H&R officers model load

[smkummer]

Wasn't looking for one but sometimes I have had regrets from walking out of a gun show(National gun day-Louisville) with nothing so this one came with me home for $550 from an individual and I was able to sneek it into the basement. Besides my 2 buddies have 45-70 guns so enough reasoning for buying a gun!

OK, I am thinking either the Lee HB 405 grain bullet or Lyman's 457124 bullet. Looking for an accurate load to 100 and maybe 200 yards. 1200 to 1500 FPS is fine for me. Unique saves on powder costs but I really don't need to worry about powder costs in a single shot so 5744 and 4759 sound like good powders. The person who I bought it from said it shot really well.

Also since the trapdoor strength is somewhat debunked, if I ever feel the need for a little more ooph!; has anyone shot a hotter load out the modern H&R repro?
thanks ahead of time guys.

[Lead Fred]

I use a H&R Handi, which will take more pressure.
The two loads I use are 40gr Reloader 7 (37-49gr range) does 1700 fps.
I think this would be a tad hot for you.
I also use 4grs green dot & 55gr 2f Black. (not the sub) Gives me 1300ish fps.
With Pyrodex I was getting 1120fps, which was a bit on the slow side for me.
With a Lyman 405 mold.
The RL-7 load yields a 2-3 group at 100, and I can hit the 200 yard gong, which is a 12 inch circle. Never needed anything more out of it.

[oldhickory]

Don't hot-rod those H&R Trapdoors, some of them had problems with the latchs opening unexpectintly, providing automatic ejection of the spent case upon firing. I shoot an 1884 Springfield, (1889 manuf) and never had a problem with it, 2 friends had H&R's with the auto-eject, scared em good the first time. Now they shoot originals.

Some one here posted the cure for auto-eject H&R's...Maybe Larry Gibson?

[kcajeel]

I use 11 grains of Unique in my Trapdoor with 330 grain or 405 grain boolit. WARNING----- BE VERY CAREFUL AND DONT OVERCHARGE YOUR LOADS WITH UNIQUE. It's easy to double charge your cases and it will destroy your rifle and even worse. Double and triple check your loadings.

[NickSS]

I had really good results with AA 5744 with both a 300gr and a 405 gr bullet in the trapdoor carbine I had. I shot 27 gr with the 405 and 39 with the 300 gr bullet.

[Larry Gibson]

My standard loads for those powders and those bullets in my H&R OM and LBH are:

28 gr of 5744

24 gr 4759 with a 1 gr dacron filer

38 gr 4895 with a 1 gr dacron

All the above loads with either bullet replicate the M1873 loads at 1300 - 1350 fps with excellent accuracy. I generally cast both bullets of 1-16 alloy or WWs +2% tin and size .459 or .4615. Lube is either Javelina or my own BP lube of beeswax and virgin olive oil at 6 parts to 5 parts.

All loads have been pressure tested with an Oehler M43 and are within the psi limitations for TDs.

Larry Gibson

[smkummer]

When I got home I looked in my copy of "U.S. Military Firearms 1776-56" by Major James E. Hicks. And found out the the H&R repro officers model is missing a few niceties of the originals such as a set trigger and standard rear sight. But I was happy to note that most all said it shot very well. I might be finding my own 1879 rifle rear sight to mount just for the heck of it. Of course a internet search pulled up Larry Gibson's name and his comments. I just bought the gun and will be gone on business until this weekend and plan on shooting the heck out of it. I found 2 molds for it-Lyman's 457192-350 grain and 457124-385 grain to start with. Looks like I will be buying some more 5744 powder and enjoying the heck out of this gun.

[smkummer]

14.6 grains unigue and Lee's 457-340 FP bullet as that was all I had loaded. Didn't put it on paper but when we got it sighted in at 100 yards were hitting clay piegons about 2/3 of the time. The front sight would completely cover the clay and we just guessed and pulled the trigger. At 50 we used a 6 oclock hold and I believe we had a 90% kill ratio hitting broken clay targets. The bullets were unsized and water dropped WW. Looking foward to working with Lyman's 350 FP and 385 FN bullets. Unique appears to be a great cost savings load for plinking but putting it on paper will be the big moment of truth if 5744 is worth the extra cost.

[NickSS]

I own 11 different 45-70s not counting my trapdoor collection and can say that I have had good results with bullets from 300 to 500+ gr with Unique but my results with 5744 has been better in all of them for loads in the same velocity range. I made a typo in my post above as my 300 gr load is 29 gr not 39 gr Sorry for the error.