Another Postell Question

[nrc]

I ordered a box each of the Montana Precision, and Hunters supply cast 500 grain boolits to shoot in my 1885/Creedmore/BPCR. The MT bullets are lubed with SPG and claim a BHN of 9 to 10. The Hunters supply boolits are a little harder with a claimed BHN of 15. I bought both to play around with and see if my rifle shows a preference for one versus the other (both are sized .459).

Powders that I have on hand at the moment which I've seen mentioned are: SR4759, IMR4320, Varget, RE7, Trailboss, and Goex FFF.

For the Montana precision - I was thinking of trying SR4759, and I'm on the fence regarding Goex 3F (it may be a little fine/fast?).
For the Hunters - I was thinking SR4759 and perhaps RE7.

I don't yet have any wads, but can make or aquire some fairly easily.

I'm open to suggestions or feedback especially from anyone with a badger-barreled single shot. Thanks in advance.

Nate

[curator]

I have used SR4759, Rx7, as well as FFFg Goex in my various .45-70s with "store-bought" 500 grain "postell-type" bullets. My favorite is SR4759 for accuracy and ease of cleaning. 23 to 25 grains of SR4759 is a good, accurate, mild load. I do load a 1/8 card or hard felt wad under the bullet regardless of powder choice as I have found this to increase accuracy. While I have never used Hunter's Supply bullets, I have bought Montana Precision slugs, and I was unimpressed with their quality. I bought the .459/500 Postell and some .410/370 as well. They were lubed with SPG as advertized. A close inspection of the bullets revealed variations of lube groove width and uneven rounding of the bullet bases. I had bought the bullets to try them before buying bullet moulds of the same design. I loaded and shot only half of the purchased bullets and went ahead and bought the moulds anyway. While not terribly inaccurate at 100 yards, the Montana Precision slugs were grouping about 4-5 inches (5 shots off the bench). My home-cast (40 to 1 Lead/tin) slugs of the same designs gave 2-3 inch groups. At 200 yards, my home-cast were right around 4" groups but the Montana bullets were all over the place. I boiled off the lube on the Montana bullets and found them to have lube grooves very poorly filled out as well as the aforementioned uneven, rounded bases. Most of the Montana bullets would not have survived my inspection when casting and all were melted down and re-cast. Overall, this has been my experience with "most" store-bought cast bullets. If you want quality bullets you will need to cast your own. The care and attention to detail required to make accurate, high quality bullets does not lend itself to the commercial world where the cost of time and quantity are major factors and quality is allowed to be barely acceptable. If purchasing is your only option, swaged bullets may be better quality since the swaging process will give good square bullet bases and no internal voids.

[John Boy]

Nate ... Reloading 101:
Step 1: Buy a copy of the Lyman Reloading Handbook, 49th Edition - http://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Reloading-Handbook-49th-Edition/dp/B001FBFW6U
Lyman recommends in BOLD print the most accurate powder for a given bullet by caliber

[nrc]

Curator,

Thanks that helps, even if I hope it doesn't happen this time. I was doing the exact same thing - hoping to try a bullet design with varying hardness before I committed to a mold. I don't know if I'll cast 405, 500, or something in between for this rifle. If they don't shoot well I'll recast them myself down the road.

Nate

[nrc]

John Boy,

Sorry my post wasn't clear - I'm not asking for help on learning to reload. I started in 1986, and have couple dozen manuals including the lyman one at home. I am aware that they have suggested powders for the bullets that they test (which are very slightly different than the ones I purchased) in the rifles which they have on hand (also very slightly different than the ones I am using).

I wasn't asking for charges - only feedback on what works for others. If you've loaded one of these bullets in a high wall (or any rifle with a badger barrel) I'd be interested to hear what worked for you. If not, thanks for your time. God bless.

Nate

[country gent]

While I dont have a badger barrel I do have pendersoli and Green Mountain on 45 caliber rifles. I shoot the lyman Postell from both cast from 20-1 tin lead sized to .459 and lubed with SPG or emmerts improved that I make. I get around 2 min or just under from both rifles with this bullet. One is a 45-70 and other is 45-90. I load 2 f Goex but have worked with 3f Goex in the 45-70 with decent results. My bullets drop from my lyman mold around 530 grns with the above alloy. I would give 3 f an honest try. Start around 60 grns and work u[p in 2 grn increments from there. Leave no airspace between powder,wad and bullet base. Im just of the rifling about .005-.010 with this bullet.

[nrc]

Thanks CG.

[45bpcr]

Hello Nate,
If your Browning is in fact a Creedmoor chambered in 45-90 here's a good load with your montana postell.
82 grains of 3F ( I use Swiss ) .060 poly wad. Remington standard large pistol primer.
Compress the powder and wad enough so you can seat that postell with two grease grooves showing.
That should get you started on the accuracy road.

45bpcr

[nrc]

Hey 45bpcr - sorry I did not specify the caliber or mfg in my intial post (I did not catch that until just now). Mine is a Winchester, 4570 with the half octagon / half round 30" barrel. On the Winchester box it says 'Target Creedmore' but I have always heard them referred to as bpcr rifles.

I'm glad 3F was working for you - I will of course reduce the charge for the shorter case.

[Don McDowell]

nrc, if you really want to make that Winchester set up and pay attention, get ahold of some saeco 645's cast from 20-1, load them in Remington nickel cases primed with a br2 and charged with 68 grs of KIK 2f, and a .030 walters wad on top the powder. Seat the bullet to the driving band, aim center and hold hard and watch the iddy biddy groups form all the way to 1000 yds.:drinks:

[Gunlaker]

I use a very similar load to Don's. I think the only difference is that I use 68gr of Goex FFFg Express. It shoots quite well.

The Buffalo Arms .459 535gr "money" bullet also shoots very well when slip fit with the same powder charge. To get that bullet working well I had to trim .45-90 cases down to the full chamber length and seat the bullet just a little bit into the rifling.

Chris.

[Don McDowell]

If a person really wants to see that Saeco bullet of the BACO 527 gr money bullet stand up and take notice, then delving into the world of bh 209 is the place to go. There's also been some really good reports coming back from folks using Olde Eynsford 2f and those bullets in the Winchester/Browning bpcr guns.

[Toymaker]

I use IMR-SR 4759 in my 45-70 RB. Something in the neighborhood of 23 grains should work. Unfortunately its being discontinued so you may want to start experimenting with IMR 5744. As to black powder, I tried Swiss 1 1/2 but didn't get good results. However, a friend got excellent results with it. I found Goex FFFg to be a little hot but 70 grains of FFg, compressed 0.26 inch, a posterboard wad and newspaper disk gave excellent results.