Browning 1885 45/70 ?

[Coonhound]

Looking for load recommendations. Shooting Lyman 500 grain schmitzer lead bullets. Using 38 gr Varget with 1 gr cotton and works great, but looking for lighter load for shooting cast bullet targets at 100 and 200 yards. Any suggestions? Thanks

[1Hawkeye]

Try 10 grs of unique with no filler its an accurate load with just enough recoil to let you know it went off.

[country gent]

There several ways to do what you want. One is the above lighter powder charge load with the same bullet. This works good but hard to tell which load is which by looking. And whole dropping a couple hundred feet per second with the same bullet does lower recoil its not a big drop. The second is going to a lighter bullet something in the 385-400 grn range. This will lower recoil and also save on lead ( for 5 of the big bullets you get 6 of the lighter ones). Here the recoil is reduced again by a set amount. The third is to use both the above drop velocity to around 1000-1100 fps with the 385-400 grn bullet. This will give the most recoil reduction and can produce some very accurate short range loads.
Another consideration is to try Black Powder loads in it, the recoil from BP isn't as sharp and snappy as smokeless loads generally. Some where around 64 grns of 2f or1 1/2f should put you around 1150 fps and be very accurate. I shoot BP in all my 45 cal rifles and they perform well all around. Load enough BP so there is no airspace and experiment with compression. Also use a good wad between bullet and powder

[Gunlaker]

If you want some really light loads try something in the 405-450gr range using Trail Boss powder. It good for "plinking level" accuracy at shorter distances. My favorite soft load using smokeless in the .45-70 is a 450gr cast bullet with 30gr-32gr of H-4198 and a magnum primer. That load shoots quite well out of all of my rifles. It's in the 1100fps range.

Chris.

[MT Chambers]

400 gr. Saeco is top notch for out to 300 yds. and less kick then the 500 grainers.

[EDG]

I use 13 grns of Unique with most any bullet from 300 grains to 500 grains.

Also 23 to 25 grains of SR4759 or 5744 with a 500 grn bullet works well in a modern 45-70.
I do no own any original 45-70s so I don't know if this load is safe in a trap door.

[GregLaROCHE]

I agree with going to a lighter boolit would be your first step.

I often shot black powder in mine. A lot of people used to tell me not to do it, because it will ruin the gun. That’s not true at all. Just people who have never done it before talking. There are handy cleaning cables available so you can push it through from the receiver end and pull it out the muzzle. That way all fouling comes out the muzzle. I usually shoot a smokeless round at the end. I think it makes the cleaning easier.