.45-70 Press?

[DeadWood]

I started loading my own on a Hornady L-N-L progressive a few yrs ago and is the only press i have. So far it's allowed me to load for everything ( .223, .40S&W, 30-30, .30-06, ) without problems.

Hoping to load for a Springfield .45-70 some day and was curious for those with more experience/knowledge if theres any reason i shouldn't be able to load these on my press?

Was thinking about looking for a Lee just to load this caliber?

[August]

I have an LnL and think it would work if you "single" loaded the rounds.

I load 45/70 on a Redding T-7. Don't really like those tall cartridges whirling around on the progressive.

However, I do 38-40 single loads on the LnL and it saves a lot of time not having to re-insert the case on a shell carrier for every operation.

How much 45-70 could a guy possibly shoot anyway?

[DeadWood]

"How much 45-70 could a guy possibly shoot anyway? "


Ammo is like guns....one can never have too many :bigsmyl2:

[bishopgrandpa]

I meet with several other gentlemen once a week in good weather from now til november. Fifty rounds (trapdoor) on any given day is not unusual. With test rounds and "fun" rounds we can easily put 1200 -1500 rounds downrange in a season. Come fall we mine out a few pounds for next year. Yes I am retired and have the time.

[Lead Fred]

I have three presses. I got a 1952 Lyman press from an ole timer last year.
It seems to work best for 45-70. The RCBS presses may have a wee bit to much handle pressure. I do use them for case sizing, but I use the Lyman for seating

[Tom-ADC]

I load mine on a Dillon 550 & use Lee dies because I had them, I do use two bullet seater/crimp dies, 1st one at station 3 seats bullet to proper depth and station 4 taper crimps. I just bought a Lee Challeger breechblock press that I'm going to use to decap only, I shoot a lot of BP and want to decap before I tumble the cases.
I find the 45-70 loads as easy as a 38 spl case.

[pdawg_shooter]

"How much 45-70 could a guy possibly shoot anyway? "


Ammo is like guns....one can never have too many :bigsmyl2:

Between 600 and 700 a year myself. No, not in competition. I just enjoy shooting it and hunting with it!

[Mk42gunner]

Deadwood,

I haven't loaded on a L-N-L, it should work as long as you a careful. You can find small single stage presses fairly cheaply; either brand new or used at gun shows and sometimes gunshops.

Robert

[mooman76]

I loaded them on my Lee challenger press just fine. The shell holder was no included with Lee's universal set of shell holders so I had to get it seperate..

[John Guedry]

I use a Lyman crusher,but don't see why your L-N-L shouldn't do a fine job.

[DeadWood]

Great, thanks for the help. Not familiar with this cartridge at all and hoping next year to start loading for my Springfield 1884. Have already purchased a few items (2 books, & reloading items) from Pat Wolf.

Just trying to get an idea of what i may need and start another dream list.

thanks

Just my 2cents, but my L-N-L is my first press and the one i've learned on. have never loaded on or learned on another. I've been able to single stage load without issues.

[Gee_Wizz01]

I use a Lee Classic Turret press with no problems at all. I don't use the auto index feature, because I like to use my RCBS Uniflow to drop the powder. I use RCBS dies, and the press works great. It doesn't take much pressure to size the 45-70.

G

[Lloyd Smale]

I load my 4570 on one of my lock and load progressives. I just put the size die in and size and prime them the first run through. Throw them in the tumbler for an hour and then run them back through without a sizing die to flare charge seat and crimp.

[Green Frog]

I occasionally load .45-70 on my Tru-Line Jr. press... as long as the press has enough throw, this round can be loaded on virtually any press.

Froggie

[David Wile]

Hey Deadwood,

I loaded 45-70 on an RCBS Rockchucker with RCBS dies for over thirty years without any problem. In 1997, I got one of the first Hornady LNL AP presses sold, and I had a problem with the dies reaching far enough through the LNL head and getting the locking ring to lock. Most of my other older dies work in the LNL, but the RCBS 45-70 dies I had were real old and a pain in the neck for me to get them adjusted to suit me. I decided to buy a new set of Hornady 45-70 dies which are a bit longer and fit just fine in the LNL. If I remember correctly, you will need a #14 shell plate for the 45-70. Since you do not already load for the 45-70, I would submit that if you bought the Hornady dies and the #14 shellplate you would be all set to load completely progressively in your LNL AP.

Unlike Lloyd Smale, I do not have to load my 45-70s in multiple steps. I lube my empty cases on an RCBS lube pad with the same old RCBS lube, put the case in the shell plate and start cranking them out with one finished round with each cycle of the handle. I also use both cast and jacketed bullets, but I use mostly cast bullets. When I loaded my 45-70s on my single stage press, I used extruded powder and weighed each charge. Extruded powders do not meter well through powder dispensers, so when I got my LNL, I switched to using ball and flake powders which meter very accurately in the LNL case activated powder dispenser.

When I am finished with my run on the LNL, I have a bunch of stick rounds which now need to get rid of the case lube. I fill a 3 pound coffe can about a third full of gasoline and rinse a handfull of cases at a time and then put them on a terry cloth towel to dry. The gas removes the lube very easily, they dry in just a few minutes. I then put the finished rounds in my vibratory cleaner to clean the cases. Yes, I clean all my finished rounds that way, and, no, I have never had any finished rounds go off in the vibratory cleaner.

Again, you can certainly load 45-70 progressively on the LNL AP - just like it was made to load 45-70s. You do not need to get a special press to load 45-70s. Like any other cartridge you would load on a single stage or a progressive, however, you will need to learn how to adjust your dies properly to size, expand, seat your bullets, and crimp when necessary. It is not hard to do, but you do have to learn the principles of adjusting dies properly.

And no, using a Lee Factory Crimp Die is absolutely not necessary and is not the answer for loading cartridges correctly.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

[sleeper1428]

I use a slight variation on the method described by Tom-ADC in that I size and prime the 45/70 cases on my Dillon RL550B, then the primed case goes into the appropriate shell holder on my Lee Challenger single stage where I expand the neck and bell the mouth with an RCBS neck expanding die. Then the powder is dropped using my RCBS powder measure which handles extruded stick powders like 4759 and 3031 much better than the Dillon measure. Then it's back to the Dillon for boolit seating and crimping at two separate stations. While this may seem like a lot of extra work, I discovered early on that when I tried to use the Dillon powder measure with extruded stick powders, the force required to cut through those last few sticks of powder was enough that it grossly over expanded the neck of the case, often splitting the case neck. When I called Dillon, the only suggestion that they had was to use flake or ball powders in place of the extruded powders. Obviously I could do this but since some of my favorite loads involve the use of extruded long stick powders, I decided that the extra few steps involved with using two presses was worth the time. And what the heck, I'm retired so I'm not usually pressed for time anyway.

I should add that Dillon now has an attachment that allows one to use a powder measure such as the RCBS with the RL550B, substituting that measure for the Dillon measure and attaching it via an adapter that costs about $20 and a 450 powder die which costs another $20. So if I ever get tired of doing it the way I'm doing it now, and if I find I have $40 burning a hole in my pocket, I may just get the necessary items to keep the whole cycle on the RL550B.

sleeper1428