.45-70 Hollow base bullets

[srk]

Hi
Narrowed down my powders to IMR 4759 and the ulmity Unique
I was wondering if anyone has used them with smokeless.
I have a Pedersoli 1874 Sharps.
They will be cast out of a Lee mold, 405gr.. and sized to .459
Or do I size them?
Eventually going to shoot black powder, but for now just the smokeless.
Thanks
Srk

[Matt85]

i shoot the Lee 405 HB bullets with my 1888 trapdoor using three 0.03 wads over 55 grains of 2F powder. surprisingly i found at least with my gun that these bullets required a wad between them and the powder to shoot well.

i size mine at .459.

-matt

[Scharfschuetze]

I use that bullet in my Trapdoors with both BP and Smokeless. Bullets are cast soft and SPG lube is used in deference to the BP loads.

For smokeless loads to duplicate BP loads or the original 1873 infantry load, my best one is:

405 gr Lee HB (about 1-20 mix) with SPG lube sized .459"
WW Cases, neck sized, .458 expander and with a moderate crimp
26.5 grains AA 5744 powder, no filler
Rem 9 1/2 or RWS LR primers

Average for 10 shot strings:
Velocity 1266, ES 37, SD 11

Accuracy is about 2 1/2 MOA for 10 shot strings in all of my original Trapdoors. Ballistically, this load duplicates the original Frankford Arsenal 45/70/405 infantry load that was adopted with the 45/70 Trapdoors in 1873.

The 5744 leaves a lot of debris in the barrel and action at this pressure level and as my rifles are original, the above load is about as high as I will go with it. I still have IMR 4759 in the powder magazine so I also intend to develop some loads using it instead of 5744. 4759 has always been a good powder for this application. The soft HB 405 bullet upsets into the rifling well and recovered boolits show that they are fully engaged by the rifling. This can be an issue with some boolits in the original 3 groove government barrels, but should pose no problem in your Sharps rifle.

This load holds well out to 500 yards on metal E Type Silhouettes and "way out there" on Wyoming ant hills. It really raises the dust on those ant hills and has those ants a scurrying. I'm sure that they think that they are under indirect fire given the rainbow trajectory of those 405s at 800 yard plus ranges.

[srk]

Hey thanks to you both!!!