50-70 Black Powder Reloading

[Wolmf]

Howdy all,

I decided to make an account to talk to you guys after I had recently acquired a 1868 Springfield Trapdoor rifle produced in 1869 chambered in 50-70 Government. I had started to get into reloading back in early 2020 when ammunition was scarce. Starting out with 30-06 and moving along to each caliber of firearm I own (.45 ACP, 8x57 Mauser, .300 Blk, etc.). I was always fascinated by single action 1800's era American made rifles and the trapdoor rifle always caught my eye, so when one was up for sale by my local gunsmith, I decided to jump in on the deal and take it home. Obviously, finding mass produced 50-70 is literally impossible, I had to resort to reloading them myself. Now, I am very familiar with reloading modern smokeless cartridges but have never touched black powder reloads. Could someone with knowledge give me the basics of what I need to purchase when it comes to equipment and supplies along with a basic guide of how to reload these historic rounds? I've read multiple posts with different information but it was getting annoying trying to piece things together. I have Swiss FF and FFFF black powder for my flintlock musket and was wondering if either of these would work for reloading said 50-70. Casting bullets wont be an issue either as I have an abundance of lead for casting lead balls, I'd just have to get the correct cast. Thank you to anyone and everyone who stops by and checks out my post.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

The two boolits that I use are a 450gn Lyman and a 500gn by Cast Bullet Engineering, both with 70gns of Swiss FFG powder. An over powder wad is cut with a 13mm wad punch. To settle 70gn of black powder, I use a 30" drop tube.

https://i.imgur.com/QmglPAyl.jpg

[hpbear101]

I use the Lee 50-450 bullet it is very close to the original bullet and works well.

Bad Ass Wallace pretty well covered it.

Primed case I usually use WLRM but standard primers will work fine, you may want to experiment for accuracy

Fill case (using a drop tube) up to where the base of the bullet will be your ffg should work fine. You may also want to experiment with compressing your powder charge some loads prefer compression for accuracy and fouling. But for getting started case full of powder up to the base of the bullet will do.

A milk carton wad over the powder (1/2 arch punch you may have to open up a bit, or you can by Walters wads)

Bullet, I shoot mine as cast, lube with SPG or home made BP lube, soft lube to keep fouling soft

You don't really need dies if you can't find any however they do make the seating and crimping easier.

I also shoot a 1868 Rifle made in 69 as well as a Cadet made in 69.

Have fun

Tom



302000

[missionary5155]

Howdy Wolmf and Welcome about the place !
Another caliber .50 shooter jabbing at you, The 50 Trapdoor is a good one to use o a critter. Round ball for bunnies and those 450s for big game.
Your rifle may have even been pointed at Bison or Griz over the years.
Stick to BP and that fine old rifle will outlive all of us.

[varsity07840]

I use the Lee 450/.515 bullet. However, I have two single cavity moulds that refuse to cast bigger than .512 which is too small for my '68. My double cavity drops them at around .517. So, two things to check. First. Slug your bore to get groove to groove size. There's a gentleman on this site who goes by the name Texas Mac. He has the proper micrometer to measure a 3 groove slug. Second, get a mould that will drop a bullet at least .001 larger than groove.You can load them as cast or you can run the lubed bullet thru a sizing die. I use a Lyman die set with a powder compression die sold by Buffalo Arms. I use the seat/crimp die to seat only. The Lyman die does a roll crimp which is intended for crimp grooves in the bullet. I take the decaping pin out of the sizing die and run the round up just high enough to take the flare out of the case.

[toot]

I use a .515 dia. cast lead head & cotton over powder, to keep it against the powder. I load 27, GRS. of IMR. 4198. easy clean up, just one patch. this load I am not telling any one to use it in there gun. it works for me!