What should I do with these boolits?

[surfanarchist]

Hi all,
I load and shoot a lot of 45-70 in my browning 1886, strictly smokeless powder. I just fell into a bunch of cast boolits that are outside my level of experience. I got a bunch of 535 gr .459 round nose lubed with E3. A bunch of .405 gr .458 sized round nosed boolits lubed with SPG. A bunch of .405 gr .458 hollow base boolits again lubed with SPG. I know the round nose is not good in the tube magazine but aside from that can I shoot these with smokeless?

Aside from the inevitable "send them to me" what are my options?

What is E3 lube? How will SPG lube perform on a smokeless load?

Maybe i should get an 1874 Sharps:lol:

Thanks,

Wayne

[10x]

Round nose will shoot very nicely in your 1886. It is pointy bullets resting on a primer that could be a safety issue.
Or you can shoot these bullets singly.

I have no idea of what E3 is but these bullets can be lubed in Lee Liquid Alox.
If you do not like the lube on them now, a mineral spirits wash will take it off and you can dry the bullets, then use the lube of your choice.
I use Lee stick lube, lyman Stick lube, and RCBS stick lube - all seem to work well.

[MtGun44]

Win 86s have near zero throat, so the portion of the boolit outside the case cannot
be full diameter or it will not chamber. Make up a dummy round with each one
to see if they will chamber.

If they chamber, try each one over 10-14 gr of Unique to see how they do. If you like
the results, you can stop or go on to try other powders, etc.

I'll bet that the 405 HB does extremely well, the others are less certain but definitely
have a good chance - IF they will chamber in the short throated Winny.

Bill

[waco]

E-3 lube? You got me?.....

[zuke]

One in the chamber and one in the mag

[captaint]

Could the E-3 be some sort of Emmerts lube. I know a lot of the BP guys use Emmerts.
Mike

[surfanarchist]

Yep. Bullets are made by Red River Bullet casting marked for black powder and lubed with E3. Anyway, thanks for the replies. Good advice on loading up some dummies and checking how they chamber. I guess my biggest concern is using the SPG lube with smokeless. I've read here and other places that it either is or is not a problem. As someone here says in their tag line "it's all guess work till you pull the trigger" so I'll load a couple up and see what happens.

[another gsxr 1k]

Stick them in one of YOUR pots, plastic bowl, etc, not one from SWMBOs kitchen. Boil some water and pour that water in over the boolits. The lube should melt off and float. Skim it off and toss it. Then lube with whatever you find suitable. Then enjoy them.

[Scharfschuetze]

I don't know anything about the E3 lube, but SPG does just fine on the Lee 405gr boolit with smokeless, at least at the 1300 fps velocities that I load it to for my Trapdoors.

[Wayne Smith]

I use a slightly modified Emmerts on all my 45-70 boolits and on all my pistol boolits regardless the type of powder. I use speed green on all that go fast!

[Bigslug]

Maybe i should get an 1874 Sharps

That is of course the "A" answer.

I did a little homework on the "original" round nose 405 grain 1873-spec government slug a few days ago. I'm betting that's what your hollow bases are - probably cast in a Lee mold.

There was a reduced load to minimize recoil in the lighter cavalry carbines with a 55 grain charge and the bullet seated deeper to keep the black powder compressed. This "seat deep" approach might be legit for an '86.

Shouldn't be a safety concern with round noses - the rimmed round will prevent a point-to-primer situation.

[geargnasher]

Yep, get a $3K rifle as an excuse to shoot up $25 worth of free boolits. I've used far less sound reasoning to justify the purchase of a fine gun.

Gear

[MTtimberline]

Not sure what e3 is but you can always see how well it works as a flux when you melt them down and cast into something you normally use and know that works.