40-70 Sharps Straight

[6pt-sika]

My shooting buddy got his Remington Hepburn in 40-70 Straight !

I've already had him order RCBS 40-70 SS Legacy dies along with 100 pieces of Hornady 405 WCF brass to trim down for the 40-70 and of course an appropriate shell holder for the 405 WCF case !


Now what I need to know is what you guys that use the Hornady 405 WCF brass trim it to and if you are finding you need to ream the insides of the cases because of shell wall thickness !

Any answers are greatly appreciatted !

I already have the 405 WCF brass to trim down , so that will be the only brass option in case someone prefers something else .

[6pt-sika]

Okay I just found some info in Venturino's Buffalo Rifle book that tells me to trim to 2.50" !

Reckon I can figure out after I trim one and seat a bullet whether it will chamber or not !

[Don McDowell]

Might not hurt to do a chamber cast before you start grinding and hacking away at $1 each cases.

[NickSS]

The 40-70 straight is a great cartridge and I am sure your friend will like it if the barrel is any good.

[BPCR Bill]

My shooting buddy got his Remington Hepburn in 40-70 Straight !

I've already had him order RCBS 40-70 SS Legacy dies along with 100 pieces of Hornady 405 WCF brass to trim down for the 40-70 and of course an appropriate shell holder for the 405 WCF case !


Now what I need to know is what you guys that use the Hornady 405 WCF brass trim it to and if you are finding you need to ream the insides of the cases because of shell wall thickness !

Any answers are greatly appreciatted !

I already have the 405 WCF brass to trim down , so that will be the only brass option in case someone prefers something else .Dependent on the reamer used, you may have some issues with brass. In the recent past the 40-70SS chamber was done to some different dimensions depending on who built the rifle. If you look at the Buffalo Arms catalog you will see brass available for different rifle mahufacturers. I may be wrong here, but I believe Hornady started making brass a few years back to a standard reamer dimension. As stated before, I'd get a chamber cast, or ask the gunsmith/manufacturer what brass to use. And yes, the cartridge is a good one. Once you get a load worked up for it you'll love it!

Regards,
Bill

[6pt-sika]

Well I went over today and worked on getting this rifle ready to load !

I got the cases trimmed to what would chamber in the gun at 2.525" and also got the seating depth worked out for the Lyman 410655 !

I was fortunate in that I didn't need to ream them even with the bullets sized at .409" !

Only thing I noticed was that after I trimmed to length the first tiem and then sized I would need to go back a trim about 2/100's off again so they would chamber ! Evidently when I would run them thru the sizing die it would stretch them about 2/100's .

Anyway all we need to do now is cast some more bullets , size lube and load them up and see if the thing goes BANG ;)

[madcaster]

6pt-sika,
Did you get my PM Sir?
Jeff

[SharpsShooter]

Keep us posted as to the results please. I am looking at ordering a rifle in this caliber / cartridge.

SS

[6pt-sika]

6pt-sika,
Did you get my PM Sir?
Jeff

Yes thank you !

[6pt-sika]

Here's some pics I took today of my buddies Hepburn while we were at his house working with it a little !

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f316/6pt-sika/DSCN0532.jpg


http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f316/6pt-sika/DSCN0533.jpg


http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f316/6pt-sika/DSCN0534.jpg

[6pt-sika]

We cast some bullets for the old rifle today with 1/20 !

Cast the Lyman 410655 and the RCBS 40-350CSA . Sized them at .410" and lubed with SPG !

Took the old rifle out behind my friends house to try it at 25 yards for a start !

Shot the Lyman with 52.5 grains of Goex Cartridge , with a Beeswax cookie and a Federal 215 primer .

Shot the RCBS with 55.6 grains of Goex Cartridge , the Beeswax cookie and a Federal 215 primer !

We got nice three shot clusters of about 1-1.5" . Certainly they could be better , but then again for the first try the "could" be way way worse :drinks:

[LIMPINGJ]

I love to see them being used and not sitting in a case.

[SharpsShooter]

Sounds like a fine start to me. What did the boolits weigh? Beautiful rifle BTW

SS

[Boz330]

Is that an originl? What is the twist on it?

Bob

[6pt-sika]

SS ,
the bullets were cast from 1/20 and from the mold the Lyman bullet was about 420 and the RCBS was about 365 .

Boz,
I'm pretty sure the rifle has had the action and buttplate re color case hardened .And MM93 tells me the checkering is different from any he's ever seen on a Hepburn .