Leverevolution Brass Length

[wvchuter]

Gentlemen,
I recently purchased some of the Hornady Leverevolution ammo for my Marlin 1895 in 45-70.
I recently fired a couple rounds ( about all you want or can stand) and saved the brass. After returning home I noticed the brass from the leverevolution ammo was .060 to .080 shorter than normal 45-70 brass.
Does anyone know why?
It is noticeable especially when seating bullets for the crimp groove.

[Ranch Dog]

I assume it is to get the cartridge overall length to match what will move up the carrier into the chamber. The 444 brass is really short.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Yep, those pointy LR bullets have longer out-of-case lengths than can be loaded in standard-length brass. To keep the OAL within limits, Hornady shortened the brass...

This is probably also why they haven't started selling the LR bullets as components yet. Someone will load them in their regular-length brass and tie up their gun. Then, they'll bitch and gripe about what a bad company Hornady is... It's just not worth the publicity pain for them to sell them.

On the other hand, it's not worth the monetary cost for me to buy their loaded ammo, so I guess I'll always be looking at those rounds, instead of shooting them... Maybe Hornady sells enough of them to not care, but I think they'd sell 10x of them, if they'd drop the price down to reasonable, or sell them as components...

[Leverluver]

The 45-70 LR bullets "can" be used in standard case lengths but it requires some attention and an understnding of what needs to be achieved. The standard case will crimp just over the break where the shank and ogive meet. For this to work, a powder must be selected that will fill the case to the bullet base and still provide the performance you want. This is not unlike what Buffalo Bore does when loading the Speer 350; use the compressed powder to keep the bullet from going in and a roll crimp over the ogive to keep it from coming out. But as MM10 says, I think that will be beyond the "average" loader and I agree that Hornady will avoid much hassle if they never release the bullet for sale as a component.

[MakeMineA10mm]

On the other hand, that polymer tipped bullet should NOT be any more expensive than any other polymer-tipped bullet (like their V-Max), and could be sold in both loaded ammo and as a component a hell of a lot cheaper...

On one hand, I could give them benefit of the doubt and say that they're just re-couping their development costs... BUT, on the other hand, it didn't cost that much to develop that flexible tip (just a different formulation for the plastic, and a little testing to get the flex vs. stiff part just right), so I could say that they're no good price-gougers because they've got a monopoly on the market right now...


The absolute ultimate bullet for me would be the 280gr Swift A-Frame .429" bullet with the nose-hole pinched shut around that Flex-tip point out of the 44-caliber bullets Hornady is making. That would absolutely be the ultimate expanding bullet for the 444 Marlin. (And, I could load it to match my penetrator load w/ the 285gr Boomer-Mikey 429640-GC, so one site setting does it all!)

[drjhigg]

Has any one checked the projected ballistics for these bullets versus just normal Hornady jacketed bullets. I did for the new .357 and .44 mag rounds and could not see much differences in ext. ballistics with or without the new tips, despite the big claims of better velocity retention. Reading closer I think the main thing being sold here is a promise of better expansion over a wide range of velocities (pistol versus rifle). That sounds good to me, but I can help but wonder if appropriate cast bullets will not perform just as deadly (or not so deadly) in these calibers.

[JSnover]

I gave up on Leverevolution brass because of the short length. It shoots great in my 45-70and I like the ballistics so I keep a couple of boxes on hand but it irritates me to have to fiddle with my dies when it's time to flare the mouths or seat the boolits.
Great stuff for folks who don't reload.

[stillhunter]

50 grains of 3031 will duplicate the pain, but maby not the ballistics. I prefer to load for comfort. The 45-70 is like throwing rocks anyway, but a pleasure to shoot!

[Blammer]

time, give em time and the bullet will be out as a component. Got to make thier investment back first.