Rolling Blocks

[roaddog1m]

I just bought a Navy Arms 45-70 Rolling Block from Gunbroker and it's here. It has a heavy round 1-20 twist Shilen bbl. I have been loading and shooting for over 20yrs but I know nothing about the rollers or BPCR for that matter. I just dig it for some reason and want to learn how to do it right.
I have seen things written about #1, #2 and #3 actions but I don't know what the difference is between them. Also, I don't know which one this is.
I bought a cheap Lee 405gr mold to start out with but any advice would be highly appreciated.

Thank, Tom

[wills]

http://www.wisnersinc.com/rifles/remington/roll_block.html

Links to drawings

[NickSS]

If yours is a navy arms one it is a No 1 which is the large action the other actions were smaller until you get to the number 5 which is similar in size to the N0 1 but was made for smokeless cartridges of the late 1890s. As far as loading if you want to load black powder just fill the case until there is enough room to seat the bullet with no air space 9it is better to pour the powder through a drop tube of 24 to 30 inches long to settle the powder), put in a card wad and seat your bullet. That will give you a start. After that you can refine your loads by adding or subtracting powder etc. Do you have the lee hollow base or plain base bullet? If it is the hollow base it will carry sufficient lube for blacik powder but if it's the plain base one it probably does not carry enough lube. If you want to shoot smokeless powder a good powder to try is AA 5744 around 27 gr is a nice target load.

[roaddog1m]

Thanks Nick. I was planning on shooting smokeless but the more I read the more I want to try some BP. This is completely new to me so I'm going into it completely open minded. It has a globe front sight with a level and the rear sight is a tall tang sight of some sort. The bbl is only 28" but it's a very heavy round Shilen 1-20 twist. My mold is a flat base and I have a lot of alloy to choose from. I suppose a softer one is better in this case? I measured my bullets at .459 but haven't been able to slug the bbl.

[Chicken Thief]

Card wads and hollow base bullets are a NONO!
The cases of 1875 was baloon heads and had less brass and more space, so dont exspect to get much more than 62-65 grains of BP down there.
Cast pure lead and dont bother sizing.
The wide greace grooves is to be filled with something like:
5 parts beeswax
3 parts hard crisco
2 parts Canoola oil
1 part lanilin
Blow tube and you'll be shooting all day without cleaning.

[Don McDowell]

Cast your bullets from something along the lines of 20-1 alloy. Lube them with a quality blackpowder lube such as the Bullshops Nasa or Sagebrush's Alox or SPG. Prime your cases with large rifle or large pistol primers, fill those cases with 70 grs by weight of 2f Goex blackpowder , seat a .030 fiber wad on the powder and then seat that bullet to the driving band, and have a good time.

[nwellons]

Thanks for the great information. I'm just starting reloading and hope to reload for my .43 Egyptian Rolling Block soon. I have shot some custom cartridges in it but it is too expensive not to reload. I've started on a .42 Berdan II and it is shooting fine.

[Don McDowell]

nwellons, if I were going to start on the 43 egyptian again, I'ld look at getting some 45-75 wincheter brass from Jamison and using it to form the 43's. You can use 50-70 brass but it comes out to short and 50-90's are to long..

[nwellons]

Thanks, Don. I have 20 custom cartridges that I bought when I got the rifle. I think the reloader got the formed cartridges from Buffalo. They are made from 50-90 Sharps. I guess they were trimmed.

[Don McDowell]

I made a bunch out of 50-70 brass they're a bit short , but haven't had any trouble with leading. Also had a couple of boxes made at Rocky Mtn Cartridge.

[vulture47]

Buffalow Arms has both the empty brass and correct sized slugs as well as loaded amunition for the .43 Egyptian. I've gotten most of my makings from them to put together my .43 Spanish rounds for my Rolling Blocks, including my .43 Spanish Reformado. They aint cheap, but so far what I've gotten from them has been good stuff and that really counts for something, especially if you don't want to try and form your own brass from something else, and I didn't. I use a set of Lee dies to load the .43 Spanish, don't know if they sell a set for the Egyptian or not. I haven't got a set for the Reformado so I'm going to try and make the ones I do have work to get a few rounds put together, all I need is for the .43 Spanish seating die to seat the slugs for me in the Rformado brass and I'll be good to go, unfortuantly they don't use the same sized slug, silly people, gotta make things hard on everyone.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
On the .43 Spanish slug that throat area. Mine runs .443. The Lyman mold is undersied. The .446 mauser mold is better as it drops a 40-1 boolit right for my fat throated 43 Spanish.
BP will bump the diameter up but a fatter boolit centers better and in my rifle shoots much better groups.
Bought a Navy Arms Roller back about 1982. Still have it. Put a Buasky 1-18 twist barrel on it in 83. Most accurate 45-70 I have owned. Throated it a bit long so a 500 grainer will seat with 68 grains of 2F with cereal box card. I use 45% olive oil - 55% beeswax on hot days as lube. If I am gonna shoot a bunch I dobber the boolit nose before loading.
I do not shoot off a bench but off cross sticks. My 155 pounds of bones and 60 years seem to survive the recoil better that way.