45-70 gov boolits cast at 0.461 is a rare thing.....

H

herbeapuce

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Montreal
Hi.

wanting to reload some boolits. I only have experience with jacket bullets...

I recently bought a used 2011 Marlin (Remlin) 1895 in 45-70 gov.

I cast the bore from the muzzle with Cerrosafe. the gun is basically brand new so there's no muzzle erosion. . I waited an hours before measuring. So 1,5 inch deep into the muzzle I got 0.###X EDITED it's 0.4595...... sorry ( and not 0.4955)

from the reading I did, it seems I should be looking for a boolit of 0.461 ( maybe even 0.462) . I just can't locate any.

I'm aiming for something over 400 grain with a gas check and large meplat.

Do you know a place that has some, or maybe some casters willing to sell me a few please ?

thank you

Stef. Montreal.
 
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zuke said:
Maybe reslug the bore with lead. Fishing sinker's do the job well
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Thanks for the suggestion.....I slugged the gun tonight using fishing weights. the first attempt came out way too loose. second attempt I decided to melt the sinker and pored into the muzzle . it too came out fairly easily with not much pushing. I would think I was putting no more that 10 to 15 pounds on the cleaning rod with my arm and the slug got easily through the bore. I measured 0.4563. I used Kroil oil as lub. Maybe I would be better off using a oversized boolit ( edited for slugging I meant )...

I have zero experience at gauging a bore and analyzing the numbers, but one thing is sure, the cerrosafe cast looks much better (0.4595") the imprint is perfect , as oppose to the lead slug being very rough ( 0.4563")
try to guess which one is which :)

So what do you think my bore really is ? I guess I will find out by shooting it. :rolleyes:

@f55 thank you so much for your offer. it's very nice of you.

Stef.

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if its a brand new marlin it should be using standard sized 45-70 projectiles. as a side note, marlins with the micro groove rifling are terrible with cast projectiles. the pics dont look like microgroove, but its a note. it should use .458 dia projectiles. never seen one that would need a .5" projectile, if used you may have some issues.
 
Aries- said:
if its a brand new marlin it should be using standard sized 45-70 projectiles. as a side note, marlins with the micro groove rifling are terrible with cast projectiles. the pics dont look like microgroove, but its a note. it should use .458 dia projectiles. never seen one that would need a .5" projectile, if used you may have some issues.
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with cast you want to go .001" to .002" anything under bore will get gas cutting(even with the gas check and the hardest alloy you can get) a proper fit is always something that should be done first. best bet is to cast your own bullets you can then make any size you want
 
I shoot .50 muzzle loaders so just use .490" round balls for slugging 45-70's. It's $15ish for a box of 100 so wont break the bank and you have lots of spares.
The Lee .459" 500gr mold drops as-cast .460" to .461" for me but it's a pointed design that wont feed in a lever.

I'd try some .459" and see if there's leading.

400+ grains and GC? You hunting elephant? My Marlin doesn't lead with plain base until somewhere around 1700-1800fps with pure WW, 2-3 thou oversized, and Lee alox lube. I've had 500gr plain base at 1450fps pass clear through 12-14" poplar trees. A heavy, slow bullet will get the job done in almost any practical situation. If you want to shoot lighter bullets at higher velocities, I would definitely go with GC'ed bullets but for 400+ gr I would just use plain base.

Marlin only made 45-70's with Micro Groove rifling for a little while. It was so terrible they switched back to Ballard rifling. They do still use Micro Groove for various other calibres. My 44 mag Marlin is Micro Groove, slugs .4315", and I finally found a cast load that works well in it without leading. I use pure WW, cast a .431" bullet, give it two coats of traffic-red powder coat paint and apply a gas check. I've experimented with different loads in this rifle off-and-on for 3 or so years and finally found a cast load that works. Even powder coating or gas checking alone wont make it shoot well (the first has terrible accuracy and the second still has leading even when .004" oversized).

Marlin Micro Groove barrels seem very temperamental; they aren't all terrible with cast bullets. Some guys report them working great with conventional cast loads while others, like me, have lots of problems getting them to work at all with anything but jacketed. Seems to be more problematic than easy to use but there are quite a few lucky people with Micro Groove barrels that don't have any issues with cast.
 
My 1895GBL slugs at .4565 with sinkers, I have tried .457 and .459 and the .457 shoot better (both powder coated) at 1500-1600fps.

These are the bullets i use.

I have used imr3031, imr 4198 and reloader 7.
 
Call and ask the Bullet Barn for some unsized bullets. They will put some aside during the next .45 cast session. also specify if you want them unlubed. They will ship to your nearest dealer. Great folks.
 
Dake21 said:
The trick with Micro-groove rifling is hard cast, bigger than oversized bullets and keep the loads below a certain FPS threshold.
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The Micro-groove rifling mystery has been solved a long time ago and they are as accurate as any other rifling as long as you do as stated, hard cast bullets that are at least 2 thou oversized and driven hard. If you pussy foot around with the speed you will have dismal results. As you can see below this 200 grain bullet that I designed and had made up from Mountain Molds is pushed hard and sized big. The biggest problem with the Micro-groove when it first came out was that you couldn't get proper sized bullet molds. Now with so many choices on the market in the last 10 years of custom molds there is no real reason to avoid them. I have two 45-70's and 2 444 marlins and a 30-30, they are just fine with accuracy.

100 meters open sights. I call this one my light bush and open field deer bullet. For moose and bear I use something about double the weight at least.


 
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