45-70 and Unique

[hornetguy]

Just a quick question... I've seen it mentioned in a couple of places that one should use a dacron wad to hold the charge in place, when using Unique in the 45-70.
Do you guys do that, or just load it and let it fly? I'm casting the Lee 405 HB boolit, and as soon as I get my handles, I'll be casting the RD 350gr. I'm thinking I'll try some light loads with the HB boolit (1000-1200 fps) and some more moderate loads with the RD boolit, maybe in the 1800 fps range.

[Piedmont]

I don't use a filler of any kind with Unique. Actually I don't use filler with anything but I think especially with the faster burners (and Unique is pretty fast burning for a rifle) you don't need it and there is potential for ringing a chamber if you don't do it right. I'm not the guy to ask how to do it right. Ringing a chamber isn't something I want to do even once.

[Shooter6br]

10 grains with 350 g Ranch Dog shoots clover leafs at 50 yrd No recoil from Ruger NO 1. I use H322 to get 1500 fps. 4759 ,2400 good powders:bigsmyl2:

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I have used a dacron "Pillow fluff" filler and have not.
With Unique I see no difference in accuracy or reliability. I also try not to fire a round that has sat in the muzzle down position. Level or barrel up before firing seems to make little or no differnce in my informal testing. I am rather found of 11 grains in my 45-70´s with whatever boolit.

[NickSS]

I have used unique with some successfor light loads but have found that as I mostly shoot at 200 yards vs 50 as most people on this forum seams to do that I like a charge of 16 gr of unique with a 400 gr slug. This gives me best accuracy at longer ranges. However. best accuracy with smokeless powder that duplicates black powder velocities is with 27 gr of AA 5744. I also use unique for round ball loads for plinking and pest control. I find that 10 gr of unique with a round ball dipped in LLA with the ball pushed down on top of the powder makes for accurate shooting out to 25 yards and even 50 yards on occasion.

[TCLouis]

10.5 grains of an older Milsurp powder that compares to Unique (big flakes), WLP, and the
RD 350 (378 ready to go in my alloy) yields 1100 fps and shoots VERY small groups out of my 86 with no filler.

[Dave Bulla]

Just got back from the range a little while ago and shot the 45-70 with both 145 gr collar buttons and with 385gr Lyman 457124 round nose both over 10.05gr of unique.

At 50 yards, the 385's cut cloverleafs, the collar buttons went about 3" for a 5 or 6 shot group. No idea of the speed of either but both had very very little recoil. I plan to play around with other powder charges in the future. The collar button boolits fascinate me and I plan to experiment with them to see what they are capable of.

[Catshooter]

Look out Dave, the 45-70 is terribly addictive. What mould do you cast the collar buttons out of? You can also use round balls.


Cat

[Dave Bulla]

Catshbooter, I think you're dead right about the addictiveness of the 45-70. Had mine for close to 8 or 10 years now and am just beginning to figure out that there are a LOT of options for this thing. Just might be the most versatile caliber I've ever dealt with.

As for the collar buttons, they are from a Lyman 457130 mold. I don't own it but got the boolits from www.damnhardtofing.com. Real nice guy to deal with. I'm guessing that you've messed around with these things yourself? What kind of load did you end up shooting and what accuracy did you get? How do they compare to round balls? Oh yea, what lube did you use? Mine are only coated with Rooster Jacket so the groove is not filled. I was told that was plenty to hold them and lubing with regular lube was almost a waste of time. Or rather, a waste of a LOT of lube per boolit.

[btroj]

I have shot the collar button with 10 gr unique. Worked very well. I have a 6 cav Lee from a group buy for that bullet. Talk about lots of lube! That groove is huge!
Round ball can be fun too. Try 8 to 10 gr unique with 2 balls. They actually hit pretty close together at 25 yards.

[Dave Bulla]

I just had a thought....

Could a fella pan lube the collar buttons but only use enough lube to go about 1/4 to 1/2 the way up into that big honkin' lube groove? It'd be evenly distributed and should get the job done just fine. Heck, the bearing bands on that boolit are only about 3/32 tall. An even 1/16 to 1/8" of lube above the base ring should be plenty. Hmmmmmmmmmm...........

[oksmle]

Springfield Mod. 1873 carbine: Lyman #457124 @ 405 grs, WW, 12.5 grs Unique, Rem. LP primers, Rem. cases, 1100 fps. This is the same as the original "carbine load" which contained 55.0 grs of BP, & shoots very well in both the Springfield & my Ruger #3.