Hey to everybody,
my name is Stefan and I am from Blackforest, Germany.
I'm new to bullet casting and plan to buy a stainless Marlin Levergun in 45-70 for hunting with cast boolits.
Why hunting with cast boolits? Because I want to!
Here in Europe or in Germany it's not as easy as in the USA to get all the reloading stuff you need. Sometimes you have to wait weeks or months until the next ship brings the bullets you want. With powder it is extremly different. Sometimes you get what you need, other times you have to wait half a year for your powder. An even then, you dont know if it really comes with the next container.
Because of this I decided to cast my own bullets and load them with european smokeless powder. That makes me independent in some way.
My game are roe deer (20 to 40 pounds) and wildboar (20 to 200 pounds).
My bullet of choice will be something like the Accurate Mold 46-405V
I've read a lot of boolit performance with big meplat bullets in the internet and believe, that this boolit should work quite fine, without much meat damage. I hunt for meat!
I did a lot of research on wound ballistics and believe, that a 405 gr WFN boolit driven a something around 1300 fps should work for me. My shooting distances are from 30 to 130 yards, most of the time around 70 yards. I'am a woods hunter.
Now the problems:
Here in Germany we have some bullet casting community, but compared to the tradition and experiences in the USA we are only one little star on the night sky. So for us mold availability is difficult, bullet lube availabillity is difficult, powder availabillity is difficult and so on.
For this reason I have to work with what we have here.
I have a german custom mold maker who surley can build a copy of the Accurate mold for me. That is cheaper that shipping it from USA, I believe.
Bullet lube for my purpose? I've read the whole bullet lube receipes here on the forum (and on other sites) and want to give 60% beeswax and 40 % Vaseline a try. That should work for my porpose. I like receipes with only a few ingredients available everywhere. Better idea?
Now to my question: What powder would you recommend?
I read the Lyman cast bullet Handbook No. 4 and countless of posts here on the forum and on other sites. There are great load recommendations. But all of them (the Lyman book included) have one big problem for me (not for you Amerikans! I envy you in many ways!). There are in 99% only US powders mentioned. I like your powders! Really! I loaded in .308 Win a 110 gr Barnes TSX with Hodgdon H322 and really liked that load!
But as mentionned, it is difficult to buy these powders here and I'm honest, I dont want to wait half a year for a new can of powder that comes maybe(!) with the next ship.
I don't need a bear stopping load. For me a 80% meplat bullet (like the Accurate one) driven at 1200 or 1300 fps in enough! Wound channel ist good, penetration should be the most in this velocity range (I dont need it for my "little" game, I know) and the load ist comfortable to shoot.
With most powders combinded with a mild load like this I get very little case filling.
I want to avoid this, because of inconsistensy and the other problems that come with it. Gas pressure will be low, so I will have to live with some unburnt powder, but that is not the main problem for me. I don't like Fillers, because the cause problems!
Has somebody experiences with european Powders for this load combination?
We have a similar powder to TrailBoss, it is calle Tin Star from Vihtavuori. But there is no load data available for 45-70, only for revolver cartridges.
I found some load data for the Accurate bullet mentionned in another Forum: Load was 24.0 grs. 2400, Wolf Large Rifle Primer, Accurate 460405V sized .460" with Glen's Black Moly Bullet Lube. Bore was super clean when I finished shooting today. Fired out of my Siamese 98' Mauser.
https://www.artfulbullet.com/index.p...87/#post-43067
Do you know the case filling rate of this combination?
I'm searching for a european powder that is good available for me, , that is not very position sensitive, that ignites good and burnes relativly clean even with low pressure. with that I can achieve my 1300 fps with a 405 gr cast bullet. And that filles my case adequate.
Do you have some recommendations for me?
Please tell me the US powders, too. I'm interested in that!
Thank you!
Stefan