Baikal 45-70 Double rifle - Which boolit?

[snowwolfe]

Found one of these rifles to go along with my 06 double and remember a few of you on here owned the 45-70 version.
What boolits have you been shooting in it? Results? I know pressures should not exceed 28K so looking for something around 350-375 grains.
Thanks.

[rockrat]

Saw where you snagged that!!! Good thing you did or I would have :)

[kennisondan]

I have always admired the big double rifles.. I would love to have one .. you have a 30 06 double.. ? how cool..
I have also always admired the drillings..
dk

[snowwolfe]

Yea.........A lot of people bad mouth those Baikals but you can regulate them to any load and my 06 will shoot 2 shots from each barrel into 1.25 inches at 50 yards with NO scope. The 06 handles the 220's fine.

But would like to find a nice cast load for the 45-70.

Also own a double in 9,3x74R which killed my last two moose and another in 450 Nitro express 3 1/4. 450 Kicks!

[Multigunner]

Samuel Colt's son once had several .45-70 double rifles built on the old Colt double barrel shotgun frames.
I think he'd expected a rush of orders for these from well to do US sportsmen who liked the British double rifles, but these were not a success. Only a few prototypes were made.

My brother had a Colt double barrel shotgun he'd taken from a very unsuccessful armed robber, after beating the fellows head in with his own gunstock.
It was a pretty beat up specimen, not really safe to shoot, which is probably why my brother didn't get shot.
The barrels had been cut down probably fifty years or more earlier. Not sure how long but probably still legal length , though no one bothered to measure them.

My cousin fired it a few times and at every shot both barrels went off , the action kicked itself open, and the empty hulls departed at high velocity just missing his face. Had he been firing from the hip the hulls would probably have injured him.
Dangerous range to the rear was probably twice that of the front.

Still if was an interesting old piece, with hammers, first of those I'd seen.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Baikal are big sellers down here in Peru. Practicle and will take alot of hard use.
I would decide what you are going to hunt.. but a 400 grainer is hard to beat for an all around hunt any critter.
A 50-50 mix moving to about 1500 fps and I would tackle any critter walking about this side of our planet. Plus you have two shots ready to roll.
Big Black bear and all the green stuff chewers were regularly shot with double 38-44 caliber muzzle rifles for a long time with only 300 grains and less boolits at about 1400 fps.

[StrawHat]

I have an old Belgian shotgun that was reworked by VM Starr to handle the 45-70. He regulated it to handle the 330 grain Hornady bullet. I have been working with the Lyman 457122 (330 HP Gould) boolit and while I have not found THE load, I have seen some promising recipes.

If you can handle casting the HP boolit, you could do a lot worse than the Gould boolit.

[Rico1950]

If you can handle casting the HP boolit, you could do a lot worse than the Gould boolit.
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There's a mold in the Group buy discussion that can take care of that. Will be made by Miha, some day.