I made the jump !

[dagger dog]

Finally !

Been saving up and got my H&R Buffalo Classic 45-70, put the cart before the horse and had the components to cast and load them with BP.

I would really like some feed back from you guys that have been at this for awhile especially 45-70 shooters and some H&R guys and others.

Here's what I accomplished with all the knowledge gained from the Cast Boolits forums.

Cast 20 Lee 405 FPFB with stick on WW's that came in around 6-7 BNH and they dropped 0.457" @412-410 gr., figgered they would bump up.

Some say the lube grooves on this bullet are not deep enough to make the trip down the 32" barrel, so besides pan lubing with beeswax,crisco,canola oil, I cut some 1/8" lube cookies.

Playing with Goex FFG and using the crimp groove on the boolit as a guide, settled
on 65 grains, and found I could use the .451" sizing punch from my 45 Colt Lee sizer for powder compression, used a wax paper wad over the powder,lube cookie,0.30" cardboard wad then crimped the bullet with no deformation.

That load thumps pretty good (read case color bruising on right shoulder) !

Couldn't get to the range so shot some in the back yard @30 yds, first shot was dead on windage, about 4" low, held over and put the next one in the 10 ring on a 5" bullseye. Could spin the spinner 4" on my handgun target. Shot 7 and all seemd to print on"on the paper. I figger 150 yds may be 200 will be about as far as I will be able to go with my new eyeballs (lens replacement for cataracts).

Questions, how fast do you estimate that load is moving ? Is my boolit choice correct for the 20 in 1 twist ? Think I can go with straight clip on WW @13-15BNH ? Think the 405 FNFB is right for that distance?

For you H&R shooters what kind of sights are you shooting ?

Guess ya'll can tell I'm a coffe drinker!
All help appreciated !
dd

[PuppetZ]

I recently got a BC myself. Pretty much the same story as you as I had all the stuff to reload them way before the rifle. I got the Lee 340, 405 and 450gr FBFP. All shoot satisfactorily. The 450gr seems to be on the long side a bit as it is a bit hard to chamber. The rifle close but you know it sticks a bit. All shoot just fine. I settled for the 405 over 65gr(by vol) of Goex FFg seated right over the powder, no wads no nothing. Sighted the rifle at 50yds with that load. All boolits lands within 1 inch of one another. At 100, I have to hold up a bit but it's still manageable.

I shoot straight AC WW. It's what I had on hand so it's what I casted. Worked out ok. I'd think the boolit choice is allright. Mine seems to love them. All of them. All 3 weight shot just fine if you ask me. I'm not enough of a shooter to see any difference probably.

As far as sight goes, I want to get one of them creedmore style rear sight. Working up the money for it right now.

It's a beautiful piece isn't it. I like that old school look it got. For the money, you cant beat it.

[Nobade]

That Lee 405 HB has plenty of lube capacity. I would delete the lube cookie and wads, up the charge to 70gr, crimp over the ogive, and go with it. That's one of the loads I shoot in my '73 Springfield and it works great. Blow tube between shots and keep shooting 'till you get tired of it.

Sometimes wads stick into the bottom of hollow base boolits and mess up the accuracy as well.

[dagger dog]

Puppet,
Track of the Wolf has 2 models of Creedmore sights for < 80 bucks. I would like to mount the mid range on my BC. I ordered a smaller aperture for the Williams. I shoot a Lyman #2 tang on my Rossi 92 45 Colt. I was weighing that charge ,bought a powder measure and going to try volume.

Yeah I really like the wood the cut checkering is a nice touch. Made me a sleeve out of an old army blanket and scrounged a leather coin purse to store the front sight inserts.

Nobade,
Guess I'll try them without wads, I am just partial sizing the fire formed case just enough to grip the bullet so I think I'll be able to get 70 in there with the 405 flat base bullet and not the extra padding

[tbierley]

I have a H&R Buffalo Classic I love the rifle. I installed a .584 Lyman front sight and a Model 1898 Krag front sight on my rifle. I shoot 500 grn Lee lead boolits in the rifle. I have it sighted in at 300yds. At a 100yds it shoots about 4ins high. My load is 70grs of RS powder with a cork wad over the powder. I also shoot Lee 405HB with 70grs of RS powder and they shoot very good.

[dagger dog]

Just got the loading bench cleaned up and powder put away.

Was able to load 70 grs into the once fired partial sized 45-70 cases. I used a powder measure set to 70 grs and dumped that onto the scale, it weighed 70 grs.

That measured charge came about 1/8" from the mouth of the case. Again I compressed the charge with the Lee sizing punch trying not to crush but tightly compact the charge.

I placed a 405 gr bullet into the chamber and held it into contact with the rifiling, then ran a wooden dowel into the muzzle to touch the business end of the bullet and marked a spot on the dowel at the mouth of the muzzle.

Seated the bullet shy and kept trying the round into the chamber until it dropped in, held it there reinserted the dowel checked to see if the mark lined up and it did. Backed off the crimp until it took the flare out of the case mouth and called that a finished round.

Going to take the rifle out to a public DNR range close to where I work, can get 100 yds there and will be able to bench it.

Gonna take a slip on recoil pad too !

tbierley, like that idea !

If I haven't been long winded enough I'll be back with a range report . :groner:

[MikeS]

That Lee 405 HB has plenty of lube capacity. I would delete the lube cookie and wads, up the charge to 70gr, crimp over the ogive, and go with it. That's one of the loads I shoot in my '73 Springfield and it works great. Blow tube between shots and keep shooting 'till you get tired of it.

Sometimes wads stick into the bottom of hollow base boolits and mess up the accuracy as well.

He said he's shooting a FPFB mould, not HB. I too thought the Lee boolits all had kind of small lube grooves, other than the 405gr HB, which is why that's the boolit mould I bought.

After I shoot that boolit thru my rifle, I might go ahead and buy a 500gr solid, but I would get one from Tom at Accurate Molds so I can get one with nice big lube grooves! As it is, I cast 25 of the HB boolits, but when I went to pan lube them, my pan isn't deep enough, so only 2 of the 3 lube grooves got filled. Is this going to be enough for a 28" barrel? Along with the 405gr Lee boolits, I also loaded up some 210gr boolits designed for pistol shooting, but that has a huge lube grove (it's a BigLube boolit designed for CASS shooting) so it should have enough lube. I loaded both in front of 4cc's of FFg powder, using 2 card wads under the 210gr boolit, and none under the 405. Once I get the rifle, and go to the range I'll know more.

[Nobade]

Oops - you're right. My mistake. That boolit is made for smokeless powder and is quite skimpy in the lube department.
Hey Dagger Dog, get yourself a 405HB mould and live happily with that rifle! And yes, 500gr. works well too. The Lyman #457125 was particularly good in my BC.

[mdevlin53]

I put the williams foolproof sights with the target knobs on my BC and am quite pleased with it. I have used it out to 200 yards but that might be the limit with the original front sight. I cant see many things at 200yds plus so its a good sight for me. On my target classic 38-55 i mounted a malcolm 18" scope and will be shooting it for the first time tomorrow if it dont pour.

[dagger dog]

mdevlin53,

I was lookiing at that sight I think the prefix is FP H&R #70260 ?

[dagger dog]

I got to the range last Thur., shot the Lee FNFB 405 gr. over 70 grs FFG,@ 100 yds, without lube cookie the fouling gets very hard like charcoal, 2 shots and you have to swab,accuracy was able to get 2 out of 10 on the 5" bull.

I didn't take a large enough back board , the smoke and recoil kept me from being able to spot my shots and the range time was unproductive, never having shot the Williams peep had trouble adjustment and along with my recent lens transplant to correct cataracts was having problems with sight acquisition.

Nobade, did get the Lee HB 405, and the lube grooves are LARGE, got 10 good boolits on the first go round,had to stop to take care of the honeydo list. They dropped 403-405 with COWW , loaded them on top of 65 grs FFG.

I'll add this although it may go better in another forum.

I removed the Lyman #2 tang sight from my Rossi 92, taped off the wrist of the BC's with masking tape and used some surgical tubing to "clamp" the sight to the stock.

I left the Williams in place and moved the Lyman until I could align all 3 sights,marked the outline of the tang base and the holes on the tape.

I did get the courage to pre drill the holes, will put the reciever with stock attached into the drill press vise and pilot drill the holes in the stock. I eventually want to inlet the base of the sight into the wood,BUT will settle to having it on top until I can get some pointers on the wood working process.

Tried a lot of searches on this forum and other sites about mounting a tang sight on rifles without tangs and found that an all wood mount will work just fine, although info ran from fabricating,drilling,tapping and inletting false tangs, to brass inserts epoxied into the wrist.

The tang sight is the best option for me, the rear sight being closer to the eye I can remove my glasses and both front and rear are in focus.

More later on how it all works out.

[MT Chambers]

There are lots of good molds out there for the 45/70 that have lotsa lube capacity, some of the HP. grp buys come to mind. My best loads all use pure lead or 30or40-1 and no harder, esp. for hunting. For field use remember, that a loaded round that kisses that rifling may not even chamber when fouled, and you don't have time to wipe as the buck runs away.