Lighter .45-70 mold for Browning Hi-Wall

[hc18flyer]

My brother just bought a non-BPCR 1885 Browning. He wants a lighter weight boolet for banging steel and maybe a Whitetail. I love the gun, but I can't get low enough on the stock to use the sights, which also pulls the buttplate away from my shoulder. We shot heavier loads, which were brutal! Suggestions for a mold? Thanks, Tom

[NSB]

Lighter weight bullets won’t shoot as well in this gun as the heavier ones do. I suggest you shoot Trapdoor loads which are reasonably “comfortable” to shoot. You can put a scope on the gun by using Leupold mounts which will eliminate your problem getting down enough to use the sights. One problem with the Browning model of this Miroku made gun is the lack of a metal tang on the wrist. The Winchester/Miroku comes with a metal tang such as the Browning BPCR has. They are superbly accurate firearms with the right bullet and load. I take it that your gun has the curved butt plate?

[Conditor22]

It's not the mold size, it's the powder charge you put behind it. You can find accurate loads for heavy boolits that won't knock over buffalo.

try trail boss or 2400

[RKJ]

You might try the Lee 340 grain FP. MP also has a 350 grain that I haven't I can't find it on his site. The Lee 340 shoots good out of my 1895 GG.

[Mk42gunner]

The Lyman 457122 Gould HP was designed as a deer bullet for the .45-70. Mine runs about 330 grains (its been a awhile). But a plinking boolit it is not, since it takes seemingly forever to cast even a small quantity.

Some of the 300-350 grain molds should be useable, and a lighter projectile with a lighter powder charge will make it enjoyable to shoot. Just because the rifle is capable of more doesn't mean you have to run it at full throttle all the time.

Robert

[Winger Ed.]

Awhile back, I started loading my .45-70s to the original Springfield trap door info.

They are much less punishing to shoot.

[kaiser]

I don't bang steel with mine, but have banged enough Whitetail to know the 340gr cast and 300gr "J" bullets are very accurate and deadly. You don't need to run them fast, about 1600 to 1900fps are "magic"! My 1885 has a pad, octagon barrel, and wears a 4X Leupold scope. The all up weight is right at 9 1/4 pounds, which makes it pleasant to shoot. While I've also shot 405 loads, unless big bear is on the menu, there is little need to punish yourself with the heavy weights IMO.

[bigted]

Experience has me convinced that a 45_70 does not need all the horse power that folks build into it.

BPRS shooters need heavy's and a little heat to get accuracy out to the ranges they shoot at ... but us hunters and general plinkers we need not have neither weight nor speed.

If you load 320 to 400 grain to 1100 to 1300 FPS which is easy with BP, Trail Boss or good ol Unique. These speeds and a good hunter that does not mind creeping close enough will find that the good old 45-70 in its first loading speeds and weights will do for anything walking. Biggest bison and moose will wilt under its power. Killed a nice medium Alaskan moose with one and he fell over just as easy as a fair size moose fell under three shots from a 375 H&H.

Do not need thumpers to do for what you need doin.have a Ruger #1, had a Japchester 1885 and another older Japchester lengthened to 45-120 and have shot em thusely and loaded em up to steam rite along and my perspective is that shooting under 300 yards, just do not need so much horsepower.

Yep the scope height helped me with such a flat comb too. The little light Ruger became rite fun to shoot when I mounted my Leopold straight 4X power on it. Very fun and still a nice lite and easy swinging rifle as well as being a pretty good brush hunter for deer or elk or black bear. Breakin rocks with it is a fun endeavor as well.

Home cast boolits are the most fun and intensely satisfying with black powder in the old carbine 55 grain loads.

Give em a try. Scoping this old war horse is a thing of beauty and fun for old farts like me.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I stick to 300 grain bullets in my light Marlin 1895. Speed them up for hunting, lighter loads for fun. I tried 350-400 grain bullets, did not care for the recoil or trajectories. My Marlin 45-70 is my elk rifle with 300 grain bullets normally leaving an exit wound. I expect 3 inch groups at 200 yards using a higher power scope. You can cast 4 300 grainers or 3 400 grainers with the same amount of lead. I have an RCBS 300 Flat Nose GC but Accurate, others should have a similar design. A 300 gr plain base for under 1200fps will work but I find better accuracy with Gas Checks. Most elk I've taken in 40 to 125 yard range but one bull on very familiar territory did go down at 340 yards, 300 gr at 2200 fps, complete pass-through.

[lotech]

I second the use of the Lyman #457122 HP. I've never shot long range with any .45-70, but to 100 yds., the 330 grain HP loaded to around 1500 fps has been at least as accurate as any heavy bullet I've used and recoil is noticeably less than a 420 grain bullet loaded to around 1300 fps.

[Good Cheer]

hc18flyer,
Do you have a heavy 45 Colt mold to paper patch?

[hc18flyer]

hc18flyer,
Do you have a heavy 45 Colt mold to paper patch?

I do have a 280 grain rnfp in .45 Colt. I have never paper patched before, need to learn how?

[Good Cheer]

It's not hard to learn.

[Gray Fox]

There is a Williams aperture sight that fits on the two scope screw holes on the 1885 receiver bridge which I have on mine. It works great and with the rear sight removed and replaced with a dovetail slot filler the sight works fine with the factory front sight. It gives about 3/4" of verical adjustment which should be all the range you would need for a 300 grain boolet at 1,600 fps. I'm fortunate to have one of the Lyman 330 HP molds and found that if I leave out the hollow point spike I can drop a .177 BB into the mold which drops right into the hole. It yield a boolit of about 350 grains with 50/50/2 alloy with about 1/3 of the BB exposed in the nose. For use in my lever guns I file the BB flat to avoid potential primer issues in a tubular mag. Sometime hairbrain ideas like this work out. BTW, I have had great luck using 2400 with a puff of Dacron pillow fiber for very accurate loads, even though many folks say the Dacron or any other filler is unnecessary with 2400. GF

[marlinman93]

Lighter bullets can be OK if the distance isn't way out there. Once you get to mid range distances of around 400-500 yds., the bullets under 400 grs. will really show in group sizes opening up. So if you don't plan to shoot out to mid range distances go ahead and have fun with bullets under 400 grs.
Beyond 400 yds., you can still do pretty well with bullets up around 470-480 gr. and not be abusive recoil to the shooter, if you keep loads around 1250-1350 fps. You'll of course have a greater arc to the bullet's flight, but a 480 gr. bullet works well for my .45-70's out to 1,000 yds. I do shoot heavier 500-530 gr. bullets, at reduced power levels, and don't find them to be heavy recoil. But in a shooting session of 2-3 days they do over time let me know they're a bit more recoil than the lighter 480 gr. loads.

[TCLouis]

Lee 340 gr.
RCBS
300 GC
325 PB
Lyman ???

and then make
Red Dot, Unique, 2400, 3031 (34-40 gr.)
Your friends

[Bigslug]

Stick with the 400 grain familiy and load lighter.

RCBS 405 GC FN if you're super into tiny groups.

NOE does several in that weight range with a .34" meplat if you aren't stretching the distance and really enjoy turning milk jugs into vapor clouds.

Then there's the other end of the still-light-kicking spectrum. The 535 grain Postell and its various spawn were intended to be pooted out at subsonic muzzle velocities to avoid the transonic wobblies when shot at extreme ranges. Think of them as a Olympic match .22 load that did a lot of steroids and ate a lot of cheeseburgers.

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello hc18flyer,

In my Uberti 1885 Highwall, I loaded the Lee 457-405-F for a Buffalo shoot.
All I can say is ouch. I then ordered a bag of Remington .457-300-HP and decided to use them,
but a friend of mine said the Hollow Points wouldn't penetrate the hide.
He had a couple boxes of Sierra 8900, 300gr jacketed flat nose (now 8900's are hollow points).
I purchased a box from him & that's what I used for the shoot, still plenty of kick but dropped the young bull clean.
Since I have purchased the RCBS 45-300-FN which is a gas check. I shoot them out of my 1885 & my Ruger #3.
I did shoot some 405gr Factory Trapdoor loads, they still kicked like a mule in the 1885.

AntiqueSledMan.

[hc18flyer]

Thanks for your replies! hc18flyer