What barrel

[SE-Okla.Shooter]

I picked up a 43 Spanish at the Tulsa gun show. It 1885 RB converted to the latter cartridge. After looking at the cost of reloading this caliber I am thinking about barreling to something easer to reload. I have 45/70, what would be a good BP caliber?
Thanks
Guy

[Don McDowell]

It'll cost you close to 700$ for a rebarrel, 400$ for 200 cases and you're good to go.

[country gent]

45-70 is a very good caliber to use as is 40-65. Both have brass bullets and dies available easily. If even lighter recoil is desired 38-55 does good and available components. 45- 90 and larger brass starts getting expensive the 50s are the same specialty and not the demand. There are some others that can be formed from 45-70 cases easily but thats more work to load. Rebarrel with a known makers barrel 45 caliber 1-18 twist ( this would be good for cast lead bullets 480-550 grns) 28"-34" long in a countour to get the weight you want. BPCR Shillouette is 12 lbs 2 ounces not sure what BPCR Long Range is. Keep in mind added wieght will reduce felt recoil. For a strictly hunting gun wieght also is a factor carrying. First you need to decide on the uses what you want to do with it and how. WHat bullets you want to use wieght range and length. How much you want to spend. Sights or a traditional Scope are another big expense. By the time you buy the blank and have it fitted and installed then finished. It may be cheaper to buy or if possible make 43Spanish brass dies and load it. Not sure if it could be rebored to 50 and rechambered to 50-70 using the existing barrel or not.

[Nobade]

43 Spanish? Lee dies = $30 20 cases = $40 Bullet mould = $50 - $100 Shell holder = $15

$135 and you're good to go. Might not even need the dies - I don't use them beyond forming cases. Afterward no resizing needed, just decap, clean, recap, and away you go. If 20 shots isn't enough, you can always decap/recap at the range.

That said, yes, 45-70 is likely the easiest cartridge to work with out there. Won't save money though.

-Nobade

[enfield]

I agree with Nobade, unless something is wrong with the 43 Spanish barrel why change it , kinda like a 43 Mauser slash 44-77 sharps cartridge.

[Boz330]

Barrel relining might be an option also.

Bob

[SE-Okla.Shooter]

My rifle was chambered to .43 Spanish Reformado. It has the R on top of the barrel at the receiver. I didn't have any luck finding brass for this caliber. If anyone shoots this rifle what bullet do you use and can I reform .43 Spanish brass? What dies are available for the Reformado?
I would like to shoot paper out to 3 to 400 yards and maybe hunt deer with the rifle.

Thanks for the replies so far
Guy

[Lead pot]

I would make a chamber cast before spending a bunch of money on moulds and dies. There three different variations of the .43.

[Nobade]

My rifle was chambered to .43 Spanish Reformado. It has the R on top of the barrel at the receiver. I didn't have any luck finding brass for this caliber. If anyone shoots this rifle what bullet do you use and can I reform .43 Spanish brass? What dies are available for the Reformado?
I would like to shoot paper out to 3 to 400 yards and maybe hunt deer with the rifle.
Thanks for the replies so far
Guy


Aah, now it gets interesting. So you likely have a 43 caliber barrel chambered for a 45 caliber cartridge. You can fireform regular 43 Spanish cases, or get reformado brass from Buffalo Arms. What you do about a bullet and its fit in the chamber neck will possibly take some creativity. But as Lead Pot says, a chamber cast is your first step so you really know what you're working with.

-Nobade

[Bob Busetti]

With my limited experience with the 43 Spanish I feel it is one of the best kept secrets in reloading.

[Lead pot]

There are no secrets loading the .43 Spanish or any other black powder cartridge. With a bottle neck cartridge you are limited to what you can keep above the shoulder in the neck.
You have to select a bullet that will stabilize in the slower twist the old Military rifles have as well as you would with a straight wall case.
You have a better chance to get the rifle to shoot with a lower BC bullet.
To much falls information is posted about black powder bottlenecked cartridges from people that never had or loaded for one.

[SE-Okla.Shooter]

Lead pot The .43 Spanish Reformado is close to a straight wall case.
Guy

[Lead pot]

That is why I said make a cast to make sure what you have. I got my first 43 back in 1954-5 and I was not my last.

[bigted]

I totally agree in the premis that there is NOTHING wrong with the 43 SPANISH round ... either with black powder or select smokeless.

I would further say that the SPANISH configuration [Remington's OTHER 44-77] is best shot with blackpowder and this loaded up to compress in the neck area. there is not a thing wrong nor tricky [in my experience anyway] about loading and shooting the 43 Spanish round. I just did what I always do with my new to me rifles ... I loaded a few rounds with blackpowder and some boolits bought from Buff arms so I could fireform my brass and to determine what the chamber wanted/needed for boolit diameter to load into unsized cases.

I don't shoot this old war horse much anymore [only because im like a fart in the wind with my shooting playtime] but when I get back to it I can and will assure that I will be loading it with my ACCURATE molds that Tom built for me and the blackpowder that my rifle was built to shoot. what a great old cartridge and like I referred to above ... this round and Remington's 44-77 round [yep it wernt Sharps that originally brought us the 44-77 round] are very little difference in stature and they both shoot equally well with almost the same components except for the bore diameter.

I have no experience with the other 2 43's but if they are as easy to play with as the Spanish round is ... then they ARE the best kept secrets in the BPCR community. don't rebarrel till you have spent a small bit on the 43 and established that it absolutely will NOT shoot to what you desire ...

before making this decision first discount the original sights and that awful trigger pull on the military rifles. do a trigger job in which ever style attracts you and install sights that you will shoot well with. these old rifles will generally shoot well to very well with just a little tweaking.

good luck and congrates on a cool purchase.

also WELCOME TO THE FORUM :drinks:

[SE-Okla.Shooter]

With luck I will post a picture of the camber cast and barrel slug.
Rim .090 thicknes, Rim .61, Length 2.3, mouth case .495, cast rifling .447 .450, slugged bullet .451 .444
Now what bullet do I need. also barrel does not have rear sight. Which Marble tang sight goes with this rifle?
Thanks Guy

[SE-Okla.Shooter]

Here is a picture of the cast barrel slug.
[IMG]http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=138627&d=1430692433[/IM

[Nobade]

You certainly have an interesting one there. A 44 caliber barrel, not 43 like normal. And that chamber cast shows a bunch of freebore past the case. It certainly doesn't look like a 43 Spanish that has been rechambered to reformado. At any rate, you'll want a bullet that fits the throat - whatever that is, and also will easily enter a fired case. The twist rate will tell you how heavy. What is the base diameter on that cast, just ahead of the rim? That will tell you what family of cases it is from. As for the tang sight, I'd ask Marbles - they can steer you in the right direction if that's what you want to use.

-Nobade

[SE-Okla.Shooter]

Here is a picture of 45/70, 43 Spanish and the reformed 43 Spanish. I shoot a .451 250 gr. pistol bullet in front of 10 gr. of Unique. The reformed case mouth was .460
and for about 3/4 inch from where the 43 Spanish neck was it was .522. In front of the rim it didn't change from .514. How large a bullet can I push down a .44 barrel?
139618

[SE-Okla.Shooter]

I forgot some one ask according to the cast next to the rim chamber is .533

[bigted]

sounds like maybe a 44-90 bottle neck chamber which would be around 2 and 5/8ths inch long. can we get the chamber slug on a piece of paper witch shows the measurements of all the changes and length of each change? this would really help with drawing a conclusion of what exactly you have.

[rmark]

The 'Handloaders Manual of Cartridge Conversions' page 568, Spanish Reformado, shows .525 case diameter just ahead of the rim, .486 at the case mouth.

IIRC, they used a .45 caliber bullet in the Reformado though the barrel was left at the original .43, just depending on the soft lead bullet to squeeze down.