Favorite 45-90 load

[stobey]

I need a quick education. Going from 45-70 to 45-90. What are shooting?

[oldred]

The title caught my attention because I too have been looking for 45/90 loads. Currently I am using BH209/500 grain rn and while the 209 shoots great it is expen$ive and requires a bit more attention than true smokeless. I sure hope more folks get involved with the 45/90 because I am discovering it to be a really great round, and is every bit as deserving for a comeback as the 45/70 IMO. What are you shooting? I am looking at experimenting with H4895 behind the same Lee 500 grain cast bullet I am using now with the BH209, it appears the H4895 will fill the case nicely while keeping pressures at under 30,000 PSI but that is so far just an estimation based on 45/70 data and has yet to be proven (by me anyway).

Most of the load data I have found has been for BP in the 45/90 but I personally do not shoot BP in my cartridge rifles and have no intention of doing so, this round is as much a smokeless round as the 45/70 and in a modern rifle there is no need for BP unless someone just enjoys shooting it, I don't. I have loaded the same H4198 405 JSP Remington bullet load that I shoot in my 45/70 Marlin and it actually seems like a milder load in the longer case which I am told is usually what happens so the approximately 30,000 PSI load for the 45/70 is even lower for the 45/90.

[stobey]

Oldred:

I haven't loaded any 45-90 rounds yet, but I have data for Varget, IMR 4198, Rx7, and AA 5744. I keep my loads with with the 45-70 round down quite a bit lower than you for my Sharps rifle.

[oldred]

I guess I may have been a bit misleading about what I intend to shoot as far as pressure, I was just using that 30,000 number as what appears to be the maximum that would be generated even with a compressed load of the H4895 (key word here being "appears"). I need to do some testing to verify this but if true then 18,000 to 20,000 or so could be possible and still have a nearly full case, I just don't like using fillers. What bullets are you shooting? From what I can find it seems that the 5744 that is so popular for this round may not be such a good choice for heavier bullets because pressures start to go up quickly at lower velocities than some of the other powders. All of this is just opinion based on studying load charts for various powders/bullet weights for the 45/70 and I sure would like to hear other opinions on this but it kind of looks like we may be members of a fairly small group of 45/90 shooters!

[stobey]

Right now I just loaded up and shot some Lee 459-405 and loaded it with 45 gr of IMR 3031. It gave me an average velocity of 1564 fps. That velocity is what I was looking for. I have used 40gr of RL7 with some dacron filler and that worked pretty well also.

Lyman #49 suggests:

Lyman bullet #457124 385gr
XMP5744 start 36.00 1568fps 13,700cup MAX 44.5gr 1866fps 24,000cup

Lyman bullet#457643 400gr
XMP5744 start 38gr 1637fps 22,900cup MAX 42.5gr 1782fps 26,600cup

Lyman bullet #457125 500gr
XMP5744 start 39.0gr 1526fps 18,600cup MAX 43.0 gr 1667fps 26,600cup

I am pretty sure the XMP5744 is the AA5744, the powder you mentioned.

What type of shooting are you doing? What is your gun?

Hope this helps

Steve

[oldred]

I 'm shooting a custom built High Wall with a Green Mountain 32" barrel, this rifle was proof tested using Ruger no. 1 level loads but I want to keep pressures waaaay below that! I want to use the Lee 500 grain rn and I have a bunch of those cast and ready to load but what I am looking for is a powder that will give a nearly full case and still stay at least close to BP pressures. Both H4895 and Varget look very promising but I sure would like to get some in-put from someone who has used either of the powders in the 45/90 or 45/70 with a 500 grain cast bullet.

[stobey]

Sounds like a nice gun! You will find that shooting around 20,000cup pressure levels will be alot more fun and plenty for hunting.

I load 500 grainers with 40gr of 3031 for a light load and work ip from there.

Steve



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[oldred]

Sounds like a nice gun! You will find that shooting around 20,000cup pressure levels will be alot more fun and plenty for hunting.

I load 500 grainers with 40gr of 3031 for a light load and work ip from there.

Steve



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3031, now that's interesting.

Do you need a filler with that load? I am curious as to the case fill since I don't have any 3031 on hand to check but I have heard a lot about using 3031 in 45/70 and I was wondering about using it in the longer case and heavier bullets.

[stobey]

No, I don't know of anyone using filler with 3031 and I haven't read any piblished data suggesting fillers. I am pretty safety conscious and conservative with my loads and I have 3031 suits my needs nicely.

Steve



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[44 flattop]

500grs and 3031 for me too. No fillers and no problems with very good accuracy.

44

[peerlesscowboy]

3031 should do what you want without a filler. I'm using 4198 with a Ly 457125 running 1300 fps but I'm using a cornmeal filler. Winchester (Miroku) 1885 HiWall Creedmore .45-90

John C. Saubak

[bigted]

maybe the slightly shorter case [1/10th inch] then my 458 winny and maybe the heavier boolit of 500 plus grains but ill tell my experience with 3031 in a downloaded load for this 2.4 to 2.5 inch crtridge...

i loaded 50 grains of 3031 in my 458 which is just a 45-2.5 instead of the 45-2.4 of the 45-90 case...loaded this 50 behind a 350 grain hornaday jacketed bullet and sparked with a cci 200 lr primer...here is what happened...the fireball that stood at the end of my barrel was astounding...did this three times and called this experiment a bust. if i were to load this 3031 in smaller then 64 grains again in this long case...id use the cornmeal filler the same as i do for the 4064 and rl-7 powders. the 2.1 inch case with the heavy boolits will withstand these lower loaded grainages but id approach carefully the downloaded 3031 in a long case...mat surprise you sometime.