Lee 300 gr. .45 pistol boolit patched for .45-70

[FWAddit]

Over on the Black Powder PP forum, Kenny Wasserburger suggested a discussion there of the Lee 300 gr. for .45 Colt would be of interest here as well. I have begun experimenting with that boolit in my Siamese Mauser .45-70, so here goes.

Wanting a boolit that would expand rapidly for lung shots on deer without fragmenting, I threw ingots of about BHN 9 (suggested by a Lee hardness tester) into the pot and added about the same amount of range scrap consisting of jacketed cores and swaged pistol bullets. My boolits cast up about 11 BHN and a diameter of .452. After being wrapped and sized they mike .459, just right for my .458 bore.

I worked up loads with IMR 3031 and RL-7 to levels that (judging by loads with similar projectiles in the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook) should give 2000 fps, more or less. Preliminary shooting results at 25 yards into the snowbank at the end of my driveway look good, but at that range who can say for sure? I won't be able to drive back to my shooting bench on the back 40 for real accuracy testing till the spring thaw. Comments by another user on the Black Powder PP forum suggest that results at 50 and 100 yards may be less than satisfactory.

Just for kicks, I did shoot some of the loads at old cans of vegetables my wife told me to throw out. The contents exploded into mist, and shards of tin flew 15-20 feet high. The sides of the cans tore into two pieces and the top and bottom seams came uncrimped. That wide, flat meplat seems to do the job.

I will report more after conditions permit. May be a while. I live in Wisconsin.

[wgr]

i pp some 250grain 45 colt bullets . used 24 grains of 2400 powder. was not to bad out to 85/100 yards. fun load too

[Nobade]

I'm not sure if I responded to this thread somewhere else, but here goes:
I have a Lyman #457191, 300gr. mould that throws a bullet at .455", too small for the 45-70. I size it to .452 and patch back up to .458". Loaded over a drop tubed charge of IMR 3031 in unsized cases, and taper crimped to hold the bullet in it runs 2300 fps from my Marlin 1895 or C. Sharps 1875, and shoots better than I can see out to 300M. Adjust powder charge to control seating depth, and let the patch just start to engrave the rifling. Cast from nearly pure lead, this bullet expands violently on impact. I suspect your Lee bullet would do about the same thing.

[45-70 Ranger]

Howdy!

The only moulds I have in the way of pistols in the .45 range are the old Lyman 225 RN that I used in a .45ACP and the .456-220-1R Lee for a Ruger Old Army. The Lyman was a might too pointed to really have any effect for my test. The Lee mould for the ROA was much better. I was able to size it down to the right size and get a single wrap on it. My Marlin mikes out to .4563" and I usually run a .457 greased slug or a .458 PP round. With that, I was getting some fair and accruate hits out to 50 yds or so with the PP Lee bullet.

I can only suspect that the 300 you're working with will only be better as you'll have more bearing surface and the weight to be more stable at longer ranges. I will follow your thread as I am interested in using light bullets in the .45-70 as I truly feel this is something that can be explored far more than it has in the past.

Good luck with the tesing and I believe you will get better results than I did with a lighter projectile.

Wade

[HiVelocity]

Okay, here goes.

I've got the Miha 454-270-RF that casts out at 285 grains with my lead mix of primarily ACWW 90/10 WW/Lino. I want to PP this bullet into my Ruger #1 in 45-70. I've read that one member on this forum has tried this combo, or similar combination with good results using 16-17 grains of 2400. (Photo below)

I sized this bullet to .452; but now I'm trying to figure out how to PP to .460. A good friend owns his own printing business so I asked for a sample of onionskin to make this happen. He told me to simply use the yellow pages - literally! He said its thinner than onionskin, and probably better quality. So why not?

On the other hand, I cast a 292 grain 459 bullet that looks good. I already swaged this bullet down to .452 to load in 45 Colt for my Marlin 1894. Should be a real dynamic load on deer and hogs here in SC. Strangely enough, one member suggested 16-17 grains of 2400 also...............hmmmmm!

We'll see!

HV

[bbqncigars]

HiVelocity:
I think a standard double wrap of this paper (http://www.thepapermillstore.com/product.php?productid=9304) might do the trick. I have to use a 1:3 mix of water:Rooster Jacket to get it to stick to itself. The sheet I just grabbed miked out at .0021"

[bigted]

yellow pages.......hmmmmm great thought

[nanuk]

yellow pages.......hmmmmm great thought

and free

[FWAddit]

I'm not sure if I responded to this thread somewhere else, but here goes:
I have a Lyman #457191, 300gr. mould that throws a bullet at .455", too small for the 45-70. I size it to .452 and patch back up to .458". Loaded over a drop tubed charge of IMR 3031 in unsized cases, and taper crimped to hold the bullet in it runs 2300 fps from my Marlin 1895 or C. Sharps 1875, and shoots better than I can see out to 300M. Adjust powder charge to control seating depth, and let the patch just start to engrave the rifling. Cast from nearly pure lead, this bullet expands violently on impact. I suspect your Lee bullet would do about the same thing.

Nobade, thanks for the loading suggestion and the encouragement about potential accuracy.

I have eliminated RL-7 from consideration. It should be good, since like all the original ReLoder series it has a pressure curve that treats cast boolits gently. However, it balks at cold weather, which we often have during deer season. Here's how I know.

I had swapped out the front bead on my rifle, so I had to resight it. Yesterday I stomped out a path through the snow to a low snowbank for a backstop and set up a makeshift bench 50 yards from it. Temperature was not all that bad: in the high 20s. I used a partial box of reloads loaded with the Lee 400-gr. HP over 46 gr. of RL-7 that had given reasonable accuracy before. The first group of three all landed in about the same place, and (leaving the cartridge box on the bench) I went back indoors to fetch my sight pusher to center the vertical POI better before I started tweaking the rear adjustments.

The next group of three fired fine, or seemed to (although the group was larger) and I made the appropriate adjustments. After that, in the following group the first and second shots sounded and felt weak, and the third blooped. The boolit exited the barrel, but just barely; 15 feet in front of the muzzle there were clumps of unburned powder and a scattering of granules. I couldn't find the boolit; it may turn up after the thaw. Then I remembered that something similar had happened with RL-7 a few years ago in cold weather. Yesterday after I brought the remaining cartridges indoors and warmed them up, they all fired, though it's possible the powder didn't get warm all the way through, because the group was strung vertically.

So it's IMR 3031 from here on out for the current series of trials with the patched 300-gr. With a makeshift 50-yard range, I should be able to post some results in a few days.

Thanks to all who have contributed observations and suggestions.

[45-70 Ranger]

Here in East Texas it will get cold. Sometimes in the 20's too, but usually at or near freezing in later deer season. I've had a squib or two with RL7 of the new mfg, not the old Herc era powder. Further, the new RL7 leaves a foul grey residue in the barrell that will rust within a few hours if your weapon is not cleaned. No longer using RL7 as to these two issues....

Wade