Getting back to the Wesson & Harrington .45-70 Buffalo Classic 1871

[dlbarr]

26 Charlie, I like that sight setup! Would like to find one for my BC. Thanks for the interesting report.

As an aside, I was in Belfast several years ago for my daughter's wedding. My only visit ever to Maine - it was beautiful and I can see why you moved there!

[26Charlie]

A trio of reports, at 100 yards ( emptying cases I loaded years ago, when I had a couple of other .45-70 rifles also ) :
405 gr 457124 RN, 60 gr pyrodex RS bulk dipped. Five into 7.1".
405 gr RCBS 45-405-FP GC, 30.0 gr 2400. Three into 3.0".
350 gr Saeco 017 GC, 32.0 gr 2400. Two into 3.3".

I also took apart a box of twenty I loaded twenty-five years ago, which upon reflection I thought to be a bad idea - a duplex load of 3.5 gr 700-x and 40 gr H-4831, behind the 500 gr RN 457125, which I had sized .452, paper patched with 9 lb onion skin, then sized .459. Don't worry, I saved the bullets so you will hear of them again. I fired the powder out over the apple trees.

[Tom Herman]

[QUOTE=26Charlie;4121560]IThe material I use is an old cardboard "grain" barrel which grit to make grinding wheels was shipped in. It makes a hard 1/8" wad, which I cut myself on the drill press. QUOTE]

Aside from the comments on shooting 5744, you'd NEVER catch me shooting anything that originally held, or was near, an abrasive!
If any grit is left on the cardboard, you might be damaging your brass, barrel, and anything else that comes into contact with it.
I go to great pains to keep abrasives well away from my reloading operations.
All abrasives are stored well away from any brass or firearms items.
Both rock tumbling and brass cleaning operations all have dedicated equipment (each marked for its intended purpose) and separate spaces, and are never allowed to mix.

-Tom

[26Charlie]

I suppose I should address some of the caveats brought up.
Tom - no worries, no grit, dry clean cardboard.
MM93 - It is well known that a wad down on a charge of powder with air space above it becomes a secondary projectile, causing a pressure excursion when it strikes an unmoving bullet base, just as a bullet will do if striking an obstruction in the barrel - another stuck bullet, a patch, a wad of snow. This has been hashed out in this forum before. A ringed chamber, barrel, or blown muzzle can be the result. What also happens, and I know of this from artillery days, is that an oscillating pressure wave reflects back and forth to the breech from the obstruction, and in some cases can blow the breechblock out. This "chuffing" may have been the cause of guns blown up with reduced loads of slow burning powders like 4831. I saw this with a reduced load of 4831 in a 6.5mm Swedish Mauser a friend loaded, expanding the case head like a 90K lbs load of 4895 would have done, fortunately not blowing the gun. This was investigated back in the 1970's, being called the "secondary explosion effect" or SEE when it was discovered. Ballards are not particularly strong, especially if cracked as mentioned. Vintage black powder rifles should probably be kept to black powder reloads.