45-90 Ammo - Absolute Rookie Questions

Devlin

Devlin

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Hey Gang,

Looking for an education on 45-90 ammunition, I am considering a Sharps rifle in this calibre and my assumption going in is this is a chambering that would require reloading for. If so that's not a problem really as I do have experience reloading for other calibres and would need to do some learning on this one. What I'm specifically curious about and google is failing me horribly for Canadian content and info is the following:

- Are there any sources of commercial manufactured ammunition for 45-90 in Canada?

- For the reloading route where are people buying components and gear, I've seen some selection at X-Reload but the choices are fairly limited.

- Bullets for reloading, do most people cast their own with a mold? This is an area where I am not experienced at all and would need to do some learning, as I have only ever reloaded using commercial bullets.

- Blackpowder or smokeless, seems you can run either but blackpowder looks to be more involved to get to a good quality end product in terms of ammo produced.


Welcome any input you folks with more experience may have.
 
Devlin,

The bullets that you need are at The Bullet Barn. Send Lois an email and she will get you fixed up. With such nice cast bullets ready to load I have never cast, sized and lubed my own.

Don't rule out the black powder substitutes, as they provide a big cloud of smoke without the worry of corrosive powder. Black powder and the substitutes are easy to load safely. The substitutes clean up like smokeless.
 
stewbud said:
Devlin,

The bullets that you need are at The Bullet Barn. Send Lois an email and she will get you fixed up. With such nice cast bullets ready to load I have never cast, sized and lubed my own.

Don't rule out the black powder substitutes, as they provide a big cloud of smoke without the worry of corrosive powder. Black powder and the substitutes are easy to load safely. The substitutes clean up like smokeless.
Click to expand...


Thanks very much I had not heard of The Bullet Barn previously, will give them a look. Also hadn't considered black powder substitutes, much to learn. Thanks for the tips sir.
 
Aren't some black powder substitutes more corrosive than black powder?

If you are going to use smokeless, the .45-90 case has waaay more volume than needed.
 
stewbud said:
Devlin,

The bullets that you need are at The Bullet Barn. Send Lois an email and she will get you fixed up. With such nice cast bullets ready to load I have never cast, sized and lubed my own.

Don't rule out the black powder substitutes, as they provide a big cloud of smoke without the worry of corrosive powder. Black powder and the substitutes are easy to load safely. The substitutes clean up like smokeless.
Click to expand...
You better be discussing Trail Boss modern powder in straight wall cases or you are decieving novice shooters.

Your current answer could include Triple 7 or Pyrodex so it makes you sound very ill informed sir.
 
Contact the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association, and ask to be forwarded to the Black Powder section. They have been shooting BP cartridge rifles since the 1980s and doing quite well.

For your first question - "Looking for an education on 45-90 ammunition, I am considering a Sharps rifle in this calibre and my assumption going in is this is a chambering that would require reloading for."

Yes. If you find commercial loads, they will be frightfully expensive and supply will be inconsistent. You want to create and nurture a relationship with your significant other, not necessarily with the guy at the ammo counter of the gun store.

"Are there any sources of commercial manufactured ammunition for 45-90 in Canada?" Dunno, but doubt it.

"For the reloading route where are people buying components and gear, ...." Anyone serious of long range BPCR finds their sources in the US and cultivates the knowledge to know what works and what doesn't.

"Bullets for reloading, do most people cast their own with a mold?" Yes, and has been answered, you'll have to learn about lead and linotype materials, gas checks, and mold techniques. IMHO, if you mold 50 bullets and weigh them. Be prepared to put 40 back in the pot.

"Blackpowder or smokeless, seems you can run either but blackpowder looks to be more involved to get to a good quality end product in terms of ammo produced." Yes. There are several grain sizes of black on the market. Ones I remember the DCRA shooters using were Swiss Black and Pyrodex (which I think is a brand not a product).

The DCRA shooters worked out all sorts of routines to fire consistently. In one case, they fired duplex smokeless and black loads. One on top of the other separated by a paper wad. They used gas check bullets to better seal the bore. They used long drop tubes on the powder chargers so the powder would compact itself in the cases - NEVER compress black powder with anything under any circumstances. And one trick which looked odd, but had merit, was to blow moist breath exhalations through a length of rubber tubing into the just-fired bores to discourage powder fouling build up.
 
If you throw 40 out of 50 back you are doing something wrong and maybe should take up knitting :)

"Bullets for reloading, do most people cast their own with a mold?" Yes, and has been answered, you'll have to learn about lead and linotype materials, gas checks, and mold techniques. IMHO, if you mold 50 bullets and weigh them. Be prepared to put 40 back in the pot
Click to expand...
 
First, as a rookie, you should ask yourself exactly what you want to do with it.
Do you really need the extra powder and will you use it?
The .45/70 could perhaps do all you actually need and components are more readily available and less expensive.
As well, you need to make sure the rifling twist can handle the weight of bullet you want to shoot.
Many of the replicas have a twist that is too slow to handle the heavy bullets well.

The .45/70 is a cartridge that is easy to reload well, whereas I've read of problems with finding a good load with the .45/90.
Besides, shooting a lot of heavy bullet loads in an afternoon, can lose its charm rather quickly.

While YMMV, all of the above may be worth exactly what you paid for it.
 
If you plan on a Sharps in .45-90 and want to get the most out of it you should definitely plan on casting your own bullets and shooting black powder. It's a very interesting way to shoot and very rewarding. But it depends what you want and expect from it. If you are just plinking at 100-200 yards it won't matter much. If you are interested in long range shooting and maybe some competition then you can get into this stuff pretty deeply. This type of shooting, and some schuetzen style shooting is almost all I do these days.

It's pretty easy to get all of the stuff you need to shoot the .45-90.

Chris.
 
My .45-90 reloads are ; my cast RCBS 300 gr. flat nose , 24 gr. of 2400 powder & a WLR primer .
I am using .45-70 cases with this load. No issues with my Win. 1886 .
Buying cast bullets from a good caster is a #2 choice . Black Powder is fun but adds time to clean up .
My Win. 1886 .45-90 has a slow twist so will only shoot the 300 gr. bullets with accuracy. 400 + gr.
bullets do NOT shoot accurate. Check the twist in your gun.
 
gunlaker said:
If you plan on a Sharps in .45-90 and want to get the most out of it you should definitely plan on casting your own bullets and shooting black powder. It's a very interesting way to shoot and very rewarding. But it depends what you want and expect from it. If you are just plinking at 100-200 yards it won't matter much. If you are interested in long range shooting and maybe some competition then you can get into this stuff pretty deeply. This type of shooting, and some schuetzen style shooting is almost all I do these days.

It's pretty easy to get all of the stuff you need to shoot the .45-90.

Chris.
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My interest is in the Sharps and I have a line on a 45-90 rifle from them in excellent condition for a good price. What's drawn me to this is the long range shooting channels such as Sagebrush on Youtube. My background is long range precision/F class style shooting with bolt guns. The Sharps rifles have really caught my eye and I like learning new shooting styles.
 
saskbooknut said:
Only reason for 90 grain case capacity is Black Powder.
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I agree. In a strong action, with smokeless powders it could match the 458 Win Mag.

I have a single-shot rifle that was in 45-70 that I shot only smokeless in and it did everything I wanted (and all that my shoulder could take). I rechambered it to 45-90 just because I wanted to. I cast and handload and it doesn't really cost me any more to shoot now that it's set up, but all I gained was the satisfaction of having something a bit different. Using long (read heavy) bullets, I could still use 45-70 brass.
 
stewbud said:
Don't rule out the black powder substitutes, as they provide a big cloud of smoke without the worry of corrosive powder. Black powder and the substitutes are easy to load safely. The substitutes clean up like smokeless.
Click to expand...

Any of the substitutes are still corrosive, very much so, go out and shoot a muzzleloader with Pyrodex and then leave it and see what happens.

All of the substitutes should be cleaned in a similar way to black powder, they are nasty, maybe not as nasty and dirty to clean up at GOEX but nasty to your gun.
 
For something really interesting, try a .45-110. A now deceased friend of mine had one. Used it to knock over a rogue bison creating havoc on the Stampede ranch many moons ago.

Auggie D.
 
Devlin said:
My interest is in the Sharps and I have a line on a 45-90 rifle from them in excellent condition for a good price. What's drawn me to this is the long range shooting channels such as Sagebrush on Youtube. My background is long range precision/F class style shooting with bolt guns. The Sharps rifles have really caught my eye and I like learning new shooting styles.
Click to expand...

Ah I see. Well if you enjoy precision long range shooting, and don't mind the extra time it takes to cast bullets and load black powder then you'll likely really enjoy it. The accuracy you get from these rifles is of course not the same as you'll get from an F Class rifle, but it is much better than most people would expect. It's sort of addictive. The hard part is finding a place to shoot with any distance. You either need a range with LR steel targets, or someplace with pits. Targets need to be about the same size as what the TR guys use. i.e. a 6 moa aiming point if you are using apertures.

It is a pile of fun, hopefully you enjoy it! Are you in BC by any chance?

Chris.
 
Oh, to give you an idea of how well this old technology can work, here is the last target I shot with my Shiloh Sharps in .45-90. It was 300 yards prone, 9 shots.

The group is under a minute of angle tall and would have been a minute of angle wide, but the first shot was a sighter ( the one at 3 o'clock ) and I made an adjustment off of that to center up the group.

oldAmmo-45-90.jpg


That is a little better than average though.

Chris.
 
gunlaker said:
Ah I see. Well if you enjoy precision long range shooting, and don't mind the extra time it takes to cast bullets and load black powder then you'll likely really enjoy it. The accuracy you get from these rifles is of course not the same as you'll get from an F Class rifle, but it is much better than most people would expect. It's sort of addictive. The hard part is finding a place to shoot with any distance. You either need a range with LR steel targets, or someplace with pits. Targets need to be about the same size as what the TR guys use. i.e. a 6 moa aiming point if you are using apertures.

It is a pile of fun, hopefully you enjoy it! Are you in BC by any chance?

Chris.
Click to expand...


Hey There,

I am in Ontario unfortunately, I do have access to a 300 yard range as my regular shooting location close to home. We have Mons range and Connaught range that are within a reasonable driving distance and some googling and a prior thread I have going it looks like there are black powder shooters that use these ranges. My interest is not solely in the black powder area of this style of shooting, I suspect I will shoot smokeless more often than not just for the ease of cleaning and my existing familiarity with it.
 
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