45-70 molds????

[beng]

I am just getting into silhouette shooting, (100 to 200yds H&R BC 32" barrel) I was looking at the Lee mold 459-405 Hollow Base. Is that a good boolit to use or is it a mold for the BP? (I use H4198 powder) Also will a 350 boolit or so do the job? Thanks for your time

[steg]

Iv'e had real good luck with the 405 Gr HB, and I don't use BP, actually I have all the Lee molds for the 45/70, they all cast and shoot well. I've been using 2400 in my loads, Don't know if that's the best or not, been told that 3031 is good but I haven't found any loading data on it yet..........steg

[stephenj]

beng .. im not sure about the h4198 but ive found the imr 4198 to be position sensitive with lighter loads everything ive read the 2 powders are pretty simaler with one being just slightly faster than the other .. im not sure what the twist on your barrel is but if itll shoot a 405 grn bullet good it should be more than enough for short range silhouette

[Nobade]

If you are talking 200M cowboy silhouette, a 300gr. bullet is plenty. I have been having good luck with #457191 recently. It slams the rams quite well when launched at 1500 fps. For 500M silhouette, you have different requirements.

[Larry Gibson]

I am just getting into silhouette shooting, (100 to 200yds H&R BC 32" barrel) I was looking at the Lee mold 459-405 Hollow Base. Is that a good boolit to use or is it a mold for the BP? (I use H4198 powder) Also will a 350 boolit or so do the job? Thanks for your time

Beng

The Lee 405HB bullet is a very good one but it is designed and made for the larger groove diamter trapdoors. It can shoot very well in other .45 cal rifles though. I seriously doubt you will see anyone seriously using the 405 HB for silhouette shooting though. A heavier flat based bullet is going to prove to be more accurate at longer range than the HB Lee bullet. Your H&R BC has a standard groove diameter barrel and there are numerous flat based bullets available that will work much better. Suggest a look at Lee's 459-500-3R, Lyman's 457658, 457677 457132, the RCBS 45-500-BPS or the Saeco #645 or #745. If you want a lighter 400 gr bullet for the chickens and pigs then the Lyman 457124 is a good one.

Larry Gibson

[John Guedry]

I use the 405HB Lee mould and am happy with it. Probably just my particular alloy but mine come out 15-20 grains light.

[Trey45]

My son and I just got done shooting my H&R Buffalo Classic 45-70, we shot 20 rounds of the Lee 405gr HB boolit on top of 26gr 4759. That's 1873 Springfield data according to Lymans 48th. It explodes milk jugs pretty good! It was his first time shooting 45-70, he's hooked.

[Larry Gibson]

I use lots of Lee's 405HB bullets , I even shoot them at some distance on targets of opportunity out of my TDs for fun. However, Beng is talking about getting into sihouette shooting. Them Turkeys at 385m and rams at 500m are pretty small targets. Again, I wouldn't select the 405HB bullet for serious silhouette shooting, there are much better proven silhouette long range bullet designs readily available.

Larry Gibson