.45-75 Is it worth trying?

[BCRider]

I came across a VERY nice looking late model Springfield trap door dated 1886. Only one problem. Instead of the typical .45-70 I was expecting it is actually chambered in .45-75 which seems to be a fairly rare early bottle necked cartridge. In doing a little checking it seems like this chambering is a bit of a rare bird. Brass is available but at what appears to be a rather high cost. Not to mention trying to locate reloading dies.

Just wondering if anyone around here is shooting .45-75 and if the availability of brass or making it from something else is all that bad. I've read about reforming a couple of options but apparently doing so leaves the final product with a few issues for fitting.

[herbert buckland]

That to be a strang caliber for a trap-door,Springfield did make a few 45-80 target rifles,these are very rare and priced acordinly.If it is a comercial converted rifle it is still a odd choice of caliber,maybe ment for the Canidain market were the Winchester 1876 in 45-75 had a good reputation.I belive Starline makes brass for this caliber and dies are avalible,you can form Brass from 32ga brass shot shells.I have a 500-450 No 1 carbine which is almost identical cartridge and it is a very good cartridge for pig hunting or medium range target shooting though not as good as 45-70

[Don McDowell]

Now at this point you need a chamber cast. There's 2 45-75's one is the 45-2.1 case loaded with 75 grs of powder and a 1.1 inch paper patched bullet.
The other is indeed a bottleneck case, not rare by any means, it was the #1 chambering in the 76 winchester. It shot a 350 gr bullet with a load of 75 grs of powder, nearly the same ballistics and ability as a 44-77 sharps/remington.
If it indeed has been rechambered to the later, you can get the dies from Lee, form cases from 50-90 sharps brass, or 348 winchester, or the easier but more expensive route the properly headstamped cases from Jamison and betram.

[Lead pot]

If that trapdoor was rechambered I would be careful reloading it with anything but a light bullet using black powder.
A trapdoor dont have much for meat left around the .45-70 chamber using the soft barrels and if they rechambered it with that winchester chamber at .560"+ it's getting pretty thin.

[BCRider]

It was a REALLY big looking hole that I saw under the trap door.

All in all after a bit more thought I've put this odd ball out of my mind. I really don't want to deal with an oddity and get into buying pretty expensive brass or getting into the whole forming from other cases deal.

[gandydancer]

It sounds interesting to me I will check my books today and see what I can find. GD

[Don McDowell]

Yeh it's really hard to trim those 50-90 cases to 2 inches, lube them and run them into the 45-75 size die.....

[bob208]

it could be a .50-70 relined to .45 then chambered to .45-75. that way they did not have to change any thing on the extractor or breach block.

[AkMike]

I have a set of Lee dies (unused) for it PM if interested.