Hello,
I recently acquired a Winchester model 1886 from the year 1891. It's a .45-70 in excellent mechanical condition. It's not a "glass case" collector, as it's been hunted over the years, so in that sense I don't mind using it.
What does concern me though is that it's a black powder era rifle that's 125 years old.
I wanted to take it deer hunting, and I don't want to blow the gun up for my troubles.
I basically had thought of using my standard RCBS 405 grain lead boolit over the starting load of H4895 in the "trapdoor" section of the Hodgdon website. 40 grains, which is stated to be 1424 fps at 14,900 CUP.
Maybe I'm being overcareful about this, but - this load is fine, right? It's a trapdoor load, and this is an 1886. How high should things be pushed with this old beast? I basically picked the 4895 load as it seems to offer the most velocity at the lowest pressure.
Any thoughts are appreciated.