45/70 mild to wild

[mpmarty]

I cast Ranch Dog 350gr .460 boolits for my Marlin 1895 circa 1973 it has a straight stock and no recoil pad. I'm a bit recoil sensitive and after loads of H335 and Varget as well as 3031 at close to 1900fps I decided to back off and take it easy on myself. Loaded ten rounds with twelve grains of Unique over a Wolf Large Pistol primer and shot a few over the Chrono. Gee Whiz! No kick and very mild report. Chrono showed 1115fps as average for five shots with less than 3fps std deviation. It shoots where it looks. Now I'm going for 13, 14 and 15 grains of Unique and will chrono those and see what comes up. The twelve grain load only produces a bit less than a thousand foot pounds of muzzle energy and I'd like to raise that a bit and still have a mild kicking round that shoots to point of aim. I'm using a 1.5 to 6 power scope on the Marlin.

[x101airborne]

hey great!! bit of trajectory at that velocity. Would be interested to hear how the increased charges go.

[ghh3rd]

I'm ready to do the opposite once I get my 425 gr GC group buy mold. I've been shooting trapdoor 405 gr loads, and can't wait to throttle up the 45-70

[btroj]

Try around 24 gr of 2400. Should go 1350 to 1400 or so. Shoots well with many boolits in my Marlin. Low recoil and accurate enough to hit what I want to.

Brad

[mpmarty]

Well the rains are back and I won't set up the chrono until it stops. Might be a day or two but I'll load up the small incremental increases and post what happens.

[crabo]

Well the rains are back and I won't set up the chrono until it stops. Might be a day or two but I'll load up the small incremental increases and post what happens.

Please do. I think there will be a number of people interested in this.

[Catshooter]

I've used 15 grains of Universal Clays (very similar to Unique) under a 365 grain group buy boolit. Showed about 1350 fps (IIRC). I had the same sort of velocity deviation, three or four fps.

Shot into an inch and a eigth at 100 yards. With a 100 yard zero, it was three inches high at 50, three inches low at 150 and six low at 200. The five inch group at 200 yards was my fault, I couldn't do any better with the iron sights I had on the H&R at the time.

Wonderful caliber. Mild load, pleasant recoil.


Cat

[crabo]

Where are you finding data for the Universal clays and the 45/70? I can't find any. I would like to try some, but want to know the max, so I don't go there.

[EMC45]

I shoot a 405gr. over 14.5gr. Unique. It is a killer (2 deer). Also kicks like a 20ga birdshot load.

[mpmarty]

OK, loaded and fired 13 and 14 gr of Unique as above except these were primed with WW L/R primers. Note deviation from high to low.

13 gr low 1134 fps
13 gr high 1158 fps

14 gr low 1201 fps
14 gr high 1230 fps

All of these loads were mild in recoil and seemed to be accurate at the fifty yards I was shooting over the chrono. Target was a stump at fifty yards and the chrono was fifteen feet from the muzzle. There was no "correcting" done for the loss from muzzle to chrono.

I'm going to fifteen gr of Unique but also going back to Wolf L/P primers.

[WHITETAIL]

I just loaded up 30 rounds of 45-70.
I got a new group buy mould and they look great.
385gr HP.

[Larry Gibson]

Yup, the 45-70 is a very fun and effective cartridge for "mild to wild" loads if you've a rifle to handle it like mpmarty does. I've TDs that are a lot of fun also but are restrictive due to the nature of the action. However I've a rebarreled Siamese Mauser that i refer to as a 45-400-70 because I get really wild with it. On the mild side I shoot lots of Rapine 275 gr 460250s at 1050 fps over 8 gr Bullseye. That is a very "mild" load, accurate and lots of fun. I push moat PB'd 400 - 415 gr cast bullets at 1350 fps in deference to the TDs but they also shoot very well and pleasantly in the 45-400-70. My 'medium" game load is either the Lyman 457483 GC'd at 1850 fps or the Lee C458-500-FN at 1750 fps. If I want to get "wild" the Lee 500 gr bullet at 2050 fps lets me know I've pulled a trigger in the light weight (8 1/2 lbs) rifle as does the 457483 at 2300+ fps. The J bullet is a Barnes Original 400 gr SP at 2300 fps also. A couple of either of those off the bench and you wonder where the Frasier right cross came from;-( However, off shooting sticks standing, a dozen or so aren't too bad........but are still about all the fun I want at any one time

Larry Gibson

[mpmarty]

Very nice, I've always wished for a Saimese Mauser but Santa never left one for me.

[XWrench3]

Do yourself a HUGE favor and buy (and install) a limbsaver recoil pad on that beast! the direct fit (meaning all you have to do is unscrew the butt plate, and screw on the pad) is 10102. it makes a WORLD of difference in my guide gun!

[Catshooter]

Crabo,

Knowing that Unique and UC are very similar in burning charcteristics, I just used Unique data and worked up. I also used Large Pistol primers, knowing that they are softer than rifle primers and would show pressure signs way before I reached max in the H&R action.


Cat

[crabo]

Thanks Cat, I figured it was something like that. I used Universal in my Marlin 357 and it worked pretty well.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Well I have never shot a Marlin in 45/70.

However, I did have a .44mag and the thing beat me until I added some length to the butt with the addition of a nice thick recoil pad.

That got my thumb away from my face and no more beatings.

Having never shot the Marlin, I wonder if the drop in the butt isn't a potential problem that might be lessened if you can stand a bit more length.

Tried shooting my RUGER #1 - 45/70 with iron sights and it was flat PAINFULL!!!!!!!!!

Totally due to the LOW HEAD position required with the Iron sights.

Of course I have also added a good, read thick & soft recoil pad, but I now shoot lots of loads, with a 355gr cast Boolit in the 2200 - 2400fps range with no problems!

That boolit ahead of 55gr of RL#7 took my first cast Boolit critter a short time back.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Larry Gibson]

Before i put it into the fajen stock with Pachmyer Tripple Magnum recoil pad I had it in the cut down milsurp stock with steel butplate. Working the 400 gr bullets above 1600 fps convinced me real quick that a different stock and a recoil pad were in order!

Larry Gibson

[1Shirt]

22-24 gr. of 2400 under any wt. from 350 to 405 shoots well in my #1. I do load unique as well for plinking loads, as it is cheaper on a quantity basis per load than 2400.
I use a dac filler for 2400, but don't feel the need for it with unique.
1Shirt!

[mpmarty]

Yeah I have a huge bag of poly pillow stuffing but don't use it anymore. Unique just works well without it for me and 2400 loads of around 25gr don't seem to need it either.