..Been lurkin around a bit and it would appear that I have a reasonable spread of commonly used powders to start with already on hand from other loading thru the years. Got Unique, 2400, H322 & 335 & 4198 plus Varget (stay outta my Varget! 308) Also AA2015, while in the range, I've never seen anyone suggest it although there's a starting 405gr load on their site that might be ok. Got molds en route. Lee for now. The 340 and 405gr PB FN's IIRC. Both are 457. Hope I didn't jack that up but the reviews seemed mostly positive. And yeah, I'm gonna plug the barrel but the Lee's were cheap enough to just try'em and see. Plus a lot of the others just ain't available right now. This will be my first attempt a casting my own.
..Anyways, it's all for a Marlin 1895CB(JM) 45-70 with a 26" octagon barrel, ballard rifling. Everything else I have is way shorter than that and while I know it's an individual rifle thing I was wondering if there were any leanings I should consider for the barrel length starting out? I was gonna try Unique, 2400 and mebbe the H4198 at first. I've got a ton of H335 around, but it's my understanding that it's more for full tilt loads?
..Main use will be for deer and hogs in south central NC area on paper company owned property, private hunt club. Generally <200yards with under 100 being the norm (the usual). There will be "x" amount of plinking at fire ant mounds out as far as ya feel like lobbin'em in the new cutovers just for the halibut in the off season. That used to be grande fun with a 17# class bench gun. Lookin forward to it with this one as well.
..I was thinkin somethin in the mid range (14-1600ish?) would be easier on the old shoulder and have enough oomph to get it done on any of the local inhabitants of said club and mebbe a possible Elk later on. I ain't married to any bullet heavy or light nor am I opposed to buying a different powder if needed. I would like to K.I.S.S. if at all possible.
Thanks much for any useful or entertaining commentary..