45-70 hunting load

[jgh4445]

I bought a new Lyman Model of 1878 Sharps type rifle. It should arrive tomorrow. I've been casting a long time, reloading for a long time too. I have never loaded a BP cartridge round. I'm gonna start though. I have lead, tin, brass, Swiss and Goex. I even have a Lyman mold that will pour a 405 gr FP, although most folks say it will pour closer to 420. From reading I plan to mix 30-1. I doubt I will do much if any silhouette work. Don't plan on any competition other than against myself. I plan to use it mainly for hunting. I'll be hunting Alabama whitetails and hogs with shots no further than 300 yds. The rifle will have a 30 inch standard round barrel and it's twist is 1-18". What boollit would you guys recommend I hunt with. I hear that this rate of twist is best used with 500+ gr boolits but I'm not sure that I want to experience that much recoil on a regular basis. I'm open to suggestions. Oh, I have Mike Venturino's book on shooting BPCR but he doesn't talk much about bullets for white tails at under 300 yds.

[Doc_Stihl]

The Lee 405 HB should work really well over BP. Holds alot of lube.

[jgh4445]

Thanks Doc. I'll try and work up a load for it.

[NSB]

jgh4445, congrats on the 45-70. I have several of them and they are a lot of fun to hunt with. My only suggestion is this: get a good range finder if you're going to shoot out to 300yds. It's like lobbing mortar shells with the ballistics on this caliber. One other thought is this...it takes a while for the bullet to get there at the velocities it's going at. If any animal is moving at all, it will probably move feet, not inches, by the time the bullet gets there at that distance. They're fun but a little different than the usual high power center fire. Have fun, it sounds like a pretty nice gun and load combo.

[country gent]

Slug the bore and if possible make a chamber cast to get the chamber / throatin the picture also. The 405 should work good Lyman has some light hollow points in the 350-400 grain range also. With Black powder in a heavy rifle the 500s arnt bad for recoil. If you have the ime and energy buy some bullets ( buffalo arms ect ect) and test diffrent wieghts to see what works then buy your mold. Dont discount the lyman 457125 500 grn round nose its a good performer in alot of rifles. Test and see what your rifle likes at test at diffrent ranges also just to see what really works.

[WARD O]

I've been shooting a Shiloh 26" '74 Sharps 45-70 with the 18" twist for a hunting rifle for 8 years now. Took a nice South Dakota bison and a number of Minnesota whitetails. It's never seen smokeless powder. Started out using the Lyman 457193 with good results. Played with 457125, Miha's 462122- a 350 gr HP, Paul Jones 45018 - 480 gr a round nose with a flat point, and am currently shooting a 475 gr PP - all with very good results accuracy wise. My hunting bullets have always been of the 30 to 1 ration. So I have run from 350 gr to 520 gr with fine accuracy so your twist should be perfect. Point of impact does vary by weight though.

My current favorite for powder choice is the new Goex Old Eynsford 2F. It seems to be a very clean shooting powder which allows follow up shots with easy loading and fine accuracy without any other fouling control - important for a hunting load. My load is 68 grains by weight drop tubed into the case, place a .030 card wad on the powder and compress approx. .200 of an inch. This leaves enough room to seat the grease groove bullet deep enough to allow easy chambering.

After picking a bullet, I would determine the powder charge kind of in reverse. See how much case room you need to seat your bullet properly. You'll want to compress your charge a bit - try .200. Figure out how much powder you can trickle into the case and compress .200 to leave enough room for a thin wad and the bullet. That's your charge - it might be 63 grains or it might be 68 grains - unlike smokeless, it is not important what it is exactly. The rule with black is to always fill the case, leave NO air space! Compression allows you to get more powder in the case, more powder give you more velocity. Compressed powder charges usually burn cleaner leaving less fouling.

Like was mentioned, try to buy a few bullets and experiment with weight range to see what works for you.

ward

[jgh4445]

Thanks guys. Got the rifle in my hands yesterday. Took it out to the range today. I had some factory loads so I tried it with them. Wow..it really liked the Remington and Winchester 405 gr. rounds. It did not like the Remington 300 gr hollow points. They wouldn't shoot closer than 3 inches at 50 yds. At 100 yds, the 405s shot some small groups and will be fine for hunting at the end of this week. Soon as my tin gets here, I'll start working up a BP load.

[johnson1942]

your bullet is fine and loaded properly it will drive tacks. their is a competitive long range shooter over in wyoming next door to me that shoots your bullet in long range matches and does very well. i got a bounch of 400 grain hard cast real cheap and they kept a minute of angle or less at 100 yards in my 1/22 twist 45/70. i know yours is a 1/18 twist but i also shoot a 1/18 twist .45 muzzle loader with 400 grain paperpatch and it drive tacks at any range. load right , keep your gun clean and have fun.

[johnson1942]

P.S. i find the 1/18 twist .45 cal very forgiving and not cranky.

[DW475]

I just tested some BP loads using 62-66 gr of Goex 2F and the Lee 405 bullets and found they were pretty consistent at 50 yards out of my Shilo 1874 Sharps. Might work pretty well in that Lyman.

[myfriendis410]

I just ran some through my 45/70 Sharps using 2F Goex, a grease cookie and wad using a 500 gr. Lyman round nose. I couldn't get any more than 58 gr. of powder in the case and still seat the bullet deep enough. Accuracy was so-so but the load was clean! The barrel looked almost unfired. Clean holes in the paper but velocity was obviously pretty low. A 405 gr. bullet might be more in order.