.45-70 round ball load??

[irishtoo]

good morning, i am starting to reload for a new .45-70 winchester 1885. im thinking of three loads. first a deer/bear load for PA. second a type of remodeled "forager" round and lastly a round ball load for small game. understand nothing has developed at the bench yet as im still waiting on backordered equipment. on order is a lee .457 ball mold. the question is.........if i patch the round ball, wont the patch stay in the chamber when the ball enters the rifling? has anybody already invented this wheel? i will be using goex. thanks irishtoo

[Texantothecore]

10 grns, 15 grns, 25 grns, 40 grns, 70 grns (awesome load that looks a good deer load). It's all good and it just depends on what you want to do.

You can patch this load or use filler such as cream of wheat, corn meal or grits.

The patch goes through the barrel and works quite well.

Round ball in a bp .45-70 is extremely pleasant shooting, just wonderful fun.

The mold you ordered is a good one and I lube the ball with Johnson's Paste Wax.

Good luck and have fun with it, you're going to have a blast.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

One of my shooting pards made a bunch of round ball loads in .45-70 for a stage at a SASS match but they were loaded in a Trapdoor. He used a dollop of cornmeal and they were light loads. I don't know about a full power load with a round ball but it seems like a reasonable endeavor.

The issue would be trying to construct a round ball load that would cycle through your tubular magazine into the chamber. The round ball would not provide a sufficient crimp and I'd be concerned about the round ball being shoved into the cartridge under the tension of the tubular magazine spring and then not providing sufficient integrity when loading up the feed ramp. This I say as a man who has never owned a Winchester 1885. I've had great success with round ball loads in revolvers but the point of impact is substantially altered from that of the full weight load.

I've got a Sharps in .45-70 and a round ball mould but I've never tried to work up a load for this combination. Why not stick with a 405 gr boolit? That's a good traditional boolit that is historically correct for that firearm and one that killed a lot of buffalo and Indians in war.

[NSB]

One of my shooting pards made a bunch of round ball loads in .45-70 for a stage at a SASS match but they were loaded in a Trapdoor. He used a dollop of cornmeal and they were light loads. I don't know about a full power load with a round ball but it seems like a reasonable endeavor.

The issue would be trying to construct a round ball load that would cycle through your tubular magazine into the chamber. The round ball would not provide a sufficient crimp and I'd be concerned about the round ball being shoved into the cartridge under the tension of the tubular magazine spring and then not providing sufficient integrity when loading up the feed ramp. This I say as a man who has never owned a Winchester 1885. I've had great success with round ball loads in revolvers but the point of impact is substantially altered from that of the full weight load.

I've got a Sharps in .45-70 and a round ball mould but I've never tried to work up a load for this combination. Why not stick with a 405 gr boolit? That's a good traditional boolit that is historically correct for that firearm and one that killed a lot of buffalo and Indians in war.

Silver Jack, the Win 1885 is a single shot gun, not a tube fed repeater. You're thinking of the Win 1886.

[grampa243]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?22804-Round-ball-in-45-70&p=2156945&viewfull=1#post2156945

this is my roundball load.. i'm think about going with a paper patch to see if it will cut down the leading..

[bigted]

if you use a .440 inch ball with your patching endeavor and patch with a .022 inch tough cloth patch ...[like a muzzleloader]... and load this patched ball over any load of blackpowder and install the patched ball clear down on the powder. these will and do shoot very well in your winchester. also do well in my ruger #1. just bell the mouth and install the powder followed with the patched round ball previously mentioned ... then I dribble a small amount of lube over the patched ball which is patched with a blackpowder lube soaked patch.

these are very fun as has been mentioned. I will just say this ...

load about three times the amount you think you will want to shoot. they will be the center of your day and I guarantee you will never bring enough. [smilie=s:

[irishtoo]

thanks for the advise. ill be loading in a week or so. saturday is early muzzleloader in pa so i have to leave 1885 and travel back to about 1780 and fire up the flintlock. again thanks

[grampa243]

let us know haw it works out for you :)

[bigted]

found this in my Ideal #38 handbook ...

roundball of .457 inch == 5 grains of #6 pistol powder == equals 950 FPS.

[curator]

The original Prison-guard 3-ball load for the .45-70 was 40 grains of FFFg a 1/8" card wad and three .457 round balls. This positions the top ball so it can be crimped slightly. The 3 balls will hit within 4" of each other at 50 yards. Interesting and fun to shoot. I understand they worked well for riots and crowd control way back when.

[RMulhern]

You need to contact a poster named Rdnck! He's an 'expert' on these rdball loads and he'll tell you just what to do with your rdball loads.

[freedom475]

I have a BigLube "EPP-UG" mould and it works way better than the 457RB in my 45-70 sharps. I am not a big fan of the Big-Lubes, but for this application it really works well. All that lube keeps the BP running smooth and it sure keeps leading at bay.

My load is 40gr bp with the rest of the case filled with Cream o Wheat. Not sure if it makes a very good small game load if you are wanting to actually "eat" what you shoot, as this load will blow a ground squirrel to smith-r-eens!!...:mrgreen:

Our own "Springfield Slim" sells the epp-ug's for a geat price all ready to go.