Yippie for me... Now I need a .45-70 boolit

[Old Ironsights]

I just made a heckova trade and ended up with a New-without-box .45-70 Brownchester 1886 Take Down.

I'm not likely to go hunting with it just yet, so I'm looking for a tried-n-true "general purpose" mould that I can use with either Smokeless or BP.

If it makes any difference, for now I'm only planning to use my Lee Loader to load with.

What say ye?

[The Nyack Kid]

boy oh boy what a question . I dont know how to tell you this but there are just too many choices out there . the best i can do is recommend is three or four that are must-gets for a 45-70 boolit slinging 1886 .
a lightweight (300 grs or so ) a 400 grainer (get a gascheck and a plainbase) and an almost 500 grainer.

darn ,almost everybody who makes a mold makes a boolit that fits the above requirements .
how about the rcbs 325 U
or a lyman 458643
or a rcbs 405 fn
or a NEI #s 337B or 342A or # 346
dont forget saeco or lee

Japchesters 1886s have short throats, .085 inch long IIRC but all of the aboved boolits will work .

[nicholst55]

Make certain that you use a soft lube for the BP loads, and do some reading up on it before you try them. You'll want a soft alloy for BP boolits too; 1-20 or maybe even 1-30.

[floodgate]

Old Ironsights:

The classic "Gould" 330-gr. hollowpoint in Lyman's #457122 would be a good general-putpose choice.

floodgate

[WHITETAIL]

:castmine:I agree with floodgate1

[MtGun44]

RCBS 405 FN.

Bill

[WyrTwister]

I just made a heckova trade and ended up with a New-without-box .45-70 Brownchester 1886 Take Down.

I'm not likely to go hunting with it just yet, so I'm looking for a tried-n-true "general purpose" mould that I can use with either Smokeless or BP.

If it makes any difference, for now I'm only planning to use my Lee Loader to load with.

What say ye?


Try the Lee 405 grain Hollow Base . It cast .459" or larger , depending on the alloy .

And is reasonably priced . :-)

God bless
wyr

[HCL]

RCBS 45-405, great boolit

[StrawHat]

Like Floodgate and others have posted, the Gould bullet, Lyman 457122.

You can also plug the HP and cast it as a solid, still a great bullet.

[pdawg_shooter]

After five years of trying I have finally found THE load for my Marlin 1895g. Does everything I want done and is still shootable. I started with new Remington brass, annealed the first ¾ inch using the melted lead method, belled with a Lee expander and primed with CCI 200. The powder charge is 52gr AA 2495. I started with 48 and worked up with no signs of pressure. This is a compressed load, even using a 16 inch drop tube. The magic bullet is cast in a Lyman 451114 mould. The alloy is 17 parts pure lead, 2 ½ parts linotype, and ½ part tin. The bullet drops from the mould .451, 430gr and is ready for patching. I make my patches from 16lb green bar computer paper, cut 2.750 long on a 60* angle 1.500 high. I dip in water and wrap twice around the bullet. They are left to dry overnight, then lubed with BAC. Then the tails are clipped and the bullet is run through a .459 Lee sizing die. I seat them to an OCL of 2.580. These shoot clover leaf groups at 25 yards and into 1.75 at 100. This is with a Lyman 66 rear sight and factory front sight. Not bad for 55 year old eyes. Bullet performance on game is all one could ask for. I’ll not quit experimenting, but how does one improve on perfection?

[Two401Pm]

Rcbs 405Fn

[Lloyd Smale]

another vote for the 405 rcbs. Its very accurate and a good hunting bullet to boot.

[lovedogs]

The Saeco 350 gr. RNFPGC is made for levers. It feeds great and works as well as any, IMHO.

[Jon K]

Saeco #015 drops @310 gr. Shoots great out to 200 w/smokeless, haven't tried it with BP yet in my 1895CB.

Jon

[charger 1]

I'm looking for a tried-n-true "general purpose" mould that I can use with either Smokeless or BP.

.

What say ye?

I sayeth that if'th thou useth the 405 in RCBS configuration, thou canst go wayward...Yeah there be others, custom in nature, cryers of preferance in areas pertinant, yet to just grabbith and go forth, the RCBS faileth you not[smilie=1:

[softpoint]

All good advice here. Just to see that it gets mentioned, RCBS makes a 300 gr gascheck as well as the 405, It's a pretty good bullet too, but it's main advantage is that it eats up less of your alloy

[EDK]

I like the RCBS 300 grain flat nose gas check. It feeds well in my MARLIN 1895 Cowboy rifles. It shoots flat and relatively low recoil for plinking. I had places to shoot up to 400 yards on the farm before I moved; now it's just short of 100 yards...but still out the back door when I want to shoot.

OT Good adjustable sights don't look so "period," but you can sure do a lot better on targets. Check out MONTANA VINTAGE ARMS #130 series tang sights...not cheap, but similar to the match sights on black powder cartridge rifles. The MARBLES is a lot less expensive, but not so high end either.

Enjoy a classic rifle

:cbpour::redneck::Fire:

[WyrTwister]

I am cheap , when I buy a new mold , it is a Lee . ( I have a few Lyman molds , but they were bought used . )

Most rifles seem to work better with bullets a few thousandths of an inch oversize . Lee makes a 405 grain Hollow Base mold and a pointed nose 500 something grain mold , both that throw larger diameter bullets , than the other Lee .45-70 molds .

I use the HB mold . I shoot a lever gun , so the heavier , pointed nose bullet is not an option .

I am not familiar with your rifle , is it a lever gun with a tube magazine ?

If you are going to size the bullets , look for a .460" die or take the Lee .457 die and hone it out to .460" . Larger than that may be better , have not tried it .

God bless
Wyr




I just made a heckova trade and ended up with a New-without-box .45-70 Brownchester 1886 Take Down.

I'm not likely to go hunting with it just yet, so I'm looking for a tried-n-true "general purpose" mould that I can use with either Smokeless or BP.

If it makes any difference, for now I'm only planning to use my Lee Loader to load with.

What say ye?

[TCLouis]

RD's 378 grainer (378 grains in my alloy) or the RCBS 325 (345 in my alloy) fired off by WLP, pushed along by 23.5 grains of milsurp 4759 or XMP 5744. No idea what the velocity is, but accuracy is there, and iI can shoot all day, least til the RB's weight gets me down! With FWFL I have probably 150 rounds down each gun (original 86 and Remington RB) and bore is pretty and shiny

Both are plain base boolits, but then the way I push them that is NOT a big deal. I have NO idea of velocity of either loading, but would certainly hunt with them. Lee 340 RNPB shoots well also, but I am too lazy to cast in a single cavity mold. Boy that RD 6 banger sure does go thru 25 pounds of lead easily in one session.

All 45-70 boolits sized .459"

They do OK in the 16" Contender pistola barrel also. I will have to try those loads in the 14 barrel when I get the broken screw out of the scope mounting hold.

[Old Ironsights]

Interesting mix of answers.

I think I'll start with a 457122 and go from there.

I only have enough alloy for 16K 360gr boolits anyway...

[StrawHat]

Don't know what your alloy is but the Gould bullet was originally designed with a binary alloy in mind.

I cast mine from 20/1 or 30/1 (lead/tin) and load over black powder.

Works like a charm!

Not sure about other alloys or smokeless.

[Old Ironsights]

I'm shooting WW or 50/50.

[Just Duke]

Major score!
Pics please.

[ktw]

I think I'll start with a 457122 and go from there.

I only have enough alloy for 16K 360gr boolits anyway...

This is a good mold and a good design, but casting can be slow. I tend to use one of the inexpensive Lee 457-340-RF molds for casting up plinking bullets and save the 457122 for hunting. Lee makes a longer 405 version of the same bullet.

-ktw

[Old Ironsights]

I don't mind slow. I actually prefer 1-2 cavity molds to a 6 banger. More consistent for me. It's also more relaxing.

Pics:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/MrMisanthrope/IMG_0799.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/MrMisanthrope/IMG_0800.jpg

Besides, I prefer "plinking" with the .357 Rossi... ;)

About the only thing that is giving me pause over the 457122 is that I'm a LLA guy for everything but BP.

Ranch Dog's Tumble Groove boolits look really keen, and I'm waffling over the 400gr version.

OTOH, I'm not really looking to push this that hard, so GCs are not grally going to be needed for most shooting...

But I may want to use really soft alloy...

But, But, But...

Maybe I can have the GC base cut out of one cavity?

Will the RD 405 work with an 1886 short throat?

Arrrgh.