Buffalo Classic 45-70 S ML-er Conversion advise

[ourway77]

Been out of the loop for some time sickness. Doing better now. I bought an H&R Buffalo Classic 45-70 I believe with a 1 in 20 twist, I am having the barrel cut from 32" to 28" and crowned also have a breech plug installed to convert it too a smokeless muzzle loader. I have Boyd's thumb hole furniture. I would like to know what would be the best cast bullet to load both for accuracy and Deer hunting. I have been told that from another who has the same conversion that any load that is alright for the 45-70 is good , he uses jacketed bullets I was wanting some inexpensive bullets to shoot for plinking. Any help greatly appreciated

[johnson1942]

a 400 grain soft lead bullet resized through a push through resizer to .440. then dry wrapped with two wraps of number nine paper. put that on top of 80 grains of real black or blackhorn 209 powder with a 60 thousands thick fiber or poly wad between the bullet or powder. will drop anything your pointing at. you could use a heavier bullet but their is no reason to as the 400 grain will do the job and shoot longer distances with out dropping as much as a heavier bullet. i have a buffalo classic as is but cut to a 28 inch barrel also. dropped a nice doe with a paperpatched bullet this fall, she never new what hit her.

[odfairfaxsub]

Instead of having a breech conversion...not sure if this would work have you know but take a 45-70 casing and cut the casing so you have 1/4 or 1/2 for priming purposes. Would that work? Never size and they would fit that area real snug and prob no blow back at all. I heard that large rifle primers are way better for accuracy comp to shotgun

[waarp8nt]

One of my co-workers had a H&R 45/70 turned into a muzzleloader and he loves it. It was just a standard 45/70 not a Buffalo Classic. I love the idea of converting a H&R to Muzzleloader, just don't think I would do it to my Buffalo Classic....although it would be nothing short of awesome in my book...

[725]

Rather than cutting the barrel, why don't you just get another barrel in the form of a ML. I did. Some years ago I got a barrel from a guy name Hubbard (If I remember correctly). Don't know if he is still in business, but he made a dandy barrel. Now I have the original and the ML. I would bet that in the future, original stuff will have value above cut up stuff, and with the added ML barrel, your options increase. My barrel is set up to mount a 209 primer which fires from the standard firing pin. Outstanding ignition and utility. Snap the action closed and the cap/primer can't fall off no matter what happens to the gun. Break the action open like the single shot it is and the primer can be popped right off.

As far as making it a smokeless ML, BE CAREFUL ! ! ! ! That has the potential to be a tricky wicket. BP & BP substitutes won't be nearly as dicey, and they work exceedingly well. Aside from the chamber supporting the cartridge gun function, the brass cartridge case adds strength as well.

Best of luck.