Surprising Results

[karlrudin]

This was an untested load @ 100 yards with my H&R Handi-Rifle (45/70 Govt.) To my surprise, it worked great for a load that hasn't been tweaked yet. I will trim the group down soon. I fired 9 rounds and all hit the black. Starline cases, Lee 457-405 FB which with pure lead weighed 423 grains, RWS 200 primers and IMR 4064 for powder. Sized and lubed in a Lyman 45 lube sizer sized .458. Poly fill to take up the air gap and no crimp. Bullet touching the lands. Velocity approximately 970fps. Fun to shoot and I hope to trim the group down from 6 inches. Love this gun and caliber. Just hard to keep it feed lead :) Any suggestions would be appreciated and welcome.
147710

[Lonegun1894]

Just wait til you tweak that load and it shows you what it can really do. :)

[karlrudin]

Just wait til you tweak that load and it shows you what it can really do. :)

I'm sure hoping so. I like the caliber, weapon and the sheer power of 400 grains of lead. I will take my mass energy over velocity all the time :)

[country gent]

Tweaking the load should really tighten it up, Depending on barrel twist. 1-20 should shine with 400 grn bullets or so. My Sharps and Hepburn are 1-18 twist and perfer 500 to 550 grn bullets over the 400 grners. You might give lyman 457125 a try in your rifle its a copy of the original govt bullet at 510 grns or so depending on alloy. Its ussually a solid performer in most rifles. In mine the Lyman postell at 535 grns performs even better. Experiment with powder charge, primers, wads, and alloys.

[Good Cheer]

Used the Lyman 457124 soft cast at over 400 grains and the RCBS 405 grain in a 24" twist. Works great. So yeah, 20" ought to handle 400 grains quite well.

[Good Cheer]

Had to go weigh one to remember. The 457124 is giving me 406 grains super soft.

[karlrudin]

Well I have an update on tweaking that load. It actually got much better after dropping it down a grain and a half. But a picture is worth a thousand words. This will be putting meat on the table this winter. And yes that is 5 rounds. Very happy. 150935

[35 shooter]

Wow that IS a big improvement...nice.

[Lonegun1894]

Excellent job! If you don't mind me asking, are you shooting irons or scope? I sold my BC a while back, and recently picked up a 22" H&R .45-70 and am trying to decide if I should stick with irons as with most of my toys or go with a scope this time. Both have advantages, and this rifle does great with a Lyman 457122HP sized to .460" and pushed with 14.0grs Unique.

[karlrudin]

Thanks y'all. Lonegun1984 I started with the factory sights only till my scope bases came in. Both of these pictures are with a 2nd hand scope I picked up at a pawn shop. If the rifle would have come with a rear peep sight, personally I would have used it. I like peeps. My tweeks from the first post are, I settled on IMR 4064, 33 grains. Poly fill, seated the bullet so that the lands inprinted the bullet up to the first step on the bullet. I know there's a word, but i cant recall it. Then crimped in place. Bulllet is already in the grooves lined up and ready to go. The crimp holds firm enough to eject a loaded round. Hope this helps someone. Love this caliber.