45-70 long range boolit ?

[xring1]

I recently bought a Pedersoli John Bodine in 45-70.
I am curios as to what bullet would be good at various ranges

[44man]

I recently bought a Pedersoli John Bodine in 45-70.
I am curios as to what bullet would be good at various ranges
Pedersoli makes a wonderful rifle. I need to remember but I think my friend uses the Lyman 405 gr. He is coming over so I will ask him.

[Dan Cash]

I recently bought a Pedersoli John Bodine in 45-70.
I am curios as to what bullet would be good at various ranges

Depends upon what you are going to do with the gun and what "various" ranges. Brooks, Paul Jones, Hoch, Old West and Accurate make moulds for excellent long range bullets (long range defined as over 600 yards out to 1000). You will want a 500 to 550 grain bullet but remember that there is not a lot of room in the 45-70 case. I personally use a hoch 550 grain bullet over 72gr 2Fg powder and a felt wad. It works pretty well out to 1000. Have not tried it farther.

[Hip's Ax]

My shooting buddy and I also use the Hoch 550 grain in both 45-70 and 45-90. Bullet shoots very well at all ranges, 200 to 1000 yards. We are using Emmerts modified lube homebrew (50% beeswax, 40% Crisco, 5% lanolin and 5% jojoba oil) and we wipe the bore with 10:1 machinists oil and water after every shot.

[TerryH]

Xring,

As the others have said you need to go up in weight 500g+, possibly using a bullet with a reduced front band to allow you to seat it out a bit to get more powder in?

A more 'pointy' bullet design (Money?) helps.

I've use Paul Jones molds in the past and found them very nice, currently using a Buffalo Arms mold which drops nice bullets.

If you're determined to 'get out there' then your sights needs to be pretty sorted and use a spirit level in the fore sight (might also need to learn to shoot with your mouth open :) )

Good luck!

Terry

[mdevlin53]

I suppose sombody had to ask about the mouth open comment so i did Huh?

[TerryH]

Mdevlin53

Did not mean to seem smart, just that when I shot longer distances prone with BPCR in comps and the rear aperture was getting way up the stave I ended up with my mouth open to maintain a decent cheak weld ( actually any cheak contact) with the stock - hence the 'mouth opn' comment.


Might just be me or my ( then) rifle/ sight/load combination?

Brgds Terry

[Bent Ramrod]

It's almost impossible not to get good results with the Paul Jones "Creedmore" (about 545 gr).

Shorter boolits like the 405 gr just don't buck the wind like the heavier ones do. I would say 525 gr minimum (like Ideal 457125) if you are going for long range.

[Southern Son]

I have the Steve Brooks Creedmore. I got him to cut the mould with the bottom 2 driving bands at .459-.460, the next one above them is .450, and the rest run about .458. I can seat it in the 45/70 case with only the bottom two bands in the case. This leaves lots of room for more powder. It weighs about 535gr when cast in 20/1 and works well out to 1000 yards.

[mdevlin53]

TerryH did not think you were being smart i was just wondering if it was a technique i had not heard of before being new to shooting anything over 50 yards. I am now a member of a club that has 200 yards and it is such a hoot shooting at stuf i can barely make out with these old eyes.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I like the Lee double cavity 459-500-3R. I am sure there are better molds but they are pricey. I also have a Pedersoli, but in Rolling Block. I shoot that boolit out to 500 yards and it shoots very good. I have shot 2" 5 shot groups at a 100 yards. One 15 shot group was a little less than 3".

[Arnie]

A guy named Dan Theodore designed a bullet just for shooting long range (1000 yards) in a 45/70 and it works great .Paul Jones makes them .Find dan on the Shiloh Rifle web sight discussion groups. Arnie

[xring1]

I like the Lee double cavity 459-500-3R. I am sure there are better molds but they are pricey. I also have a Pedersoli, but in Rolling Block. I shoot that boolit out to 500 yards and it shoots very good. I have shot 2" 5 shot groups at a 100 yards. One 15 shot group was a little less than 3".


I have a 500gr Lee mold I picked up in trade. Not sure of the number. It has a flat nose and is a GC mold. It has 4 grooves with the front one being shallower

[1Shirt]

There is probably no one best blt or answer. If it is for hunting thats one thing, if for target another. If for hunting to 200 yds, I would probably go with the ole Gould HP at 1400-1450. If for target at long range, say 500, I would probably go with the 535gr at 1200-1250 Lyman Postel blt. Regardless, you need to recognize softball trajectory accordingly, which ever way you go.
1Shirt!

[725]

I've wandered into this old thread whilst looking for a .45-70 load suggestion for a 550 gr boolit. Posnell design. H&R Buffalo Classic. Any thoughts?

[44man]

I talked to Pete, he uses the Postel.
The boolit best in my Browning is the 500 gr gov't at 460" from my Rapine mold.

[Bent Ramrod]

725,

63 gr of Swiss 1-1/2Fg or 66 gr of Olde Eynsford 1-1/2Fg ought to get you started. Card wad of your choice of thickness and compression and seating to allow the boolit to just be marked by the rifling.

Oh, and buy one of those PAST or other shoulder-mounted recoil pads. Buffalo Classics really back off those heavy boolits.

[Blackwater]

You've gotten excellent advice above. For "long range," the heavier the bullet the better, until it gets to a point where the bullet's so long it starts invading the powder space too much. 520-550 gr. is what works in all the long range matches, and each gun tends to be a law unto itself as to which bullet does best in any given barrel. Black powder seems to bring out and accentuate any mis-matches of bullet to barrel, and the ONLY way to know what bullet will do best in your rifle is to give them a try. Let the RIFLE tell you what it likes best. Everything else is just a guess. They Lyman Postell bullet (#458132), any of the Hoch or Paul Jones molds, and a number of others are primo, but even still, some rifles will prefer one over all the others, but when you DO find that "magic combination," you'll be astounded at how well those things can shoot! And yes, it IS worth all that effort, and not only that, but you'll get a pretty good education in the process, and that'll last the rest of your life.

[MT Chambers]

If you are using smokeless and trying to jack up the velocity, the Saeco 465 gr. is a gc design and very accurate, if you are using BP there are many molds that are accurate way out there. I have a Paul Jones 555gr. that is very accurate with 70 grs. of Swiss 11/2.

[Toymaker]

Xring1 - in a Pedersoli Creedmoor #1 Rolling Block and the Creedmoor #2 Rolling Block I used the Lyman 405 in pure lead out to 500 yards and the Hoch 500 in pure lead beyond that. 1,000 is the furthest I'm been able to shoot, but based on the results I expect the Hoch would work well even further out. Enough Goex FFg to just barely compress the powder and give me an O.A.L. that lets the bullet just engrave the rifling OR enough Goex FFg to compress 0.25 inch and get the bullet to just engrave the rifling have both worked well. Here's images for a couple of smokeless loads too. Not as much fun, but golly they're accurate and that bullet was moving.
171288 171289

[725]

Thanks to all. Eager to get into this pursuit.

[MOA]

xring1,

You might give this one a try...might be a little light but not by much should weigh in around 480 grain or so depending on your alloy. Lyman Item number 2640658. Mould number 457658.

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Hand%20loading/20140705_104809_zpsa0c3d64e.jpg (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Hand%20loading/20140705_104809_zpsa0c3d64e.jpg.html)