577 Snider and smokeless 585213

[smkummer]

OK, we bought the Lyman 585213 off of ebay last night (for $34-were your guys asleep?) and going to make some boolits with both soft lead and air dropped WW. Going with the COTW recommendation of 30 grains IMR4198. My friends Snider is an orignial 1871 made gun and not a conversion. Any other printed smokeless loads such as 5744 (5744 is very close to 4198 in burn rate) or trail boss? We have 15 factory cases-I believe Bell. Do we need to use dacron filler? thanks. I notice snider posts in 4 different places here. thanks ahead of time. PS, the pyrodex cartridge worked fine but cleaning both the cases and gun is not something we want to do all the time.

[Ed in North Texas]

You might have better luck on the British Militaria site, Snider forum. Though you probably will be told not use smokeless in a Snider. I have 1 conversion (Mark I*, converted from an 1861 Enfield .577 Cavalry Carbine) and two "newly made" Mark IIIs (1 Brit, 1 Nepalese). You didn't note whether your friend has a Mark III (Steel barrel), or an earlier Mark (iron barrel). Even if a steel barrel, the Snider breech system isn't exactly the strongest around.

If you look around on the web, you will find a light load with 5744. Personally, I restrict myself to Black Powder with the Sniders. Technologically, particularly strength wise, they aren't really much improved over the muzzle loaders which the system was invented to convert to breech loading.

Ed

[Mooseman]

Sorry...I only use BP or Pyrodex in my Snider and duplicating original loads with different boolits.
I agree about the Snider action strength, it was designed for less than 30,000 psi.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

To shoot a Snider you need to understand the action of the boolit upon firing; the skirt needs to expand into the rifling. WW is simply too hard to do the job even with the higher pressures of smokeless.

[Mooseman]

I disagree Wallace...air dropped COWW are fine for the Snider cartridge with 70 gr BP and they expand just fine.
COWW are fine for Rifle Cartridges up to 1900 FPS.

Refer to :http://www.lasc.us/castbulletnotes.htm

Rich

[Buckshot]

(5744 is very close to 4198 in burn rate)

5744 is shown to be numerically closer to SR4759 then H4198 in every chart I've checked, and is seperated commonly by one powder from H4227. I would err on the fast side for safeties sake when using 5744 and would reduce any 4227 sanctioned charges when using 5744. Of course each listed powder up, or down the list does not have any consistent value from powder to powder. A fast lot of one and a slow lot of another may have 2 powders swapping positions on a list.

I have a MkII** Snider carbine in which I've used both Jamison brass with WLP primers and Mag-Tech altered 24ga shotshells with 209 primers, to shoot 305gr .600" RB's cast of WW alloy, over 20.0grs of Unique without issue.

..............Buckshot