40-90 adventure

[Don McDowell]

About to begin. Have 10 rounds of the 360 gr Baco Creedmoor patched bullet and the BACO 415 gr money bullet loaded over 88 gr. of Cartridge powder. Hope to shoot these just to see how the Shiloh #1 is going to like patched bullets. Serious testing will begin after I get the Olde Eynsford 1f next week.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f358/Ranch137/0616172150_zpsklqgc9er.jpg

[CraigOK]

Hope they shoot as good as they look

[Don McDowell]

Me Too. LOL
This lot of Cartridge shoots very well in my 44-77's. I don't have target sights on the gun yet, but will do some shooting at 100 with the barrel sights. Just to get the thing to making smoke, seems a shame I've had the darn thing 4 days already and haven't popped a cap yet.

[nekshot]

I kinda envy you! The more I mess with my 50-90 Mauser the more I appreciate these old BP cartridges and I think I would really enjoy the 40 caliber cartridges. I was taken under the wing as a 16 year old by a couple of real old bench rest shooters so my idea of fun is 5 rounds spaced apart to keep the barrel cool. Alot of shooters spray a hundred round or so down range and I am just as happy shooting 5! I really need to do some trading into one of these guns and I am leaning towards the Chippia midsize 38-55 or something like those. A replica carbine of confederate war era would do also. i really enjoy following the posts you fellas post!

[Hiwall55]

Looks good Don,I bet it shoots well too.

[country gent]

Looking good there Don The 40-90 is an interesting cartridge and should work up to a decent load quick and easy in your skilled hands. Keep us posted.

[Don McDowell]

The cases that came with this rifle are a mix of Rocky Mtn. Cartridge and Bertram. Not enough of either to shoot a match, so I'm thinking I may order 100 of the Buffalo Arms formed cases, and get a batch of Captec 44-110's and trim and fire form those, when I get time to get real serious about seeing what this thing will do.
Hopefully tomorrow will see some trigger time.

[Reverend Al]

When I bought my Marlin / Ballard No 5 Pacific in .40-90 Ballard it came with 20 rounds of Bertram brass. It seems to be typically poor quality Bertram brass though since I have already had several split cases and the cost to replace it is outrageous since up here in Canada it sells for about $85 per box of 20 rounds before taxes!. After doing a bit of research and reading what other people had done, I bought a quantity of once fired 9.3x74R Norma brass and fire-formed them in my Ballard and they are working great. They fit my chamber well and extract easily. (The 9.3 rims are slightly smaller in diameter compared to actual .40-90 brass, but these Norma cases work fine with the extractor in my rifle.) I now have over 400 rounds of "shooter" brass for less than I would have had to pay for 60 rounds of Bertram brass. You might want to see if you can find a few rounds of 9.3x74R brass to test in your rifle? If you can't find any once fired brass, Grafs does sell new Hornady brass in 9.3x74R.

https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/7101



The cases that came with this rifle are a mix of Rocky Mtn. Cartridge and Bertram. Not enough of either to shoot a match, so I'm thinking I may order 100 of the Buffalo Arms formed cases, and get a batch of Captec 44-110's and trim and fire form those, when I get time to get real serious about seeing what this thing will do.
Hopefully tomorrow will see some trigger time.

[Don McDowell]

Al, these new made Shiloh's and C Sharps 40-90 bn use 45-xx brass as their basis. I believe the 9.3 is a bit smaller in diameter in the case head and the rim, and I seem to recall the rim thickness on the 9.3 to be a touch thinner.
How does your Pacific shoot? Those are some rifles with some cool factor behind them as well.

[Reverend Al]

OK, I missed that it is the BN version the first time around. Of course my Ballard is the straight case version and the 9.3x74R cases are very close to the .40-90 Ballard dimensions. I haven't shot my Ballard enough to work up decent loads yet, since I've mostly just been fire-forming the 9.3 cases with a Federal Large Rifle Magnum primer, 7 grains of SR4759, topped with 80 grains of 2F under the RCBS 400 grain silhouette bullet. I've only tried one lube so far too, which is my home brew of beeswax, Crisco, and a bit of olive oil. Of course my rifle has a paper patch throat too and I do plan to get an adjustable smooth sided cup based mould from Red River Rick out in Winnipeg so that I can cast and try some appropriate (330 to 370 grain) paper patched bullets in it. At this point the fire-forming loads are shooting into about 3 or 4 inches at 100 yards, but that is with the open barrel sights since I haven't invested in proper target sights for my rifle yet either. Recoil is a little bit nasty with that traditional curved steel buttplate which probably isn't helping my groups much either!

[Don McDowell]

I would imagine that shooting that rifle any other way than sitting off of the sticks or offhand, might be a bit of a recoil experience. :)

[Reverend Al]

The first time I shot my Ballard (from the bench of course) it left me with a multi-coloured bruise that lasted for days afterward. Now I shoot it using a Caldwell Lead Sled!


I would imagine that shooting that rifle any other way than sitting off of the sticks or offhand, might be a bit of a recoil experience. :)

[Don McDowell]

Shot this morning. All in all pretty happy. Going to get some new cases. 2 of these that came with the rifle backed the primer out.
197863
Bottom "group" was the .400-360, and the top was the .396-415. Wish now I would of changed targets between rounds to get a better sight picture. Target was set at 100 meters, and shot with the barrel sight down.
197865

[big bore 99]

Looking good. I've been paper patching for my 45-70s for a couple years now and having a great time with it. Excellent accuracy and no leading. Surprised there aren't more people doing it. Keep up the good work!

[Don McDowell]

Thanks.

[Reverend Al]

I see you slipped on a rubber "gummy" to help tame the recoil a bit. Can't blame you!

[Don McDowell]

I always do that when shooting prone or off the bench, with everything other than 22's and the 32-40.
I did not find the recoil of this rifle to be any worse than my other large capacity case rifles.

[Don McDowell]

That pad is one of the Limbsaver slip on's. Really like the way those work, it only add's about 1/2 in. to the pull, but keeps the checkering on the buttplate out of your collor bone.

[Don McDowell]

Ran the rifle today, under a tough way to try things, but shot a 1000 yd match. The load was 90 gr of Olde Eynsford 1f with a .396 diameter 415 gr. money bullet patched with Seth Cole 55w. Was very pleased with how it worked. Next step is to get enough loaded to take to the Rocky Mountain regional bptr match in September..

[BRUCE MOULDS]

good on you don, on several counts.
1) using a chambering that everyone is too scared to use
2) using pp bullets
3) shooting at 1000 yds.
3) looking forward to continuance of this journey.
4)not being guided by urban myth.
i really hope it works out well.
keep safe,
bruce.

[rfd]

don, is that a standard shiloh greaser chamber?

[Don McDowell]

Yes it is.

[Big Mak]

Thanks for the report Don!

Regarding gummy pads, I cut down the flanges on a pad and 'hid' it under a leather butt cover (Stock and leather both waxed with renaissance wax. Not really a 'wax', it is petroleum based. I checked it after a year, no discoloration at all)

If it works for a Trapdoor made in 1883, I'm sure it will work in yours. I went from shooting a max of 10 rds to 100 rds all day!
I topped off the excess leather string with real bone beads.
You can barely see it in this photo:
https://photos.smugmug.com/1873-Springfield-Trapdoor-45/n-gxR9F/i-Nh38TNW/0/56706f9c/O/i-Nh38TNW.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/1873-Springfield-Trapdoor-45/n-gxR9F/i-wjkgdmn/0/c9ce5c91/O/i-wjkgdmn.jpg

[Don McDowell]

That's a nice looking pad cover.