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Thread: Best Big Bore Cartridge

  1. #41
    Boolit Master

    sutherpride59's Avatar
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    Well just to report in. The only brass I could get a hold of was reclaimed range brass. I loaded them up with Lee 404 grn powder coated bullets and 53.8 grn of H335. It was the first thing my powder measurer dumped that was close the the 52grn starting load. I didn't size the powder coated bullet and I kinda didn't trim any of the brass either lol. These bullets were all cast with a fairly soft allow with less tin than they probably should of had because fill out was garbage. Still the bases looked nice and I wasn't going for precision loads here. Honestly I just wanted to get bullets made to go shoot already. After the first 3 rounds I realized somehow I missed getting the rear scope ring on correctly. 4 rounds latter I was on paper top left of the bullseye. Well I put 3 more down range and let my brother finish off the 5 I saved for him. So my 4 round group was 3" at 100 yards and there was some minor leading at the end of the barrel. I'm pretty happy, 3" with the worst ammo I could have possibly made, I'll take it. This is my first batch of powder coated bullets so I'll make some new ones and coat them the right way. I have a sizer on the way at .459 because the slugged bore measures 4.578". I'm sure if I trim the casings uniformed, cast some quality bullets, coat said bullets correctly and size them, she will be pretty accurate with no leading. We will see, college is about to start up again and I will have to mothball my hobby for a while. I'll report back on here the next time I go out.
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  2. #42
    Boolit Grand Master


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    Surprised you got leading from PCed boolits.

  3. #43
    Boolit Master


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    Im not... I've sampled some commercial powder coated bullets..and many flake when deformed or don't pass a smash test. ( yes..if done pc myself and wasn't happy with the multiple extra steps and time that gave me -0- benefits over a correct alloy, correctly sized and lubed boolit. Imho..no reason to work harder to get same results..
    Anyway.. Seeing the drastic differences in quality of commercial powdercoat I completely threw in the towel. The ones I had I lubed and shot.. The lube prevented the poorly powder coated boolits from leading...and didn't leave paying color in the bore...

    To the op. The 45-70 cases likely won't grow any or much..and as a rimmed cartridge..a thou difference in chamber to lands won't make much difference shooting those big lead bowling balls.

  4. #44
    Boolit Master

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    Well the PCed boolits I did were kind of worse case scenario. I didn't cure them correctly. There were some bald spots but I'll cast some tonight with good fill out and PC them. I'll do some soft lead ones and some harder lead ones. Basically pure with 2% an and some with 4% roto 3m super hard and 2% sn. We'll see if the soft alloy holds up and groups. Also for powder coating I found that a sheet of aluminum flashing I use for gas checks will work well with holes drilled to hold the bullet nose down after coating. Really give it the best chance for success. Once my sizer comes in I'll load them up and send them down range the next day. Please track of the wolf let it be here tomorrow lol. I tell you the ole 45-70 sure packs some umffff when you shoot. If they still lead I'll give lube a try before I resort to gas checking these. The fact that it's a gas check mold though clues me in that I should probably be using one lol.
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  5. #45
    Boolit Master

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    Ok so I have 14 loaded up....I may have killed a casing by mistake. 4 cases to 48.3 grains of H335 and 10 loaded to the original 53.8 grains of H335. I'll report in on Thursday what happens. Hopefully good accuracy and no leading with both loadings.
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  6. #46
    Boolit Master

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    Ok range report just so I don't leave this thread hanging. The 48.3 grains were terribly inaccurate with about a 6" group at 100 yards. No leading occured as I got the PC 100% this time. Well the 54 grains of H335 on the other hand all went into a sexy little 1.5" group at 100 yards with no leading. Clearly my lead wasn't as soft as I had thought lol. I will test the hardness when I finally have some free time but I'm moth balling any further load development until the semester is over. It's had being 33 and taking 7 college classes in one semester so I won't have time for it till after.
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  7. #47
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by sutherpride59 View Post
    Ok range report just so I don't leave this thread hanging. The 48.3 grains were terribly inaccurate with about a 6" group at 100 yards. No leading occured as I got the PC 100% this time. Well the 54 grains of H335 on the other hand all went into a sexy little 1.5" group at 100 yards with no leading. Clearly my lead wasn't as soft as I had thought lol. I will test the hardness when I finally have some free time but I'm moth balling any further load development until the semester is over. It's had being 33 and taking 7 college classes in one semester so I won't have time for it till after.
    It's been a good read and have enjoyed following. Thanks for following up. Hanging threads are worse than Florida hanging chads IMO.
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  8. #48
    Boolit Buddy paul edward's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bad Ass Wallace View Post
    I too like my "Big Bores" including the 577 Snider!
    Must have some big varmits in Australia!

  9. #49
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by oley55 View Post
    It's been a good read and have enjoyed following. Thanks for following up. Hanging threads are worse than Florida hanging chads IMO.
    I couldn't agree more. If someone has the same questions I do I know they are going to wonder what the answer was in the end. I should also add a correction that the better grouping was 1.5" center-to-center not a hole of 1.5" diameter. Also I couldn't walk down range to measure the group size. I'm just guessing what I could see through the spotting scope, but it was certainly C-C less than 2".
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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check