Plinking with the .45-70 and .30 herret

[redneckdan]

Took the buffalo classic .45/70 and the contender in .30 herret out today to try some paper patched loads.

The .45/70 is a 457191 sized to .452 and patched with two wraps of note book paper, then sized at .458 Charge is 5.0gr of red dot under 55gr of WC860, ignited by a reprocessed primer. Shot minute of rock at 100yds, 100% reliable as far as ignition.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b77/redneckdan/IMGP3791.jpg


Still need to get a better rear sight. I'm looking at getting a lee shaver and pillar beding it with threaded screw inserts.



http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b77/redneckdan/IMGP3793.jpg


The .30 herret consisted of a lee 155gr spire (the one designed for the 7.62x39) sized to .308, wrapped with two layers of engineers paper and then sized at .311 Charge was 28.0 gr of H335 with a winchester large rifle primer.

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This one was minute of rock at 50yds.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b77/redneckdan/IMGP3794.jpg

Need to get a forend yet. I gave the original forend to a friend who bought my .357 max barrel, intended to make my own but I'll probably end up scrouging up a pachmyer forend...some day.....

[218bee]

Two questions....why a duplex charge for the 45/70...what do you mean "reprocessed" primer. Thanks

[redneckdan]

WC860 is an extremely slow burning powder that is designed for the .50BMG and 20mm shell. I bought my supply at $4 a pound. With out the fast burning kicker charge the powder does not ignite very well, this is especially true because of the primer I used. With the red dot powder over the primer and .125" of powder compression I get amazingly clean burning and very good velocity, this load shot about 1700 FPS.

The primer is a once fired large rifle primer that I disassembled, cleaned up, applied a priming compound and reassembled. The process takes forever to accomplish but I'm shooting my .45/70 for less than .05 cents a round. I haven't had a failure to fire or hang fire yet.....but I would not use these primers for hunting. The primer is strong enough to ignite a flake pistol powder but it is no where near as strong as a regular pistol primer.

[45 2.1]

The primer is a once fired large rifle primer that I disassembled, cleaned up, applied a priming compound and reassembled. The process takes forever to accomplish but I'm shooting my .45/70 for less than .05 cents a round. I haven't had a failure to fire or hang fire yet.....but I would not use these primers for hunting. The primer is strong enough to ignite a flake pistol powder but it is no where near as strong as a regular pistol primer.

Are you useing one of the formulas from "Hatchers Notebook" or the more common strike anywhere matchtips? A lttle more info would be appreciated.

[redneckdan]

Roll caps. Cut out the cap, seat it in the primer cup, insert the anvil into the cup. Seating the primer into the cartridge casing also seats the anvil in the cup. It takes a bit of finesse to seat the primer enough without it going off. I popped a few of them before I got it right. Seeing as how the sensitivity is not a known quality like it is for a commercial primer I do not use these in semi-automatic firearms. I have taken a casing, primed it and seated a boolit and then thrown it around at a concrete floor several times without popping the cap...but I can tell from seating the primers that they are much more sensitive then commercial primers. This process is by no means quick. I just finished up 100rds last night that I had been working on for a couple evenings. I enjoy tinkering and reloading as much if not more than actually shooting. If you are the type that prefers to fire up the 550B and get it over with...doing primers this way will drive you nuts. Please understand that this is NOT prima facie evidence that reloading your own primers is safe nor that using them is. So far I've only used them in plinking loads for .38 special and the duplex loads for .45-70. I'm not sure if I will try them in loads that operate closer to maximum pressures. This is the reason I was ambiguous at first, I was not intending to be rude. I don't want to be sued by some idiot that cup up 10 roll caps and then tried to cram them all in one primer cup.

[45 2.1]

This is the reason I was ambiguous at first, I was not intending to be rude. I don't want to be sued by some idiot that cup up 10 roll caps and then tried to cram them all in one primer cup.

Very understandable, and the reason I don't post how to's very much, too much to go wrong from not knowing how to do it right. I've used the same procedure with the Forester "Tap O Cap" percussion cap makers, but never thought about doing it with primers. I've always thought one of the older priming mixes out of Hatchers would be applicable since they're applied wet, then dried.

[TCLouis]

How big is this rock??

Boulder or fist sized.

Looking for a good 30 Herrett "plinking" load.

[redneckdan]

About fist size. Remember this is off hand at 50yds. 8gr of Red Dot under 170gr has worked well for me in the past.

I did a little bit of work with the reloaded primers in the .30-30 with 7gr of Promo for a plinking load. About 50% fired. I think it has to do with the fact that the powder is free to move around where as the .45-70 the powder was forced against the primer.

[Boz330]

Dan, you should try some black with that combo in the 45-70. The trend with BPCR is to try and soften the primer flash as the primers in the 1800s weren't as strong as the modern primers. I'm using 2 newsprint wads over a LPP and it is amazing how much the group shrunk compared to LRPs.
Out of curiosity how do you cut the caps to fit the primer cup with out setting them off. I didn't even know you could get caps anymore. Do they still make cap guns? I thought that was something that disappeared with my youth.

Bob

[redneckdan]

I use scissors to cut them out. On my list of stuff to do if I ever get time is making a hollow core punch for cutting them out.

[Jim]

Dan,
See can you find a .17 HMR case and use that to cut the caps out.

[Boz330]

I use scissors to cut them out. On my list of stuff to do if I ever get time is making a hollow core punch for cutting them out.

Man that is a slow way to cut them. A press mounted punch would probably be the best way, if you could rig something up. A hammer operated punch might be a problem[smilie=1:. Might work in a drill press. The big problem would be that in a hollow punch if one went off it would take the whole column with it.

Bob

[redneckdan]

I didn't start the primer project with the intent of completely replacing off the shelf primers. The process is painfully slow but I wanted to develop an option, 'just in case'. I now have four or five rolls sealed and stashed in my primer box. Same reason I tried paper patching, I wanted an option in case I couldn't get gas checks. That experiment turned out well enough that I now use more patched boolits than checked. I'm not intrested enough yet to try black powder, 'specially since home made stuff is about half as strong as commercial per unit volume.