Need light 45-70 BP loads

[mazo kid]

A friend of mine inherited an NEF 45-70. He would like to shoot light black powder loads as he has a bad shoulder. I only shoot heavier (405 to 525 grain) boolits in my Sharps, RB, Trapdoors, etc. so am no help for him. Any suggestions, such as fillers, wads, etc to take up case volume? TIA. Emery

[oldhickory]

A light smokeless load may serve your friend better. The lightest bullet you have a mold for, coupled with around 10 gr of Unique and a dacron filler, (available at any craft or sewing dept.) should give minimum recoil and be fun to shoot out to about 100yds. The dacron is so light, it won't add weight to the bullet and burns completely with ignition.

If he's insistant on using black powder, 35-45gr of FFFg with a card wad and corn meal as a filler should work as well, although the cases are a mess to clean.

[Lead melter]

Ditto for oldhickory on the Unique load. Something like a 350 grain cast with 12-16 grains Unique is mild, fun, accurate, and deadly when needed.

[montana_charlie]

Black powder is dark. It only makes dark loads.
For light loads you need white powder.
CM

[94Doug]

....or, if you are going smokeless, consider Trail Boss. It's gonna take a lot of the fun away not using the BP though.


Doug

[wills]

Why does he think he needs a BP load?

[Don McDowell]

If he can handle smokeless loads in that rifle he can surely handle bp rounds.

Might have him get a limbsaver slip on recoil pad , and head for the range with 70 grs of Goex Cartridge, a .060 fiber wad , and whatever 300 -350 gr cast bullet you have access to. I shot a similar load for my offhand match loads. Not much for recoil and plenty accurate out to 300 yds.

[jim4065]

Or maybe swap it for a 38-55?

[McLintock]

Try some 1F powder, the coarser grandulation will have a far less sharper recoil and use a 400 gr bullet with at least 3 grease grooves so you have a longer bullet body in the case and then use two .060 wads. Should be able to get capacity down to under 60 grs and not have too bad of a recoil and still be accurate.
McLintock

[13Echo]

Well he might try the military carbine load of 55 grs FFg (I use 59gs to get a bit of compression) and the Lee 405gr hollow base bullet seated to cover the grease grooves. Recoil is not bad, especially compared to the 45-70 500gr load. Otherwise you could use a lighter lead bullet and enough wads to eliminate any airspace with, say 40grs of powder. A bit of experimenatation should get you something suitable. Just remember black powder likes some compression and does best without airspace between the charge and the bullet.

Jerry Liles

[NickSS]

I made up some black powder carbine loads using corn meal for a filler on top of the black and a 400 gr bullet. However, Though making the rifle kick less it still had substantial recoil. If your buddy wants to shoot black for the fun of it and not get kicked too hard try 40 gr of FFG 20 gr of COW by volumn a card wad and a 300 gr bullet. This load I tried for my 12 year old daughter and she did not have any problem with it. You can also make real gallery loads by putting 10 gr of FFFG in a primed case and pushing a LLA lubed 457 ball down on top of it. This results in a light gallery load that kicks less than a 22 RF and is accurate out to 25 yards

[mazo kid]

Why does he think he needs a BP load?
Wills, because that is what he wants to shoot; maybe some day he will try smokeless. I shoot 95% black loads in any of my rifles, very little smokeless. Why? Because that is what they shot in them originally. And....it's more fun, at least for me. Thanks to all who have suggested ideas. Emery

[northmn]

The military carbine load is the best idea I can think of and appropriate in the NEF 22 inch barrel. They used 55 grains of black. Most sources advise against fillers in BP cartridges although I would think card wads to be OK. It was said that the seasoned troppers liked to sneak in the full 70 grain load to let rookies shoot. Coarser powders like 1f also kick a little less, or try the Cartridge. Remington cases have a little less capacity than WW and also may help.

Northmn

[kevinsmith5]

Western Bullet sells a 150gr collar button in .458. You could try that with BP and filler. Should be able to load to a low recoil and still get out to 75 yards or so.

[Wayne Smith]

I have the NEI collar button mold and some cast and lubed if you would like. My lube will probably melt in the mail, though. PM me if you want some.

[jlchucker]

Try using XMP5744 powder. For some reason, my loads with this powder give significantly less recoil with 405 gr cast boolets than when I use 3031, RL7, etc. Point of impact downrange seems to be the same. I suggest you cross-check a loading manual or two before trying any load, though, just for safety's sake.

[Doc Highwall]

I use the AA-5744 for light loads as it requires no fillers. I would try it with the 150gr boolits from western, just barely heaver then a round ball and probably more accurate to.