for the Trapdoor.

With any filler between the powder charge and the bullet in the required sligthly compressed BPCR loading..... be it COW, MOM, felt wad, card wad or grease cookie, the filler becomes part of the bullet that the burning charge tries to push out the barrel. So when compared to say a 400 gr. bullet a few grs. of filler is not significant as far as increasing pressure caused by total weight inertia of the projectile.