Best powder for 45-70?

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sinawalli

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I just bought a Marlin 1895 in 45-70, and am looking at getting a friend to reload them for me. what is the best powder for this round? Would like to achieve about 1600-1900 fps with a 400 gr bullet. Maybe this is impossible, I don't know! I also don't want to blow my shoulder off either! Thanks!
 
H322 is good, and is very similar to the WC-735 lots that can be found around. RL-7 is also in that same burn rate category.

I expect you'll be in the 50-ish grain territory with any of the above powders, which should provide you an adequate charge density for consistent ignition and 1900-ish fps (depending on your barrel length)
 
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This was @ 100yrds using a peep sight (FP-336) with IMR 3031/Speer 400gr load. This is normal for the gun, I have many targets that look identical. I haven't tried anything else, either powder or bullet. I only tweaked the charges to get these results.

The gun is a Marlin XLR.

Good luck.
 
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Accurate Arms AA2015br followed by RL7 and 3031......50 grs. of AA2015 and a 400gr. cast bullet is the ticket unless you really like recoil...then a 480gr. WFN GC from MT Chambers with 48grs. of AA2015.....either way you're in high cotton.
 
Anyone know of any good reduced velovity loads that DON'T involve low pressures? I'm thinking cast 405's and Unique or Blue Dot for maybe 1500fps. I'd rather go this way than a full case of a slower powder like 4064, because in my experience low pressure + hard cast = poor accuracy. And lots of soot and dirty unburned nastiness
 
Prosper; I see you are from Edmonton! Can these powders you mention be found locally? Like P&D, or Wholesale? Who are the manufactors? What bullets do you recommend? I want to hunt moose and bear, and I want the animal to think it walked in front of a freight train!! Thanks!!
 
I've had good luck which SPEER 350 gr'ers, on moose, bear and deer. But I think I recall they do not feed well in Marlins. I have heard good things about the 350 Hornady in Marlins but haven't tried them myself.
 
sinawalli said:
Prosper; I see you are from Edmonton! Can these powders you mention be found locally? Like P&D, or Wholesale? Who are the manufactors? What bullets do you recommend? I want to hunt moose and bear, and I want the animal to think it walked in front of a freight train!! Thanks!!
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If you want a moose masher out to 200/250 yards, go for 3031, RL-7, H4198 or H322 behind a 350 or 400 grain slug of some sort (doesn't really matter too much what brand.) Jacketed bullets by Speer, Hornady and remington bulk are abundant, and can be found at P&D, WSS and a few other places, you shouldn't have any troubles finding components.
 
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