Help with 45-70 loads

[robert william]

I was reading through a long string of coments concerning ringed barrels. I am rather new to the CB game, having cut my teeth on the jacketed variety. Currently I am loading the 45-70 with a cast WW bullet of 500 gr. (Lee), no gas check. I am placing a tight fitting card wad against the base of the bullet followed by a tight fitting lubed felt wad. The wads are tight against the base of the bullet. My powder charge is 13.2 gr of Unique and a Federal LR primer. The loads are very accurate and I am getting no leading.
Am I risking my barrel? Are there better recipies for approximating BP performance?
I am using the wads because that is what I did when loading BP and it does seem to help keep the barrel clean. I tried Alox as a lube but got leading with the above powder charge so I went back to 33% bees wax/ 66% lard as a lube. It works in my musket and 45 Colt and seems to work fine here. I am still concerned about damaging my barrel however. I would appreciate any advice your greater experience might offer.

[felix]

There are no guarantees for any kind of load, Robert. Just experiences that we collectively have which approximate 100 percent safety. The load(s) presented in your memo are in that latter category. Just keep things tight against the boolit and you SHOULD be 100 percent OK. ... felix

[robert william]

:-D Thanks Felix, I was starting to think I was going down the wrong road. I would have stayed with BP for my loading but can no longer get the powder I like (WANO Schwartz Pulver) so I tried to find a smokeless loas that was in the same ballpark. All I can buy around here is GOEX, works fine in my frontstuiffers but I can not get it to perform in my NEF.
With the WANO, I loaded 55 gr of FFF and then compressed it enough to allow me to seat the same bullet and wad configuration without appling undo pressure on the lead. Out of my NEF it was very accurate and left very little crud in my barrel. As a matter of practice I would punch out the bore every five shots but I have fired 20 round without cleaning and still recorded fine accuracy.
I think after Christmas I will order some more boolit molds and delve further into this field.:-D

[drinks]

Robert;
Think slippery slope, molds are addictive.
Before long you will be buying molds for guns you do not have, then have to buy something to shoot them in.
;D

[lovedogs]

Hey, Robt. William... I shoot a Buffalo Classic a lot in competition and can give you info on what has worked for me. Maybe it'll work for you, too.

I don't need power for hitting silhouettes but need a good 500 grainer to reach out to a half-mile. I tried several powders and had to do my research on lubes to find the right one. If you've read the posts on fillers you'll see that I don't believe in them. If others want to use them it's their business. Using wads and fillers are not quite the same thing but with the right powder I don't see the need for either.

I finally settled on the following load for my long-range target load: W-W cases, CCI 200 primer, 23 1/2 gr. of 5744, and a Saeco mould cast 500 gr. bullet. I use a 20:1 alloy. The bullet is sized .001 over bore diameter, which in this case is .459 for the .458 bore. I tried SPG lube and had occasional light leading. I switched to Glenn Larsen's 50/50 lube and now never get any leading.

This load goes 1150 FPS out of my 32 inch bbl. With either a scope or Lee Shaver Soulle sight it shoots 1 inch groups at 100 yds. At 200 I can't see real well but it still shoots into about 2 1/2 inches, better than I can see! On several occasions I've been shooting on perfect days and holding my face just right and had this load shoot into 5 1/2 inch groups on our buffalo silhouette, which is at 876 yds.

My shooting partner and lady friend also has a Buffalo Classic. The only difference in our loads is that I use Starline brass in hers so we don't get our brass mixed up. It has a little heavier construction so her vel. is just a little over 1200 FPS. Her rifle shoots almost identical to mine with this load. So I think this is a real good load. The 5744 doesn't need a filler, a wad, or magnum primers. It's dirty burning but it doesn't matter. Just ignore the trash in the bbl. and keep shooting. It won't affect anything.

This is what works for me. With this load my vel. only varies about 7 FPS shot-to-shot. That's better than I got with any other powder and this makes hits much more consistent at half a mile. I do sort bullets and cases by weight for matches. I've found that is important because for each FPS at almost 900 yds. you'll get an inch difference in drop. People have told me they sometimes have trouble with shots going high one shot then low on the next and they can't figure why. When asked how much shot-to-shot their velocities vary they invariably come up with something like 15-20 FPS. Well, at 900 yds. that means 15-20 inches of verticle stringing. Makes it hard to hit with any consistency. I've experimented with sorted and unsorted bullets and cases and found it pays to be particular if you want to place in a match.

Hope this helps.